Soapbox

the claims that alan hinkes did not properly summit cho oyu are in my opinion totally preposterous.
These sensationalist claims have been made by an american website that is nothing short of the web version of the sunday sport.The sad fact however is that some will probably believe this nonsense dreamed up by hack journalists who have never climbed a ladder let alone an 8000m himalayan peak and whose only motivation is to further thier own seedy careers by degrading the monumental efforts of an honest man.
I for one will take the word of Mr Hinkes and wish him all the luck in the world in completing the round.

Troble is Kevin, by even discussing them n here we give them the publicity they dont deserve.

That is true jules i was just so po'd about it wonder if they would have run the story if alan hinkes was american

Yes i read this as well, its all pretty pathetic, i do not personally know Alan Hinkes and only he will know if he did reach the true top or not. What proof do they have that he didnt? Maybe in the future he will do it again just to prove them wrong, and if he doesnt then lets just say well he must have done it in the first place.

Good luck Alan !

Kev I spoke to Berghaus' new PR man on monday about the re-emergence of this and they are taking action to squash it.

Mountaineering has traditionally always accepted a climbers claim to have reached a summit unless there is credible evidence that he/she has not made the summit. In this case the weather caused all the others to turn back, but Alan continued alone for a further hour across the plateau on a heading that would take him to the summit.he is happy that he has made the summit, as are everestnews.com. We are not even talking of a major height difference here, just a relatively flat plateau where the height gain would have been less than 10metres. If he doesn't know how to pace at that altitude then I don't know who does! What else would he be doing up there alone at that altitude for an hour? If he was going to cheat then surely it wouldn't be on the easiest of all the 8000metre peaks? As it appears to be accepted practise that a summit counts as long as your head is above the summit (to take into account the various"sacred" summits) what evidence is there to say he didnt summit?

At the end of the day it comes down to trust and belief in a climbers integrity, and Alan is certainly no liar/cheat.If he says it's "a done deal" then that's good enough for me - and should be for these manhattan based nobodies too.

The task Alan has set himself is shown once again in todays news.

Christian Kuntner was on the same quest for all 14 8000ers and summitted his final one, Annapurna, yesterday. On his descent the group were hit by an ice avalanche and Kuntner died at Camp 2 from internal injuries suffered during the avalanche.

Yes, goes to show how risky it is. At least he died having achieved his dream, which should be some comfort to his family.

Eh?

Some comfort? How does that work?

Sorry that your husband/father is dead - but he did get to the top of a few hills you know.

I'm sure that's very comforting.

I mean, it's not like he was actually putting his life at risk for someone else or some greater objective.

Yes Colin, some comfort.

I have lost all but one of my grandparents. One died in hospital from heart disease. One died in a hospice from Motor Neurone Disease. One loved the sea, refused to go to hospital, and asked to be taken out of hospital and put on a cruise ship leaving Southampton. Which my family did. He died doing what he loved, and yes, it is great comfort to myself and all my family.

It may not be a comfort now but i think it will be eventually.

I know a few people who have lost loved ones who were climbing, mountainearing, hicking and motorbiking accidents and they all find conselelation in knowing they died doing something they loved.

Those that died doing something risky knew the risks and thier family accept they made thier choice. It takes time though to feel like that.

latest updates say that it may have been a serac falling and not an avavlanche, and that Kuntzner did NOT reach the summit.

Cara -I WAS going to say that there's surely a bit of a difference between seeing out your days in happiness and intentionally putting yourself in a very, very dangerous situation. However, I guess we all put ourselves at some additional risk every time we go out on the hills (or, as I've pointed out before, just getting to and from them).

I still can't help feeling that taking such high risks is a sign of selfishness.

If people didn't take risks and push themselves to the limit, then we would never push the boundaries back.

Perhaps we'd never have set sail across the atlantic and dicovered america - in which case there wouldn't be any yanks, what a pleasant thought!

My parents have said that they worry about things I do, but that they accept that if I shoud die, it will be doing sthg I love.
All they have said is "for God's sake, if you are going to die, die properly" - in other words they would rather that, as would I, than become a cabbage.
They understand the life I choose.

Yes mountaineering is a sign of selfishness.

So is sitting in an armchair, smoking yourself stupid and having a heart attack at 40.

So is living a cautious and healthy life hoping to live to 120 and get more out of your pension scheme that what you put in.

So what?!

Do you think you'd feel different about the risks you take if YOU were a parent and you had a young child?

Not me Colin, been in that position.

Colin, how do you know who here is a parent, who isn't, who has other dependents, etc?
Dependents aside, my attitude has been forged by a few events that have made me see that i have to just get out there and live life regardless. Life is too short to live in a safe bubble "just in case". I would rather regret sthg I had done than sthg I hadn't, and if that means I don't live to regret, so be it.
I wasted several years of my life, I don't intend wasting anymore :)

One way I don't want to go is at 48 in a hospital ward being prevented from seeing my 3 month old granddaughter because of barrier nursing until the actual day before I die and then being so far doped up on morphine I don't really know that she's there and the only words I'm able to say is "Bye Bye"

Colin - yes, I guess I would.

I don't take risks though. Unless you count cycling on the road, which is the most dangerous thing I do.