THERE'S no better way to celebrate scaling the world's tallest peaks than with a visit to your favourite fish and chip shop, according to mountaineer Alan Hinkes.

The 51-year-old adventurer has returned to the UK after becoming the first Briton to conquer the world's 14 highest peaks, with plans to make a beeline to Turnbull's chip shop in his home town of Northallerton.

The mountaineer, who flew back to the UK on Monday, said: "You cannot really celebrate when you are at the top of an 8,000-metre mountain. If something goes wrong up there, there are no helicopters and no one to rescue you. You are on your own.

"It is a different matter if you're on Roseberry Topping, then you can celebrate, but not Kangchenjunga.

"You cannot really celebrate until you are relatively safe, and I will not know I am safe until I have been to Turnbull's, in Northallerton, for some fish and chips."

Mr Hinkes, who has become only the 13th person to climb all 14 of the world's 8,000m peaks, said the ascent of Kangchenjunga in Nepal, his final peak, was his toughest challenge.

He climbed to the top just before dark on May 30 and was forced to make his descent in darkness through a heavy blizzard.

He said: "If you read any book on mountaineering or any of the epic stories about climbs, you will find that one thing you do not do is start your descent in the dark.

"It was a risk, but it was a calculated risk because it means that I now do not have to go back over there and start all over again."

He said he was not truly able to recognise his feat until he got back to base camp two days later.

He met the British Ambassador to Nepal, Keith Bloomfield. The meeting took place in the gardens of the British Embassy, in Kathmandu, where staff had baked a cake with the 14 peaks on he has climbed in the last 18 years.

The embassy gardens is the spot where traditionally all early national expeditions, including Sir Edmond Hillary's, departed from.

Mr Hinkes started his challenge 18 years ago with his first 8,000-metre climb, up the north face of Shisha Panguma, in China.

Despite having achieved his goal he has no plans to stop climbing, but said he would be happy in the Lake District and hills of Yorkshire for a while.

Mr Hinkes said: " I will be in mountains all my life. Life is going to be a bit different for a while.

"Maybe I should take up ballroom dancing because they don't have blizzards in that."