Challenge 8000 -
Mountain Film Festival Award
MOUNTAINEER ALAN HINKES TV DOCUMENTARY
WINS AWARD AT FILM FESTIVAL
The TV Documentary "Back to the Killer
Mountain", which was filmed by the
UK's top high altitude mountaineer Alan
Hinkes for Tyne Tees TV, has won the Best
Mountaineering Film award at the Kendal
Mountain Film Festival.
"Back to the Killer Mountain"
is the story of Alan Hinkes' fourth and
successful attempt to climb Nanga Parbat,
which means Naked Peak, in North Pakistan.
Alan scaled the 8125m peak, the world's
ninth highest mountain on the only day in
1998 when the weather conditions were favourable
for a safe ascent. Alan hit the headlines
in 1997 attempting Nanga Parbat, when he
sneezed on some chapati flour and slipped
a disc. He lay in agony on the mountain
for ten days before dragging himself down
slightly lower to a
height where a helicopter could rescue him
and take him to hospital. He made a full
recovery and returned in 1998 to complete
the climb. The Documentary relates his experiences
and feelings on returning to Nanga Parbat
dubbed the 'Killer Mountain' due to the
high number of fatalities.
Alan is an accomplished cameraman and carried
out almost all of the filming for the documentary,
including on the summit. The programme was
directed by David Thomasson and broadcast
by Tyne Tees TV on 10 August 1999.
"I am delighted that the Documentary
has received this award," commented
Alan Hinkes. "When I am on the mountain
all of my energy goes into climbing and
surviving in the high altitude conditions
known my mountaineers as the death zone.
To film when I am debilitated and exhausted
can be an enormous effort. But I know how
important the images are to convey the drama,
danger and excitment of the mountains to
other people and so I make that extra effort.
It is very gratifying to receive an award
and my thanks must go to David Thomasson
and Tyne Tees TV for helping to put the
documentary together."
The Kendal Mountain Film Festival attracts
film entries from around the world in climbing
and adventure sports. The judges were TV
Director Jonathan Glazier (who works on
"Gladiators" and "Don't Try
This At Home"), Paul Pritchard, author
and climber, Audrey Salkeld, writer and
climbing commentator, Bernadette MacDonald,
Director of the Canadian Banff Mountain
Film Festival and Roger Payne, secretary
of the British Mountaineering Council.
