Hinkes Delays Climb Till Autumn

For the first time in ages, top mountaineer Alan Hinkes is not in the Himalayas for the pre-monsoon climbing season.

Berghaus-sponsored Hinkes, who is attempting to become the first Briton to climb all 14 of the world's 8,000 metre peaks had planned to attempt Dhaulagiri, one of the three remaining ticks on his list this spring.

At the recent trade show in Manchester he announced that he was hoping to share a permit for the mountain for an attempt about now, but he was recently spotted in Scotland and Berghaus confirm that he won't now be attemping any of his three remaining summits - Dhaulagiri, Kangchenjunga and Annapurna - until the 2001 post-monsoon season.

Hinkes has been dubbed 'Britain's unluckiest living climber' by some sections of the media after a succession of unfortunate accidents, but anyone who read an account of his crevasse fall on Kangchenjunga last year might think that 'luckiest' would be a more apt description.