A Cumbrian grandad who put pen-to-paper his experience of reaching Everest’s base camp is training to reach the summit when he turns 70.

Retired accountant John Wylie, 67, made it to the base camp of the world’ highest mountain in November.

Now he is training to make it to the summit by 2023, the year he turns 70 and what will be 70th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hilary’s first ascent.

The Wigton-born grandfather, who now lives in Carlisle, has always loved the mountains of the Lake District and used to climb Skiddaw regularly when he was a pupil at Keswick school.

He said: “When I got to Everest base camp I pretty much swore to myself I would go back to do the summit.

“I know people sometimes see pictures of the congestion at the top, but it’s not like that, it’s not a bus trip.

“I will take two to three years for me to prepare for the expedition in 2023.”

Mr Wylie said it is not just the physical preparation that takes time, but also the political and financial organisation of the trip. He said it is quite difficult to arrange to go and ascend the famous mountain.

Mr Wylie added that altitude sickness could also be a problem. “It doesn’t depend on your fitness, it’s something that either you get or you don’t.

“When I went to base camp I was fine and I’m hoping that with training and guidance I’ll be fine going to the summit too. I fully intend to go there, whether I get to Camp Two or the summit, I don’t know, but I’m determined to try.

“I just think that standing at 29,000 feet on the tallest point of the world is worth the effort.”

Mr Wylie wrote his book Grandad Does Everest Base Camp (From Keswick to Kathmandu) after reaching base camp last year. He said: “I hope that it engages people and that they see it as something that they can do. I do believe we’re getting into a world of virtual reality, but the physical reality is the one that’s awesome. You don’t have to go to Everest though, you can go to Skiddaw or somewhere else.”

Mr Wylie was the first Cumbrian school boy to run half a mile inside two minutes when he was 16. But the following year he failed to achieve running a mile in four minutes. He said: “As a 17-year-old I failed, but as a 70-year-old I may succeed.”