The risk of death is high, and the risk of failure is higher still, but is it all worth it when you're at the summit?

Alan Hinkes was the first British mountaineer to climb all 14 of the world's 'eight-thousanders'. The eight-thousanders are mountains with an elevation of more than 8,000 feet, and the death rate among climbers who attempt them is high. Hinkes had to abandon his ascent of K2 to help another mountain climber in trouble, and in 1997 Hinkes himself had to be rescued by helicopter while climbing Nanga Parbat because some burnt chapati flour got up his nose, made him sneeze, and caused him to slip a disc. He claims that people now remember him as 'the chapati man.'

Mountaineer Alan Hinkes is trying to climb all of the world's peaks that are over 8,000 metres high. Since 1987, Yorkshire-born Hinkes has conquered 11 of the 14 giant 8,000-metre-plus mountains. In 2000, hoping to bag his twelfth big hill, Hinkes headed for the most easterly part of Nepal to Kangchenjunga, whose 8,586-metre summit makes it the third highest on Earth.