Challenge 8000 -
The Makalu Diaries
Wednesday 9 June
1999
BRITISH MOUNTAINEER ALAN HINKES IN HOTEL
FIRE DRAMA IN KATHMANDU
British mountaineer Alan Hinkes has been
caught up in a dramatic fire at his hotel,
Hotel Vhaishali, in Kathmandu, Nepal, in
the early hours of the morning of Wednesday
9 June.
Only hours away from his flight back to
the UK, Alan Hinkes, who summited Makalu,
the fifth highest mountain in the world
at the end of May, made a lucky escape from
the hotel as it was rapidly engulfed in
flames.
"I was woken by the smoke and cries
of 'fire'", declared Alan. " At
first I thought it was just a small fire
and I got my camera out to take a few pictures.
Then I realised that it was very serious
and that the whole hotel was going down.
I dashed back into the hotel to rescue my
photos of me on the summit of Makalu. These
photos are invaluable to me and I risked
the smoke and flames to go back in. All
of my bags were packed ready to return to
the UK and I managed to get everything outside
without any loss or injury."
"It appears that the fire broke out
sometime after 1am local time, possibly
in a lift shaft," continued Alan, "and
spread very rapidly throughout the hotel.
The fire brigade arrived quickly and they
seem to have put the fire out, but by 2am
they had disappeared and the building still
appears to be smouldering."
Alan, who is the UK's top high-altitude
mountaineer, has just survived the rigours
of climbing one of the highest mountains
in the world. He overcame poor weather conditions,
avalanche and rock dangers, high winds and
temperatures which reached minus 40oC to
climb Makalu, which he summited on 23 May
1999.
Alan is attempting one of the toughest challenges
for a mountaineer, to climb the fourteen
mountains in the world which are over 8000
metres in height. So far he has climbed
eleven of these mountains including Everest
and K2. Only six other people have succeeded
in climbing all fourteen and Alan intends
to be the first British mountaineer to climb
all of them.
Despite the fire, he still plans to catch
his flight back to the UK today and will
be attending two press conferences on his
return to give further details of his expedition
and the various incidents which have befallen
him both on and off the mountain.
