Day with Alan hinkes - report

HI all, Just got back from the lakes and have decided to post on here before i sort all my wet gear out!

Ill start at the begining of the day with Alan hinkes and miss out all of the other stuff i got up to as that was a bit boring.

Anyway everyone met at the cafe in George Fishers @ 08:30 or there abouts where we were met by the shop staff who were really friendly and helpful.

We were ushered upstairs for a coffee and a bacon or saussage bun...which were really nice too.

Alan was there when i arrived along with a few people who had either won tickets in competitions or bought them on ebay.

We all got chatting and i met a few people from another forum that i along with a few people from here (hi everyone!)

I think at this point we were a little dissapointed that Alan didnt come round and say hi to everyone.

After a brief intro on what the plans for the day were we were issued with our packed lunches and set off to the theatre near the lake where we could buy special buffs that were made for the festival...they were £8 which is abit cheaper than the standard buffs so i decided to take the plunge and enter the world of the buff wearer.

We thaen had a few more photos taken for the local press etc but After they had finished and everyone was standing around few minutes everyone was starting to wonder what was going on a it was chucking it down and no one had really said anything to us apart from the boat wasn't running so we would have to find another way round to the start point.

anwyay some time later a couple of taxis arrived which everyone piled into and take to the re arranged start point of Grange. It was still chucking it down but we were promised it was set to brighten later in the day (which it did despite the very strong winds which blew a few people around on the summit)

From here we went up nitting hawes and onto maiden moor then down and over cat bells to get the boat back.

During the walk alan was a bit hit and miss, sometimes he seemed quite happy to talk to people other times he sloped off on his own without saying anything. He also seemed quite confrontational at some points especially about everyones carbon footprint and jackets made in china etc instead of in the UK.

we had a good chat to him about gear, where we discovered his dislike for trekking poles after using them for years he decided they were damaging his shoulders.

I also got chance to ask him about that nice orange jacket he had on the front of trail....he was wearing it for the walk too...he would only say it was gores new shell and was a special test jacket made for him by a company in norway ...or so he thought.

Once back at rathbones we got our t-shirs and waited around for a while for alan to come back to do the signing of posters (a pic of him in the snow using trekking poles lol)

anyway overall it was a great day and it was nice to put names to faces

Oh and the guide we had was really great (sorry i cant remember her name) but she was really handy for when you couldnt identify peaks in the cloud ;o)

cheers
Andy

Did he say what he's upto these days post 8000m completion?

Not really, he did mention he was planning a lot of things and writing a book which was taking up a lot of his time!

Seems to me hero worship never quite seems to live up to expectations when it comes to meeting the people in the flesh... glad you had a good day though.. and if he had to look at my footprints over the last 12 months I dare say he'd have had a thrombie and keeled over.. which would have been no big deal to me really as I have absolutly no idea who this guy is or why he is so revered.. blessed are the ignorant..

Seems a bit like do as I say not as I do, from Mr Hinkes . His footprint must be quite large what with all those trips to the Himalayas etc..

Agreed with jonno, not sure if he's in a position to comment on other peoples carbon footprints.

And same response I've read before from him on what he's upto. I suppose he is due an autobiography or something.

With him being "a bit hit and miss", was he under any obligation to do the walk? Sponsors?

I find this idea of a day with someone a bit odd really. It seems like a very unnatural way to be introduced to someone, especially if there are lots of you, so it's not really feasible to strike up much of a conversation or find out what you have in common. I can't quite get my head around it really. If I were him I think I'd be embarrassed. That's not a criticism of the attendees; more of the organisers for suggesting such a weird prize in the first place.

Aye Moggy, he really should just come out and say Haglofs has signed him :o)

lol ptc

here are a couple of pics from the day that i took on my phone...resized etc to make them a bit smaller in file size.

pic 1
pic 2

pic 3
pic 4

I was there too: it was an interesting day, not only because of the weather!
IIRC Alan's not too keen on hydration systems either (particularly those - mine - which leaked all over Abrahams floor!).
Hoewever, in spite of the rain and the wind (which conspired with the terrain to knock me over on the saddle between Maiden Moor and Cat Bells!), it was a great day out, even though I struggled to keep up with everyone on the uphill bits!
I meant to stay over and take a couple of further walks, but wasn't looking forward to another nights camping in the rain: then the wind blew the front of the tent flat, so I packed up and went home before the tent was completely falttened!

Almost forgot - here's a link to my photos from the day:
http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/5627260
Cheers,
John.

Thanks for sharing the pics John, would it be possible for you to email me a couple of them?

cheers
Andy

I've got a special orange jacket too, it's Gore's pre-production Pro Shell garment and is made by a Norwegian company for Gore-Tex to allow selected journos / industry people / Yorkshiremn etc, to try the fabric before it becomes available in the shops late summer.

I like Alan, I don't think he's always 100 per-cent at ease with being a bit of an outdoor celebrity, which means he can come over as a bit stand-offish, but at least he speaks his mind, right or wrong.

Shame about the weather. How did the rest of the event go down?

---

OutdoorsMagic Editor | jon@outdoorsmagic.com 

A bit off the subject but whats the new jacket like? Is it alot better than normal gore tex or XCR?

I haven't used it much yet, so I can't really tell you much about the fabric performance. The test jacket has quite a tough face fabric, which slightly negates one of the advantages claimed for the new fabric, which is that it's more flexible than, say, XCR with a softer handle thanks to the woven rather than knitted backer. It does seem to slide easily over mid and baselayers though. Beyond that I'm not really in a position to comment until I've used it more.

---

OutdoorsMagic Editor | jon@outdoorsmagic.com 

have you got any pics of the details on the jacket jon or would that be a no no!