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Lee Farmer from Newbury is an experienced mountaineer but in April 2008 he will be embarking on the climb of his life - Mount Everest.

Track his live progress here:

After reaching EBC, Lee and the rest of the North Altitude Junkies Team will attempt the north east ridge of the mountain.

"To use a pun it's going to be rock-hard," Lee tells BBC Berkshire of his challenge, "it's going to be nails, it's going to be tough".

He adds: "We're doing the north east ridge, which is a harder route than the south cole. It's also a safer route but it's going to be beyond anything I've ever done."

Lee has conquered the summits of the world's highest mountains including Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Mt Whitney in California and Mont Blanc in France.

Lee Farmer's route

But Mount Everest is the climb that will be the crowning achievement of his life.

However, to get there he and the rest of the team need to survive what is portentously known as the Death Zone, the area of altitude above 8,000 metres in which human beings are unable to survive without supplemental oxygen.

Cllimbers need approximately five to seven three-litre bottles to stay alive. Lee has six bottles.

As Lee states on his website: "There is a fine balance between success and failure, life and death, in the Death Zone."

He tells BBC Berkshire: "I expect to be in the Death Zone maybe up to 20 hours on supplemental oxygen, with about 20 minutes to half an hour on the summit."

And when reaching the summit the eight-strong team will be vying for space as the area is, as Lee describes, only "about two snooker tables wide".

Lee Farmer at BBC Berkshire

Before the climb the expedition members will initially meet in Kathmandu in late March 2008. They then travel to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, then they'll be spending the following 70 days trekking onto the north side of the mountain for their attempt on Everest.

So how has Lee been preparing for the climb?

"I've walked pretty much the length of the Wayfarer's Walk," he says, "which starts in Emsworth by Portsmouth and finishes on Inkpen Beacon - it's 70 miles long but I did 56 miles in two days".

He adds: "I feel pretty good. I'm glad I did it as it's brought to light a few aches and pains. I got used to carrying a 17-kilo pack with me - which had all my food supplies and a tent."

Other training regimes include carrying a 30-kilo pack in the Brecon Beacons as well as walking round his village with an 80-pound pack and pulling a tractor tyre.

However he has had no access to rarified air.

"As just an ordinary bloke I don't have access to the chambers that perhaps some of the Olympic athletes have, so I don't train specifically for the altitude," Lee says.

Lee and the team hope to reach the summit between 18 May and 20 May, depending on the weather.

"There is a two-week window around mid-May to early June," he says. "It's the lull before the storm - before the monsoon rips up through from the Bay of Bengal."

It's going to be a gruelling challenging but one thing is certain - when Lee reaches the summit he'll literally be on top of the world.

You can track his live progress via his website here:

Read his interview with BBC Radio Berkshire's Henry Kelly back in January 2008: