Mount Everest: Deadly avalanche turns tranquility into terror
Emma Murphy is one of the few journalists to reach Everest Base Camp after the disaster.
There is a tranquility and splendour to Everest which gives lie to the terrible events of the past days.
Flying through the Khumbu Valley towards Base Camp, the mountainside villages are the first indication of the tremor which took lives and homes. Small piles of rubble where houses once stood - where lives were lived and lost.
It is still not clear how many died in this part of Nepal.
Further in towards Base Camp - where bright orange tents were engulfed when the earthquake triggered an avalanche - the exact numbers of dead are also difficult to establish, but at least 18 perished in or around the site.
Through the morning, with little ceremony but huge respect, the bodies of those seeking to achieve personal dreams have been returned by helicopter to the tiny town of Lukla.
At the small field hospital in Pheriche, British doctor Katie Williams told me how Sunday morning brought with it casualty after casualty.
At least 61 of those who had survived had been brought for care here.
Making his way back down Everest with a 17-strong team from the Gurkha 200 Everest Expedition Treck was Major Andrew Todd of the Royal Gurkha Rifles.
They had been on the mountain when the quake struck. Incredibly they all survived.
He told me: "We were up in our tents when the earthquake hit, we'd just got through the icefall and were in our tents and suddenly the ice started to shake.
"There was a lot of commotion at the top and then suddenly there were a series of avalanches. It was almost as if all three sides of the valley opened up."
Mr Todd said once they returned to their tents lower down they were crushed and their belongings scattered between 5m and 750m across the glacier.
The beauty and challenge of Everest has inspired and challenged many through the years - but April 25th 2015 will now forever be one of the darkest moments in the mountain's history.