War heroes in Everest trek

Captain David Wiseman, 29, from Tadcaster, is one of the Walking With The Wounded charity team, which is in Kathmandu, Nepal.

They are currently checking their extreme mountaineering gear, including full down body suits, ice axes, crampons and heavy-duty boots.

The team will be at risk from frostbite and hypothermia once they leave base camp towards the 8,848m peak, and they will face treacherous crevasses, narrow ridges and vertical cliffs.

Captain Francis Atkinson, an army doctor who is leading the team, suffered a gunshot wound to his right upper arm while serving in Afghanistan.

The 31-year-old, from Swindon, Wiltshire, said: “We have a lot of kit to take with us. We’ve probably got in excess of 35 kilos worth of kit.”

Some of the heavier equipment was freighted out to Nepal a few weeks ago and it will be sent on to Everest Base Camp, 5,267m above sea level.

Today will be the last opportunity the team has to make sure all their gear was in good working order.

Capt Atkinson and Capt Wiseman will be joined by Private Jaco van Gass, former Private Karl Hinett and former Captain Martin Hewitt.

Capt Wiseman was shot in the chest in Afghanistan in November 2009.

Pte van Gass, 25, from Middleburg, South Africa, had his left arm blown off when he was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) in Afghanistan.

Mr Hinett, 25, from Tipton, West Midlands, sustained 37 per cent burns to his hands, legs, arms and face when his Warrior tank received a direct hit by a petrol bomb in Basra, Iraq in 2005.

Expedition manager Mr Hewitt, 31, was shot twice through his right shoulder in Afghanistan in 2007, which paralysed his arm.