A group of hikers from across Ireland are gearing up to head to Nepal to take on the challenge of reaching Everest Base Camp.
The tour, which will be led by Mourne Mountain Wildmountain NI, will see the group face the physical and mental challenge of climbing to the camp over a period of 15 days.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Wildmountain NI founder Cathy Reavy explained that she had the idea of setting up a hiking tour company after receiving positive feedback on social media.
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"I had been hiking in the Mournes for years and posting on social media where people were saying they would love to come along.
"I then had the idea of setting up a company to take doing what I love and make it my career.
"The first step was for me to do my Mountain Leader Training which is where I met by business partner Petra Armstrong.
"She was undertaking the training for work and we clicked immediately. I told her my idea for the business and it really took off from there."
Cathy said that it has always been their ambition to take a group to Nepal.
"For this trip we have teamed up with a group called Namaste Nomand from Donegal. I climbed Mera Peak with them three years ago which is 6500 metres.
"Chatting to people after, they all said they would love to do it so Everest Base Camp seemed like the obvious choice for my next big hike.
"Everyone has been doing a lot of training in the mountains and we have some of the guys who have been going down to Dublin to train in altitude chamber so that they are acclimatised before they travel.
"We fly from Dublin on Friday and will undertake a day of sightseeing in Kathmandu before spending 15 days hiking.
"Most hikes are 13 days but we have decided to do it over 15 days to give people a better chance at acclimatisation and a better chance of making it to Camp."
The group will be trekking 130km in total and this is the first major hike for most of the group.
"We will be staying in Teahouses which are very basic accommodation. They have a board with a very thin mattress but we have to bring our own sleeping bags so it will be an experience for a few people but we are all well prepared.
"We will have a few acclimatisation days but generally, we will be hiking about 5 to 8km a day. We also have to deal with the altitude and the group dynamic so there is a lot of to be taken in but it is a trip of a lifetime.
"The sights that we will be seeing and the culture we will experience will be unreal."
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