'It was such a wonderful feeling for everyone to reach Everest Base Camp'

It was the sixth time Venture Force, which is based at Pera Business Park, had climbed the route in the Himalayas but the first time they had done so with people with sight issues.

And expedition leader Tom Tuckwood said he hopes the experience will inspire more blind people to attempt challenges they might think are beyond them.

He told the Melton Times: “There was a lot of hard work for the sighted people because not only were they trying really hard to describe the scenery around them but also describing the height of steps, what was coming up for them to walk on, and stuff like that.

“Everybody just worked so hard but it was such a wonderful feeling for everyone to be there at Everest Base Camp to have achieved that.”

The team got up early, at 6am, to make that final ascent to avoid coming across crowds of other climbers.

The downside was that the temperature at that time had dipped below the zero degrees they had become used to right down to minus 17. But reaching Everest Base Camp just over two hours later was quite a moment.

“Just as the sun rises you are in this massive amphitheatre of 8,000m peaks just surrounding you,” recalled Tom.

The trip had been four years in the planning but had been delayed because of the Covid pandemic.

The team went away on training weekends but it was still an enormous challenge to take on a climb of more than 5,000m.

Tom, a former police officer who helped with mountain rescues in the north of Scotland, is an experienced climber but this trip was special for him.

He said: “I’ve never done anything quite so inspiring.

“Bearing in mind that some of the people there couldn’t see a thing but they just stuck at it every single day.

“It didn’t matter what we were doing, whatever the temperature was and the altitude, they just kept going.”

The terrain proved the toughest part for the people with sight problems, Tom explained, with the ground very tricky under foot.

The significance of what they achieved wasn’t lost on other climbers at Everest.

Tom added: “We were stopped every day by people who were sighted just saying, not only to us but also to them, how they found it tough and how it must have been 100 per cent more difficult for people who can’t see.

“We hope that we’ve motivated other people that are visually impaired to give things a try.

“If they can go and do this there are lots of other things they can do as well.”

Venture Force plans to repeat the trip in November next year and they are on the lookout for sighted and visually-impaired people to join them.

The company specialises in adventure and conservation trips and 2023 will also see them accompany students from Melton’s Long Field Spencer Academy to support elephants in Thailand.

Go online at www.ventureforce.co.uk for more information about their work.