On top of the world

But, today, he stands at the summit of a remarkable achievement - the first Briton to climb all of the world's 8,000-metre mountains and only the 13th man in the world to complete the achievement.

More men have walked on the surface of the Moon than have stood where Alan Hinkes has stood.

Yesterday, the 50-year-old grandfather from Northallerton made the satellite phone call his family and supporters have been nervously waiting for - to announce that he had safely returned from the summit of Kanchenjunga after climbing his way into the history books.

It is a far cry from his early days when the former Northallerton Grammar schoolboy learned his trade on the 30ft outcrops of Scugdale on the North York Moors.

It was 1987 when he completed his first 8,000-metre climb, up the north face of Shisha Panguma, in China.

From that first ascent, the dangers he was exposing himself to became apparent. Climbing partner Steve Untch suffered severe frostbite as the pair bivouacked without a tent at 7,800m, and ended up having several toes amputated.

Seven years later, Steve died during an attempt on K2 - known as The Savage Mountain.

Undaunted, Alan successfully made it to the top of the world's second highest peak just a year after it claimed the life of his friend. Completing that climb at the third attempt, he still rates this, the fifth of his 14 climbs, as the hardest.

In 1996, Alan reached the highest point on Earth when he conquered Everest, the first of three 8,000-metre peaks that year.

Each one of the peaks represents a remarkable risk. It takes Alan about a month to trek to base camp and get used to the altitude. Then, once a weather window presents itself, it takes about three days to climb to the summit.

The slopes above 6,500-metres are known as the Death Zone - where the air is so thin no helicopter can fly, no rescue party can reach and there is no going back.

Or, as Alan says: "Above 8,000 feet, there is nothing anyone can do."

Sleep is impossible, and the cold - which plummets to minus 40C - can freeze fingers and toes solid.

After putting so much effort into reaching the summit, Alan spends less than 15 minutes at the top of the mountain because of the dangers presented by the altitude. He takes just enough time to take out the photograph of daughter Fiona and grandson Jay, then makes his perilous descent back towards base camp before exhaustion and cold numb the senses and force a potentially deadly slip.

Although he is known in the mountaineering trade as a cautious climber, Alan has had his fair share of brushes with death.

Having survived avalanches and rockfall, his darkest hour came at the hands of a chapatti during his 1998 descent from Nanga Parbat, in Nepal. When the flour famously made him sneeze, he suffered a prolapsed disc in his back and he was left to crawl, in agony, for ten days to get off the mountain.

He suffered a further disaster in 2000 during his first attempt on Kanchenjunga, which straddles the border of India and Nepal.

The climb was defeated by heavy snowfalls and, as he made his way back, a snow bridge collapsed as he crossed, breaking his arm.

A second attempt on the peak in 2002 failed when he contracted a virus.

In March, he set off on his third attempt at the mountain which, at 28,169ft, is the third highest in the world.

"Most people who try to do all 14 get killed on the 13th or 14th," he told The Northern Echo before his departure.

"You have got to be prepared to turn back."

After a week in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, he flew to the edge of the kingdom before a two-week trek with a team of 30 porters to base camp to prepare for the ascent.

Once the climb started, the mountaineer was completely out of touch and all that his supporters could do was sit and wait.

Yesterday, that wait was finally over as the news came through in a phone call from Alan - the news that he had completed his remarkable challenge and earned a place in mountaineering history.