In reply to Removed User:
> I bet Alan Hinkes is in bother.
Well, whether he cared or not, Hinkes was always off any 'official' list of 14x8K finishers, because Hawley never validated his Cho Oyu summit. Back then there were issues with people stopping on the plateau, not quite making the bump that is (allegedly) the actual top.
With the passing of the years (and as one of the people mentioned in that article above for related writings) I reckon Hinkes got a bum deal. Without getting into the whole Manaslu thing, which I'm done with, other climbers who were unsure about where they were on Cho Oyu, or admitted they didn't stand on that particular bump, still had their summit accepted by Ms Hawley. Denis Urubko and his mate are a notable example of that, after their incredible (insane?) new route up the south face, they 'summited' in the dark, in poor viz, and Denis freely admitted they weren't sure they were on top.
Only recently with Jurgalski's 'shrink list' of revised 14x8K finishers, has Denis' Cho Oyu summit been set aside. So I think Hinkes deserves to feel dudded, if he does, as I'm sure many guided clients and Sherpas never made it to the 'right' bump up there either. As we found with Manaslu, the legendary sharpness of Ms H was not sharp for everything, it depended, and there are plenty of gaps and errors in the HDB records.
Anyway, that article linked above is an excellent summary of the scene as it has become in recent years, and does a good job of explaining why all these issues matter, at least in a climbing sense.
