After six months of training and six weeks of acclimatisation, Rob Hart reached the summit of Everest on May 14. The finance high flier had also lost 15 per cent of his body weight despite all his efforts to eat as much as possible.
The physical exertion of climbing, the brutal cold and high altitude meant he burned through up to 12,000 calories a day, while struggling to consume more than 4,000 calories.
Reaching Everest's 8,848-metre summit was the end of an eight-year challenge that's taken Hart around the world climbing the Seven Summits - the highest peaks in Africa, North America, South America, Oceania, Australia, Europe and Asia.
Acclimatisation is everything when climbing Everest, so all expeditions begin with a trek from the small Nepali town of Lukla to Everest Base Camp at 5,360 metres. The trek takes eight to 12 days, the longer the better for acclimatisation. Tea houses along the route provide a mix of international food to cater for the thousands of people who trek this route each year. Yak sizzlers feature on many menus, but Hart points out that it is unlikely the people of the Solukhumbu district region would kill these shaggy beasts of burden. 'It's far more likely to be water buffalo,' he says.
From Base Camp, trekkers return to Kathmandu while serious mountaineers embark on three sets of 'rotations', a gruelling series of climbs up and down the slopes and perilous ice fields that acclimatise them for a final assault on the summit.
As part of an Alpine Ascents expedition, the first rotation took Hart and climbing guide Michael Horst to Camp 1 at 6,100 metres. After two nights they climbed up another 500 metres to Camp 2 for three nights, before going back to Base Camp to 'fatten up' and recuperate.
Rotations continue for almost a month. During the short Everest season, the Alpine Ascents' expedition cook Ang Tsiring stays at Camp 2 for 40 days to cook for the climbers, guides and Sherpas. All food here is the Nepali staple of dhal bat (lentils and rice). 'At this point it's safer to eat what the Sherpas eat. I ate a lot of dhal bat, three times a day,' Hart says.