Subject: Brothers plan 24 hours atop Everest

Three Nepalese brothers are to try to break a world record by staying on top of Mount Everest for 24 hours.

Pemba Dorje Sherpa, aged 31, and his younger brothers Nima Gyalzen and Phurba Tenzing, intend to use their stay on the summit to pray for peace in Nepal and the world.

They will take with them a 30cm (12-inch) statue of the Buddha to the peak. And they are vowing to stay there for 24 hours whatever the weather.

Climbing Everest is almost second nature to the brothers, two of whom met the BBC at their small trekking agency in a back street of Kathmandu to explain their plans.

Coming from the remote and wild Rolwaling Valley, which lies west of the Everest region, five out of the family's seven brothers (they also have four sisters) have climbed the world's highest peak.

Pemba, Nima and Phurba have made 16 ascents between them.

And Pemba is already in the record books having made the summit from base camp in a still-unbeaten eight hours, 10 minutes in May 2004.

The current record for staying on t op is 20 hours. Now that the record-holder, Babu Shiri Sherpa, has died, Pemba feels he can make his bid.

"We can't tell how the weather will be," he says. "We'll take all possible equipment, including ropes. There will be no problem with snow and wind. We're prepared."