It's 11.53pm on Monday 30th May 2005 and everestnews.com is running an unconfirmed report that Alan Hinkes has summitted Kangchenjunga. Boy, I hope their source is good and that Alan is well on his way back to base camp.
If so, I'm over the moon for Hinkesy. He deserves his place in the record books and every plaudit going (in my humble opinion). I hope the national media in the UK sit up and take notice of what Alan has achieved. I hope they cover this great, positive story with as much enthusiasm as they have dedicated to chapati incidents, complaints from Spanish climbers on K2 and the Cho Oyu 'nay sayers'.
I worked with Alan for six years while I was at Berghaus and witnessed close at hand his dedication both to Challenge 8000 and to climbing and the outdoors in general. He is not the 'easiest' man to deal with, but then the best in their field rarely are. However, he has always been a great ambassador for Berghaus and has become a good friend, within and outside of work, and of course since I left the big B.
I'm waffling, but that's because I'm immensely proud of what Alan has at last achieved (not that his achievements before today were exactly minimal!), and I could wax lyrical about this all night!
Congratulations Mr. Hinkes. I truly hope that everestnews is carrying an accurate report and I look forward to buying you a pint or two of real ale when you get back to these shores. My hat is off.
Posted: 31/05/2005 at 00:16
