Hinkes Coming Home...

We've just had a call from the understandably subdued British 8,000 metre man Alan Hinkes in Kathmandu and the news is that unfortunately he's going to be flying back to the UK next week.

Alan contracted a serious bronchial infection while trekking into Kangchenjunga, the world's third highest mountain, last month and had to be helicoptered out for treatment in Kathmandu. Since then he's been on a two-week course of antibiotics: 'I'll need another two weeks to recover from them,' he told us while convalescing in brilliant sunshine in Kathmandu. 'Mind you, it's the first serious brochial infection I've had in 20 years of Himalayan mountaineering.'

'If there's a silver lining,' he says, 'it's that conditions at Kangchenjunga base camp are atrocious with everyone pinned down by high winds and heavy snow. One of my friends has just had to be choppered out with a respiritatory infection, you have to look on the bright side, it's the third time he's attempted the mountain, I've only been there twice...'

'Of course there's still another 20 days before the monsoon. I can't go back though, I'm not as fit as I'd like and there's just not enough time [the trek into base camp takes around two weeks]. I just have to come to terms with it.'

Trekking In The Lakes...

Alan's planning to fly home next week and says he's just going to enjoy the British hills and go trekking in the Lake District before heading back out to Nepal for the 50th Anniversary Everest celebrations.

'Hillary's going to be there,' he says, ' And let's face it, if I wait for the 100th anniversary, neither of us are going to be around.'

So has he thought about his next mountain yet? 'I'm not thinking about going back yet,' he says. 'It's highly unlikely that I'll return this autumn, but I always say, never say never, so it's still a possibility.'

We'll keep you up to date with Alan's plans. You can read more about him in previous articles - see the links below - and on the Berghaus web site.