Berghaus Announces Limited Edition Hinkes Shell

Okay, here's a bit of a mid-August scoop for you with first pictures and details of a limited edition Challenge 8000 Jacket which is being launched by Berghaus to celebrate Alan Hinkes' top effort in becoming the first Briton to climb all the 8000ers.

The 'signature' jacket has been designed to Hinkesey's personal specifications and only 1,000 of them will be made - erm, is it just us, or is 1,000 actually quite a few jackets? - even better, all profits from the jacket will be going to Alan's favourite charity Wateraid.

So what's special about the Challenge 8000 design? Well, it was put together by Alan himself with Berghaus designers and has some cunning touches based on the lessons he's learned climbing at altitude. Cut is apparently neat and short to accommodate a climbing harness and there are no fripperies like pit-zips because Alan prefers a minimalist approach on the mountain.

Two clever features we know about are breathing vents in the mouth section of the hood to minimise goggle misting from condensation when things are battened down and slim but flexible cuffs which will fit over or under gloves without leaving excessive bulk. Rumours that the pockets are a new, specially deep design known as the 'Yorkshire Pocket' to hinder wallet extraction are, of course, totally untrue as is any inference that the hood vents are there to allow rapid beer ingestion ;-)

We also like the neat little Challenge 8000 logo on the shoulder - above - you can see the full jacket below, but if you want a closer look, here's a bigger version.