Alan Hinkes helping young would-be mountaineers

Mountaineer Alan Hinkes will receive an honorary doctorate from his local university next month.

The first Briton to conquer all the world’s 8,000m peaks will be made a Doctor of Professional Studies at the University of Teesside. Hinkes lives in Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

The honorary degree will be conferred by the Teesside Chancellor, Lord Sawyer of Darlington, in a ceremony on 21 November.

Hinkes already holds an honorary doctorate from the University of York and an honorary fellowship from Sunderland University.

In May this year, he was appointed patron of North Yorkshire’s outdoor education service, which he praised for nurturing his interest in the outdoors and climbing.

His ascent of Kangchenjunga in 2005 made him the first in his country to summit the 14 highest mountains in the world, all over 8,000m, though his achievement was tarnished by a claims by some mountain statisticians that he never made it to the actual summit of Cho Oyu in appalling weather in 1990.

He broke an arm in an aborted earlier attempt on Kangchenjunga in 2000 and famously had to abandon an ascent of Nanga Parbat when he ricked his back after sneezing on chappati flour.

The 54-year-old mountaineer was awarded an OBE in the 2006 New Year’s Honours List.

Coronation Street actor Thelma Barlow – Mavis Riley in the series – will also be made an honorary Doctor of Letters.