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ALAN HINKES
8000 METRES
CLIMBING THE WORLD’S
HIGHEST MOUNTAINS
FOREWORD – BRIAN BLESSED
SHOOTING THE SUMMITS – JOE CORNISH
2 POLICE SQUARE, MILNTHORPE, CUMBRIA LA7 7PY
© Alan Hinkes, 2014
ISBN 978 1 85284 548 3
The author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
Text and photographs © Alan Hinkes (unless otherwise stated)
Maps © Cicerone
Printed and bound by KHL Printing, Singapore
Thanks to Vertebrate Publishing for permission to reproduce the quotation from Upon that Mountain.
Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind.
Jagger/Richards
Front cover
An early-morning view of K2 from Broad Peak. A ribbon of cirrus cloud often forms on K2 around this level, about 7800m. The final 800m pyramid of K2 rises majestically above the cloud layer.
CONTENTS
The Himalaya and Karakoram Mountains
JERZY KUKUCZKA & THE POLISH CLIMBERS
SUMMIT FLAGS & FIONA
CHAPATTI & CHIPS
THE DEATH ZONE
MALLORY & IRVINE
THE TREK-IN
COFFEE OR TEA?
PHOTOGRAPHY & FILMING
KURT DIEMBERGER
DEALING WITH DEATH
DRESSED TO SURVIVE
THE INCIDENT PIT
ROSEBERRY TOPPING
SHOOTING THE SUMMITS BY JOE CORNISH
1 The 8000m peaks and their first ascents
2 Alan Hinkes Expeditions
3 Glossary
Kangchenjunga: negotiating deep crevasses on the Great Shelf 7000m, during my attempt in 2000. Later I made a solo push but the risk of avalanches eventually forced me to retreat and I fell into the cevasse, breaking my arm.
Penitentes on the K2 Glacier create an icy wonderland. Trekking towards Base Camp and the 3000m North Face of K2, China.
Looking back along the ridge from the summit of Shisha Pangma, at 8046m. My climbing partner Steve Untch is gasping for air in the rarefied atmosphere. I wait and photograph the Himalayan sunset before catching him up.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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