The foreign media contingent was moved from the huts to rooms inside the media centre late on Saturday evening, due to to the extreme weather. It was welcome, and much warmer. It seems it was by way of compensation for not taking us back to a hotel for a shower and a night in a proper bed, as we had requested. After the recent snow, the roads were apparently too dangerous.

One man who did get away was Joerg Brase of German television. Joerg had been suffering with high blood pressure ever since our arrival at the foot of Everest.

He decided that the risk to his health was not worth the story we might get if the torch does finally get to the top of the mountain.

The altitude effects nearly all of us. A slow walk up stairs will have all but the Tibetans puffing and wheezing like 20-a-day smokers.

Headaches are commonplace and sleep, even in the relative warmth of the inside of the media centre, is troubled.

Several of our contingent have had upset stomachs, not a pleasant experience at night when the latrine is a 100-metre walk (or dash) in the freezing cold.

I have felt sluggish and lethargic since we arrived here and, when writing, struggle to recall sometimes very simple words or constructions.

We do have the wonderful Dr Li, who roams around the camp telling us to drink plenty of water and to pace ourselves when working.

He also tolerates our frequent demands to use the machine he wears around his neck to test our heart beat and blood oxygen levels.

Today my heartbeat was 103, my oxygen a rather disappointing 81 percent. Dave was 97 and 86 (after hyperventilating before the test, the cheat), while Mark was an impressive 75 and 86.

Pix from top: Chinese border policemen take photographs of each other near their guard posts in front of Everest. And Buddhist monks and nuns feed yaks after a snowfall outside the nearby Rongbo Monastery. Photos by David Gray

After another round of negotiations with the organisers the next morning, we reached an agreement that we would get an extra day to acclimatize before we reached base camp.

That didn’t, of course, mean we would make the short journey to the next stop at Lhartse in short order and have the rest of the day to relax.

The journey was extended with a trip to a hot spring.

There, I was encouraged to consult a purveyor of traditional Tibetan medicine, who based his prognosis on feeling the pulse on both wrists.

After his first call went a bit wide of the mark (Had a motorcycle hit me 10 days ago? Er, no), he hurriedly decided I was in excellent health and had no need of his herbs.

I was reassured that there was no mention of altitude sickness (a cinch diagnosis for any Tibetan snake-oil salesman faced with a European, surely?) but had my confidence tested almost immediately when our little coach rattled its way up a winding shingle track to the Tsam Monastery (4,500m).

It was worth every hair-raising bend of the drive to see the intricate wood carvings in the 1,000-year-old cluster of buildings.

A group of pilgrims shared their picnic of ground barley and dried mutton and there was cup after cup of Yak butter tea.

Lhartse (4,200m) itself was nondescript but it was a mild shock to realize that there were still places in China where children beg for pencils.

Pix from the top: An elderly Tibetan woman walks towards the 1000-year-old Tsam Monastery located on a mountain at an elevation of over 4500 metres near the Tibetan city of Shigatse April 26, 2008. The 1000-year-old Tsam Monastery located on a mountain at an elevation of over 4500 metres near the Tibetan city of Shigatse. A young Buddhist monk puts his hands together as he stands in a temple at the 1000-year-old Tsam Monastery. A young Buddhist monk stands in the Tsam Monastery. REUTERS/David Gray (CHINA)