Photo Essay | Everest, one step at a time 7 Photos . Updated: 07 Jun 2013, 07:20 PM IST Livemint The most heavily used route up the world's highest mountain decoded 1/7Climbers from the National Cadet Corps (NCC) 2013 Everest team make the trek from Lukla, Nepal, to the Base Camp. Photographs: Percy Fernandez 2/7The Base Camp, at 17,500ft on the South Col route, begins to look like a city in climbing season, and supports as many as 400 people. 3/7A climber negotiates the difficult path through the Khumbu Icefall with the help of a prefixed ladder. Despite being disaster-prone, the climb from the Base Camp to camp I through the Icefall has to be done multiple times for acclimatization. 4/7Climbers leave camp I (20,342ft) to trek across the Western Cwm, the large glacial valley between the Everest and its neighbouring peaks, Nuptse and Lhotse. The main challenge here is the intense heat of the sun reflected off the ice and snow. 5/7Climbers traverse the Summit Ridge. 6/7A view from the summit of Everest (29,035ft), looking down at climbers ascending and descending via the Summit Ridge. 7/7The NCC team unfurls the Indian flag atop Everest.