Alan Hinkes has denied allegations that he callously ignored a Spanish climber who says he was 'bleeding to death' on K2 in 199 in order to continue with his own summit attempt.
Challenge 8,000 climber Alan Hinkes has bluntly refuted
allegations that he filmed a badly injured Spanish climber on K2 in
1995 before continuing to make a summit attempt.
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"He certainly wasn't bleeding to
death. He had one
broken arm. I have broken an arm and got off the
mountain on my own before." - Hinkes
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The allegations surfaced recently on the mounteverest.net web site,
which quoted Spanish climber Inaki Ochoa de Olza as saying that
Hinkes had filmed him after he fell high on K2 and was, he says,
'bleeding to death'. The Spaniard is quoted as saying that Hinkes
swore, videoed him, then said 'I'm sorry, this is K2 and I'm going
for the summit' and continued.
Hinkes was unaware of the emergence of the story until the Sunday
Telegraph spoke to him in Kathmandu this week. He apparently
'struggled to remember all the details' but remembers the incident,
says it was the Spanish climber's own fault for pulling on old fixed
rope, that he did not appear to be seriously injured and had his own
team to help him down and that at the time he was acclimatising
rather than going for the summit.
'He was an idiot'
The Telegraph also quotes Hinkes, with typical Yorkshire
bluntness, as saying: "He was an idiot for pulling on some old fixed
rope that broke loose. I don't know why he has got something against
me. Perhaps he is jealous of my success. He's got a bee in his bonnet
about something, but I would never slag another climber off."
Hinkes also points out that the he himself has, in the past,
successfully descended a mountain with a broken arm - Kangchenjunga -
though the Spaniard's injuries turned out to be more serious than
that, with 'three broken ribs, and broken arm, nose and sacroilliac
bones (pelvic joint).'
Fellow Berghaus-sponsored climber Sir Chris Bonington was quick to
defend Alan, telling the newspaper that "In this case, on K2,
it is one person's word against the other's. But Alan is a good guy
and I'd be very surprised if he did something like this. I'd be very
disappointed if any mountaineer behaved in such a way."
You can read the full Sunday Telegraph story here.
