AN EXPEDITION to scale Mount Everest, led by explorer David Hempleman-Adams, was nearly cancelled after a truck carrying vital equipment plunged into a ravine.

David, Swindon entrepreneur Rikki Hunt and 10 other friends, hope to climb the world’s tallest mountain to raise cash for Alzheimer’s Research UK.

However, the expedition was nearly cancelled after one of their two trucks, carrying supplies and equipment on route to base camp, slipped off a cliff just before the Nepalese border.

The climbers were not in the vehicles but three staff were injured – two seriously– and some of their equipment, including clothing, was lost or damaged.

Now 54-year-old David is working to source replacement supplies from Kathmandu in Nepal to enable the trip to go ahead.

In his blog for The Times, he wrote: “One of our trucks went off the road, down a steep bank and landed in a ravine. It’s unbelievable no one was killed. The truck is a complete write-off.

“The driver and his co-driver are in hospital in Kathmandu with bad injuries, but the sherpa was OK, with a minor ankle injury.

“None of the team was in the truck which was transporting our equipment to Everest base camp.

“When I realised what had happened I thought the expedition was over.

“After seeing the truck smashed up I thought that was it.

“Our gear was strewn around the truck, some covered in kerosene.”

The team, who had just finished a 12-day acclimatisation trek around the foothills of the Himalayas, were in Nepal when the accident happened at about 10pm local time on Saturday.

The supplies were being sent before them by road to Mount Everest, crossing from Nepal into China and then into Tibet.

The climbers were due to meet the trucks at the border into Tibet when they heard the news.

David visited the scene and realised he would be able to salvage much of the equipment and, hopefully, source replacements in Kathmandu.

The team are expected to reach Everest base camp on April 14 where they will remain until their replacement supplies arrive.

David’s personal assistant Nicky Webster said: “The expedition is definitely going to continue as long as there’s nothing else major that happens. It will definitely continue even if it’s slightly delayed.

“But it shouldn’t be because they have got plenty of time to get the equipment to them.”

The official charity for the expedition is Alzheimer’s Research UK but Rikki is collecting for Hop Skip And Jump, which hopes to build a new day centre at Lydiard Park for children with physical, learning and emotional disabilities.

Rikki will also wear equipment monitoring how his body reacts to the cold, which will be used to provide an insight into altitude sickness for trekkers and those in medicine and the military.

To sponsor in aid of Alzheimer’s Research UK, visit www.iceland everest.org.uk.

Or to sponsor Rikki visit www.justgiving.-com/ rikki-hunt.