Australian paraplegic 'humbled' by Everest base camp trek

A wheelchair-bound Australian who reached Everest base camp under his own power today said he was "humbled" to be the first paraplegic to make the gruelling journey mostly unaided.

Scott Doolan, 28, took ten days to reach the foot of the world's highest peak.

He suffered a stress fracture while navigating the rocky terrain and extreme altitude -- in his wheelchair where possible, on his hands and occasionally being carried.

Doolan reached the camp, 5,364 metres above sea level, on Sunday, taking barely longer than many able-bodied trekkers.

"I was struggling to breathe at that time because I was walking on my hands but I just remember looking up and seeing a crowd of about 20 people. Once I actually got there they all start cheering and that was pretty damn humbling," Doolan said of the moment he reached base camp.

Walking on his hands, in a technique he dubbed "wheelbarrowing", Doolan wore through five pairs of gloves during the trek. And on day seven, one of the front wheels of his wheelchair snapped off.

"I was pretty devastated. I was just sitting by myself on a rock, thinking how am I going to do this now," Doolan told AFP in the Nepal capital Kathmandu.

"We could have called it quits or found a way."