A group of British trekkers stranded in the Himalayas were saved after they made an SOS call to Dorset.

Four British hikers and 10 porters were climbing a 16,000ft mountain in Nepal when one of the men became seriously ill and too weak to continue on April 17.

Trek leader Michael Bromfield decided to pitch up camp, but the next day the group found themselves trapped at 14,000ft when a snowstorm blocked their path.

Mr Bromfield could not contact his staff in Nepal due to the curfew imposed by the Nepalese government to deal with riots taking place at the time. Instead, he used his satellite phone to contact his adventure company's headquarters in Sherborne, Dorset.

Andy Broom, a senior manager at Great Walks of the World, coordinated the emergency rescue and 72 hours later the explorers were airlifted to safety by a Nepalese Army helicopter.

Speaking from Nepal, Mr Bromfield, 57, said: "One of the men got a really serious attack of diarrhoea and vomiting and was seriously dehydrated. We were walking in the snow, but he wasn't looking strong enough to continue.

"We stopped where there was a little bit of shelter and erected two tents by a shepherd's hut.

"There was a complete white out. It snowed for 24 hours. When we woke up the next morning there was the best part of five foot of snow. The hut had snow up to the roof."

He added: "The temptation was always to try and walk out which was crazy and illogical. Even our guide tried to walk out himself. He moved 400 metres in three hours.

"It only needed one person to stumble and twist an ankle, we could have got lost, or someone could have got hypothermia, then we would have been in serious trouble.

"At one point one of the guys lost it a bit and said there was a revolution going on in Nepal, no one was coming to save us. I didn't doubt for one minute I had made the right decision, but that's not what you want to hear."

The five-week adventure began on April 6 with the British trekkers paying £3,500 to explore the high-altitude Himalayas in Nepal and Tibet with Mr Bromfield's travel firm.

They had flown to Kathmandu where 10 porters joined them for the trek through the Upper Langtang Valley.

Mr Bromfield added: "The real hero as far as I'm concerned was Andy for co-ordinating it all back in rural Dorset."

The group, who were all unharmed, were today planning to continue their trek along the north side of Everest.