1#6 Alan Hinkes: Yorkshire’s 8000-metre mountaineer
“I had to come to terms, towards the end of climbing them all, that I was probably going to get killed.”
00:00 - Introduction
02:34 - Welcome (Yorkshireman of the Year)
04:04 - “More and more I think kindness is the way forward”
05:05 - Life across the mountainous swathe of northern England
06:20 - Introduction to the 8,000ers (“Buy my book! It’s brilliaaaaaaaant!”)
13:35 - Kukuczka, Messner and more
19:45 - A big digression leading to Cust’s Gully and some pretty sobering avalanche chat.
24:35 - “No mountain is worth a life, coming back is a success, and the summit is a bonus.”
26:09 - Growing up near North Allerton
31:02 - Lockdown in the Lakes, a tough time for instructors
37:30 - The considerable risks of extreme altitude mountains
42:50 - “K2 had had roughly 300 ascents and around 80 or 90 deaths”
49:16 - “I feel like I’ve done what I want to do in life, and everything else is a bonus”
50:18 - Why all climbing on 8000ers is “exploratory climbing”
53:30 - Greatest Mountain Memory: a reverie atop K2
56:25 - Time, money, freedom… where do you go? “I’d still be happy in this band across northern England… but maybe the Seven Summits?”