Читать книгу 8000 metres - Alan Hinkes - Страница 8

FOREWORD

What a privilege to write the foreword for a book by such a remarkable man as Alan Hinkes. How does one appraise such a character?

This book is a celebration. It is a tale of extraordinary courage and sustained and tenacious endeavour. Books about intrepid adventures and explorers have always fired my imagination and left me begging for more. Such people are our dreams made flesh and blood. Alan fits the bill perfectly; he is the personification of the spirit of adventure.

It is hard to envisage the vast scale of the Himalaya and Karakoram. This is a land of astonishing and gigantic mountains, most of them higher than any other peaks in the rest of the world and Alan Hinkes is the only Briton to summit the 14 highest, all above 8000m.

In 1996 I climbed with him on the north side of Everest and we actually enjoyed suffering together on that cold dangerous mountain where Mallory and Irvine disappeared. One evening I made my way down the Rongbuk Glacier and became enveloped in darkness on steep hazardous terrain. Fortunately Alan arrived behind me with a torch and painstakingly guided me down to safety and I am deeply grateful to him.

Many factors of awe-inspiring magnitude face those who seek adventure among the highest peaks: climbing difficulties and avalanches; vertical scale; climatic conditions; and frightful altitude problems! The brain has a well-known intolerance for lack of oxygen, mountain sickness with acute pulmonary and cerebral oedema being the major problems. On Everest I witnessed several deaths and permanent damage to body and brain as a result of anoxia. Driven and highly motivated, Alan subjected himself for extended periods to all of these risks. With supreme courage he coped with fatigue, cold, insomnia, diminished appetite and psychogenic stress. He transcended it all to the astonished admiration of both his fellow climbers and the nation.

His amazing photographs tell it all. The great white sweep of the Himalaya! A never-ending ocean of colossal resplendent mountains, blinding in their brilliance as they reach out to a cobalt blue sky. Alan writes as he talks, with passion and simplicity, building on a natural knack for storytelling. He conveys fantastic images of wild landscapes full of vast ridges, an array of colours, deep yawning crevasses and intimidating precipices.

People frequently ask me why climbers keep going from mountain to mountain. I am woefully unable to answer. I cannot fathom the innermost thoughts of the climbing fraternity. But one thing is certain – Alan does not have a death wish. Quite the contrary, he has a life wish. He has determination, an inner strength, a delightful sense of humour and a love of all that is worthwhile. I admire him for it.

The man is truly a legend! His staggering achievement is a clarion call to all who wish to fulfil their dreams. He bellows: ‘Nothing is impossible!’

I salute my fellow Yorkshireman.

BRIAN BLESSED

Camels in the Shaksgam River, 1994. This route, explored by Francis Younghusband in 1887, is a long and hazardous approach to the north side of K2 in China. Negotiating the flooded river in summer, when the vast, braided torrent covers most of the valley floor, carries a serious risk of being swept away.

Everest (left) and Cho Oyu (right) from the village of Tingri at 4300m on the Tibetan Plateau.