It looks like Alan Hinkes has summited Annapurna (8,091m) leaving
him with just two 8,000-metre peaks between him and his aim of
becoming the first Briton to complete all 14 8,000-ers.
According to information from sponsors Berghaus, Alan reached the
summit on Monday morning, carrying, as always, a photograph of his
daughter Fiona. The entire report is reproduced below, but we'd just
like to say well done Alan on becoming the first British climber to
summit on the mountain for 32 years, and good luck with the final
pair. Nice one.
And here's the full report complete with quotes from Alan, thanks
to Berghaus for keeping us informed:
Reports from the Himalaya have confirmed that Alan Hinkes has
summitted on Annapurna (8,091m), his latest Challenge 8000 peak, and
is getting ever closer to being the first Briton to climb all 14 of
the 8,000m peaks in the world. Alan reached the summit at about
11.30am local time on May 6th and got back down to Camp III a few
hours later.
Alan reached base camp in the last week of April, by which time he
was already well acclimatized. He spent the next few days completing
the acclimatization process and planning his attempt on the summit.
From base camp, he began to establish advanced stations further up
the mountain and by 5th May felt that he was ready to make a bid for
the summit.
Although Alan's base camp was hit by some ferocious storms during
one night last week and his mess tent was blown away, conditions on
Annapurna have generally been very favourable. The weather was still
good on 5th May and Alan left his highest established position (Camp
III) in the first hour of the following day.
He made very good progress and by 11.30am was standing on the top
of Annapurna, where he took out the photo of his daughter, Fiona,
which he always carries with him on Himalayan expeditions, and
arranged his summit photograph. Soon after noon, Alan started making
his way back down from the summit, and some hours later was back in
Camp III. Alan will soon be returning from base camp to Kathmandu,
and will then fly back to the UK.
Speaking via satellite phone from base camp last night Alan said:
"I set off from camp 3 just before midnight on 5th May to do a recce
but the weather conditions were really good so I just pushed on ahead
to make an attempt on the summit. - "As far as I am aware I am the
first British man to have summitted Annapurna in 32 years and I even
used a new route close to the French route on the north face, which
is a great feeling.
"It's one of the most amazing mountains I have climbed -
the scenery is awesome. I'm exhausted and overwhelmed to have
achieved all this so quickly and am looking forward to returning home
to rest and especially to see my daughter Fiona."
Alan Hinkes has been working with Berghaus since the early 1980s
and has been using much of the company's most technical products
while on his latest expedition. Updates of his progress have been
sent back to the UK on a regular basis and can all be found on the
Berghaus website (www.berghaus.com).
