"Almost 200 climbers are trapped on Mount Everest when the Nepalese earthquake strikes." "Inside, inside." "18 people die on the mountain." "Get down, get down, get down!" "Under the table, under the table." "But some have a miraculous escape." "It must be an earthquake." "Oh my god!" "I am one of the survivors." "This is the story of what happened to me on Everest and of what I found in the country below." "It's April and I've been given the world's greatest job - setting up a" "BBC bureau at base camp on Everest." "That is where I do my work." "This is the internet." "And this is the view from my office." "I'm here to film the British Army Gurkhas as they try for the summit." "So, we're now heading over to the Gurkha expedition tent, who are a very friendly bunch, so we're going to say hello to them." "The Gurkhas come from Nepal." "They're climbing Everest to mark 200 years of service in the" "British Army." "And I probably wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for them." "So this is Andy Todd, Deputy Commander of the Gurkha team." "And the Gurkhas, what are they up to at the moment?" "So the boys are, some of them are just out doing a bit of acclimatisation, some of them are just sitting around drinking brews waiting for this weather to improve so that we can go up this ice fall." "Govinda Rana is used to a challenge." "He's completed four tours of Afghanistan." "But climbing Everest is still daunting." "That challenge and this challenge are different." "So this challenge here is not fun." "Climbing, you know, the top of the world." "I mean, when you sit and look at it from your tent door for the last two days, you know..." "It gets bigger doesn't it?" "CHANTING." "The sherpas are our guides and protectors." "Among them is Kumar, one of the most popular on the mountain." "I had no idea that you were a barber as well." "The camp barber, Tenzing." "So how often do you do this?" "And his customer, Passang Temba." "All three will be dead within days." "I'll leave them to it, I think." "The next staging post is Camp One." "To get there we have to get through the infamous Ice Fall." "16 sherpas died there last year." "The Gurkhas take a moment to pay their respects before we set off from base camp." "It's a seven-hour climb through a glacier riven with crevasses - the towers of ice are constantly moving." "The Khumbu ice fall is split into loads of different crevasses and one way of getting across them is by using these ladders." "It's quite a big drop down there." "We get out of the ice fall just in time." "We are arriving at Camp One when the earthquake hits." "Back at base camp, this is what happens." "The ground is shaking..." "Oh wow!" "Inside, inside!" "An avalanche destroys much of the camp." "Whoa, whoa." "Inside." "Get down, get down, get down!" "Under the table, under the table!" "Close the door, close the door!" "Close the door!" "Oh my god!" "You OK Dani?" "I'm OK." "I'm fine." "So many people went to Camp One today." "I know." "Let's hope they're OK." "What was that?" "Was that an earthquake?" "It must be an earthquake." "Oh my God!" "18 people die at base camp." "These news pictures show how the injured were rescued and how the most severely injured were airlifted out." "But up at Camp One, we have no idea what's happening." "The avalanche has cut us off from the rest of the world." "It sounded not like any avalanche that I've known of." "More along the lines of lots of avalanches coming from all directions and all at once, and then the whole ground started to move." "The whole ground started to shake and shake." "It's the worst disaster in the mountain's history." "And we're trapped halfway up it." "The avalanches keep coming." "The ones below us are not dangerous; the ones above us are." "Our guide shouts out a warning each time." "One above, one below." "You can hear the snow and ice thundering down the mountain." "Two below, one above." "You can take a picture of me looking scared in the tent if you want, but you don't have to, honestly." "You can turn the camera around and look at me." "I never felt the ground wobbling before yesterday, never." "Camp One is always dangerous." "It's so prone to avalanches." "You only stay for 18 hours on a good day." "Almost everybody thinks we're going to die, but we try and carry on as normal." "How many gas you got in there?" "We have one full and one part." "We're fine, yeah." "Thank you, Thundu." "Our sherpas help keep us all alive." "We are surrounded by three of the world's tallest mountains." "We have no way out." "Food supplies are running low." "What was that?" "If we are going to be stuck up here for four days," "I was going to say eat my shoes, but you can't eat these." "Water is vital at altitude and the precious gas to boil the snow is running out." "It's 24 hours before we see our first helicopter." "A few climbers are rescued." "Then the weather closes back in." "The Gurkhas take control." "I think if we draw up a list of who's getting off and when, chopper-wise, then we can have a look at who's remaining." "We're stuck for another 24 hours as avalanches come down." "Then another helicopter gets through and I'm on my way." "I get my first glimpse of what was base camp." "It's unrecognisable from what we left behind." "Amongst the random objects strewn down the mountainside is an old sofa." "It allows me a moment's rest." "This is the most ridiculous situation I've ever been in." "The area where the Gurkhas had left their tents has been wiped out." "Those near it are either dead or injured." "We knew how bad it was because we looked over to the Gurkha camp and it was flat." "There was nothing, just nothing." "And I came back to the camp and found the guys." "A couple of them were still alive, but they were bad." "My tent was also directly in the path of the avalanche." "If I'd been at base camp, I would have been killed." "That was my tent." "I would have been so dead." "But still the enormity of the event is only just sinking in." "I had Global News onto me yesterday and think they're flying into" "Kathmandu today, because it's the number one story all over the world." "Then it's my turn to leave Everest." "Yes, I am going to, I am going to send Tom now and then" "I am going to send the bags." "The bodies of the climbers are covered with orange tents." "It's the last thing I see before I leave." "Among them are Sherpas Kumar, Passang-Temba and Tenzing." "Away from the mountain the devastation is far worse." "More than 8,000 people have died." "This is Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, a month after the earthquake." "Namaste." "I've come to meet Tenzing's family." "Their father had only started work as a Sherpa on Everest two years ago." "Tell me about Tenzing, what was he like, as a person?" "Namaste." "Whole neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble." "Everywhere you go you meet victims of the earthquake." "This is the spot where seven of Umila's family members died." "They were redecorating their home when the earthquake struck." "This is, I believe, the first time that they have been back to where the family lived." "It's not exactly going to be easy for them." "Umila has lost her mother, her grandmother, her sister, two brothers and two nieces." "How will you continue with life after this?" "The buildings still standing are often dangerous." "Hundreds have taken refuge on this golf course." "Many rely on charity and foreign aid." "These people have lost so much, but they retain their hospitality." "I'll try some, but it's yours, all right." "Thanks." "Even after everything that's happened, their generosity is unbelievable, just offering me food." "These guys have got to stay in tents." "And they're still trying to help me out." "If anyone can put this country back together, it's these people." "I'm normally pretty good with words but..." "It's not just Kathmandu that has been devastated." "Much of the country is in ruins." "I'm heading out of the city with the British Army." "We drive with Govinda - one of the Gurkhas who helped me on the mountain." "So at the moment we are trying to catch up with a couple of" "Gurkha Land Rovers to go to the village of Priti to deliver aid." "It's the first time aid's been delivered in this particular place." "We are heading to a remote region which was hit by a massive aftershock." "It's a gruelling 48-hour journey." "Every town and village along the way has been severely damaged." "This is the town of Juri and almost as we drove up, every single house we saw has either been destroyed or cracked to the point of being condemned." "It's painfully slow going for our aid convoy." "At the moment they've got a flat tyre and they are doing what the locals seem to do best, which is repairing on the move." "So what we are planning on doing is going out to this area for two days." "And that will give the Gurkhas a chance to work out exactly how much damage there is and what they can do to help the people there." "And us a good opportunity to see how they do it." "And we've stopped already." "We've come off the cobbled road now and we are into quite heavy weathered lumps and bumps." "As the roads get worse, the aid lorry struggles to make it up many of the hills." "We are just taking a quick break here." "And we've noticed just round this corner there is a school." "You can see all the blackboards in the corner and the school benches out along the side." "A few kids have come to say hello." "You can see where the roof has all collapsed over there and all the walls caved in everywhere." "There's still all the text books and bits of maths paper and all sorts lying in there." "More than a million pupils have had their classrooms wrecked." "There's eight classes in this school - so how they're going to teach eight different groups of people, I'm not sure." "That's it - two benches in a tent." "We're in another destroyed village." "They are trying to demolish their homes so they can start again from scratch - and use the building materials that they've got left." "At the end of this road you could probably walk for five days and still be finding new villages, which is why it is so difficult to get aid to places." "And why the Nepalese people have to be so resourceful themselves to actually create somewhere to live." "We've been travelling for two days and we've scarcely seen an undamaged building." "There seems to be another problem around every corner." "The Nepalese people are rebuilding the country stone by stone." "The further we go away from the main road, the more people are helping themselves." "And this is rebuilding the road so more supplies can get to them so more people can help them." "It is quite ingenious the way they make it - they just hammer rocks straight on top of the dirt." "We are actually going to have to get past, because the British Army camp is just down there, so we ought to see if we can get through." "We are just heading on the final stretch to the village of Priti." "Welcome to Priti." "Cheers." "So former and serving Gurkhas?" "Yes." "The building is also being used to show the villagers how to construct their own shelters." "The old school is too dangerous to use." "These buildings will help pupils get back in the classroom." "The Gurkhas give materials to the families of soldiers to help them put up shelters." "But it's a race against time." "The monsoon rains will soon make building impossible." "1,400 houses have been checked in the area - not a single one is safe to live in." "Another six classrooms will still be needed for all these pupils." "The Gurkhas are moving on to another remote village, and so am I." "I am still haunted by Everest and there's one last thing I need to do." "I want to visit the family of Kumar - another of the Sherpas who died on the mountain." "I feel apprehensive." "I can't stop thinking it should be Kumar returning home, rather than me." "Kumar's widow, Pancha, is waiting to greet me." "Namaste." "Namaste." "We walk two miles up the valley." "Her home is perched on a hillside." "It's a different world from Everest - this is somewhere Westerners almost never come." "How did you find out the news Kumar had been killed?" "Pancha is surrounded by her family, but there's obviously a deep, entrenched sorrow." "Despite all that they are going through, I am offered food and a place to stay overnight." "Once again I am touched by their hospitality." "You spend time with the Sherpas on the mountain but you never quite know where they come from - their families - they are just a friendly face that wakes you up in the morning and takes you up the hill." "But coming out here and seeing where they live, what they left behind, and what they were risking by helping Westerners get to the top of the mountain, quite poignant..." "They're leaving all of this behind and you never quite appreciate that till you get here." "My time in Nepal has come to an end." "I escaped death on Everest - but many here weren't so lucky." "And for those left behind, the struggle to rebuild their country is only just beginning."