Alan Hinkes Annapurna 2002 British mountaineer Alan Hinkes has announced that on his next expedition he will climb Annapurna (8091 meters).  Alan will be flying to the Himalaya at the end of March and hopes to reach the summit during May.  Alan Hinkes is the UK’s most successful extreme altitude mountaineer and is getting close to being the first Briton to climb all 14 of the 8,000m peaks in the world.  Read the dispatches from his Annapurna 2002 Summit here!

“Challenge 8000” has already seen him reach the top of many of the world’s most famous and dangerous mountains, including Everest, K2 and Nanga Parbat.  In 1997, Alan hit the national headlines when he sneezed on excess flour from a chapatti while on Nanga Parbat and prolapsed a disc in his back.  He was in agony, trapped on the mountain for 10 days before struggling down lower to rescue.  Alan recovered and went back to summit on Nanga Parbat later the same year

Since 1987, Alan has climbed 11 of the mountains, leaving only Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and Kangchenjunga to summit.  All of these peaks are in the ‘Death Zone’, an unforgiving environment where the human body rapidly deteriorates and no-one can survive for more than a very few days.  Annapurna, like its fellow 8,000ers, is a very dangerous proposition and one for which Alan has had to prepare meticulously.

Alan comments: “Annapurna is notorious for avalanches and huge seracs (ice cliffs) which break off and engulf the exposed mountain slopes.  My plan is to minimize the risk by climbing lightweight.  I do not have a death wish and I climb to live, not to die.  The summit is optional – returning is mandatory.”

Alan Hinkes has been working with Berghaus since the early 1980s and will be using much of the company’s most technical products while on the expedition. Read the dispatches from his Annapurna 2002 Summit here!