Councillor and mountaineer Roy Tudor Hughes's attempt to become the oldest Briton to conquer Everest has been thwarted by bad luck.

Mr Tudor Hughes, 62, who is standing again as a county councillor for Dorchester-on-Thames, flew out to Nepal in March to prepare for his record-breaking bid and he hoped to push for the summit in late May.

A combination of bronchitis, visa complications and the near-death of two team members near the summit conspired against him.

After three weeks of acclimatising at an altitude of 6,400m, Mr Tudor Hughes found his health was deteriorating. Unable to shrug off bronchitis he decided to return to sea-level to recover.

He flew from Kathmandu to Dubai, in the Gulf. He felt stronger after a week and arrived back in Nepal, only to find that he could not get a visa for Tibet for a week.

The delay meant Mr Tudor Hughes was five days' climb behind and unable to join his team for a push to the top. He remained hopeful until tragedy stopped him in his tracks.

On the day when 14 of his own team reached the summit, three climbers from another team died. Two climbers from his own team collapsed 100m below the summit.

Using a satellite link from a base camp, Mr Tudor Hughes described their rescue.

"This was the grave situation when I returned to camp, and the general view was that they would not survive the night - and if they did, they would not be able to move. American climbers on their way up stopped to help. The two men were alive and all came down safely."

Mr Tudor Hughes said the experience had been "frustrating" and illustrated the "fine line between triumph and disaster" on Everest.