NORTH-East mountaineer Alan Hinkes has announced the next instalment of his bid to become the first Brit to climb all 14 of the world's highest mountains.

Alan is flying to the Himalayas later this week to tackle Annapurna - at 8,091m high, one of 14 8,000m-plus summits in the world - which he hopes to conquer by May.

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.

Since 1987, Alan has climbed 11 of the peaks, leaving only Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and Kangchenjunga to summit.

All the peaks are in what mountaineers call the Death Zone - an unforgiving environment where the body rapidly deteriorates and no-one can survive for more than a few days.

Annapurna, like its fellow 8,000m peaks, is a dangerous proposition, but one Alan feels confident of conquering.

The Northallerton, North Yorkshire-born climber, who now works for Berghaus, said: "Annapurna is notorious for avalanches and huge seracs - or ice cliffs - which break off and engulf the exposed mountain slopes.

"My plan is to minimise 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's scrapes with perils large and small are well documented. He narrowly escaped a lonely death after he plunged into a crevasse while climbing the world's third highest peak, Kangchenjunga, in the Himalayas.

He called off an assault on a Pakistani peak after sneezing on chapati flour, and on a previous expedition in Nepal he slipped on a leaf on a muddy path, impaling his thigh on a bamboo shoot.