Portsmouth stalwart relives drama as challenge of a lifetime leaves ex-Oxford United, Bristol Rovers, Torquay United and Cheltenham Town favourite stranded up Mount Everest for FIVE days

The Blues stalwart has told how his bid to scale the world’s largest mountain took a dramatic turn for the worse, as he and his son Shane had to be saved by helicopter in tense scenes after being trapped for FIVE days.

North suffered from sickness and altitude issues as he survived on tomato soup, with the gruelling trek reaching epic proportions in entirely unexpected circumstances.

The 60-year-old’s bid to travel 50km and scale 5,600m above sea level to reach Base Camp ended successfully this summer, as he raised £4,000 for Blesma - a charity which aids service men and women who’ve suffered life-changing limb losses.

That exhausting effort was still beset with problems, however, for the respected figure who’s served the likes of Bristol Rovers, Oxford United, Cheltenham, Torquay and AFC Wimbledon in his time in football.

‘We knew it was going to be hard, but maybe we weren’t prepared for how hard it was going to be,’ North explained of his incredible expedition.

‘It was a really good experience, but it was very, very hard.

‘The first couple of days I was ill with sickness and just walking on memory really.

'Then later I got ill with the altitude. My body just shut down and all I wanted to do was sleep.

‘All I could eat was tomato soup. I’m probably the first person to do Everest Base Camp eating tomato soup only!

‘I’m not a great lover of foreign food and the one thing I could recognise was that, so I played it safe and that’s what I went for.

‘When we got to 3,500-4,000m it started to get painful, you couldn’t breathe.

‘The green valleys had gone and nothing was growing. There’s nothing up there, you’re just on the ice fall.

‘We were doing 25-minute miles at the start, by the time we got to Base Camp it was 58-minute miles and you had nothing left.

‘If I’d walked more than 10 minutes I was on the verge of passing out.

‘But we kept going and managed to get there.’

North’s problems on his journey to Base Camp were significant enough, but those issues were to pale into insignificance when he began his descent and encountered deteriorating weather conditions.

Dense fog was to shroud the mountain as they made their way to Lukla, with their exit planned from an airport renowned as the world’s most dangerous.

And that proved to be the start of a nightmare five-day period.

North explained: ‘When we got to Base Camp at 5,600m we stopped and started taking the photos for 30 minutes, then it was time to start going back down.

‘We were obviously coming down a lot quicker and it’s unbelievable how fit you feel with the altitude.

‘We were absolutely flying. It took us eight days to get up and four to get back.

‘When we got back to Lukla it was beautiful sunshine and we had 12 miles to do on the last day.

‘We’d felt we’d made it, but then it started raining.

‘The plan was to go to sleep, fly to Kathmandu in the morning and go home from there.

‘But we got up on Wednesday morning and it’s thick fog, you couldn’t see a thing.

'There was no planes or helicopters. Nothing. So what do we have to do? We have to sit and wait.

‘So we sat and waited - for five days.’

An expedition which was expected to last 10 days then turned into an exhausting 15-day test of stamina, as North and his son were left fearful over their fate.

Their safety was eventually secured in riveting fashion, as a helicopter swooped in to come to their rescue and evacuate the group.

‘Those five day were quite scary,’ North admitted.

‘We were stranded up the mountain, I was getting the hump and I wasn’t eating anything.

‘In the end we walked down the mountain for another few hours before coming to this little bit of green grass. The next thing we know this tiny helicopter turns up.

‘We then had to pay £300 each to get rescued by a helicopter!

‘It was a relief, though, and looking back now an experience we’ll never, ever forget.

‘We managed to raise a good amount for charity - even if it ended up costing us a lot getting stranded up the world's tallest mountain!'

You can still donate to North’s Mount Everest challenge in aid of Blesma – by clicking HERE