Lancaster man undertakes charity trip of a lifetime to Everest

For Ben Yates, the trip was an experience he had been planning since he turned 40 in 2020.

“Going to Everest was something I’d always fancied and when you have a significant birthday, it’s good to do something positive to mark the occasion,” said Ben, who owns Heysham-based website design, hosting and management business BY Design.

Joining him on the trek were Christopher Wood, landlord of The Palatine in Morecambe; Jason O’Mara, a Morecambe property developer; Heysham-based RAF officer Kristopher Bishop, and Dave Simpson, a Somerset businessman.

Although Jason had previously climbed Kilimanjaro, the rest of the team were relative climbing novices.

Ben prepared by training every week and walking up several peaks in the Lake District.

It took the friends eight days to reach Everest base camp and another four days to descend, resulting in a 12-day trek, which was organised by the charity Climb Your Mountain and run by World Expeditions.

“One of the most difficult challenges was getting enough sleep at high altitude, especially in the second week of the trek when we were all quite tired,” said Ben.

But these difficulties paled into insignificance when they saw Everest.

“When you’re standing underneath it, the size is immense,” Ben said.

After reaching base camp at 5,364m, the friends climbed on to Kala Patthar to watch the sunrise.

Ben said: “That climb was the hardest thing to do physically but seeing the sunrise was an amazing spectacle and a memory that will stay with me.”

The friendliness of local people in Nepal was another memorable part of the experience for Ben, as was the endurance of the yaks used to carry equipment and supplies.

As well as being a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the friends, they, along with seven other people on their trek from other parts of the country, raised £10,000 for Climb Your Mountain, which helps people climb their personal mountains by providing physical and educational opportunities.

In the future, Ben would like to climb Mount Fuji but for now, he’s content to keep running his company, which he founded 19 years ago and recently hit the milestone of 100 five-star reviews on Google Business.