Alan Hinkes will deliver the lecture on the society's 10th anniversary

Britain’s only mountaineer to have summited the word’s 14 highest peaks will give a lecture marking the 10th anniversary of the formation of the Wainwright Society.

Alan Hinkes will deliver this year’s Wainwright Memorial Lecture 10 years on from the date of the founding of the society devoted to the author’s works.

The late curmudgeonly author was famed for his series of Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells, and his Coast to Coast Walk which is now tackled by thousands of walkers each year.

Alan Hinkes is the only Briton to have climbed all the world’s 8,000m mountains. The Northallerton-based climber is also a keen fellwalker.

The founding by Wainwright aficionados of the society bearing his name also took place on the 50th anniversary of his producing the first page of his series of pictorial guides in 1952.

The lecture, at the Rheged Centre near Penrith, will take place on 9 November and will be preceded by a display of drawings and other artefacts from the Wainwright Archive, which is housed at the Cumbria Archive Centre in Kendal.

Alan Hinkes in ice-climbing action. Photo: Alan Hinkes

Previous lecturers in the Wainwright memorial series have included his biographer Hunter Davies, Scottish journalist and broadcaster Cameron McNeish and Derry Brabbs, whose photographs appear in Wainwright’s later ‘coffee table’ books.

Alan Hinkes began his mountaineering career whilst at Northallerton Grammar School in North Yorkshire. He progressed to ascents in the Alps, including the North Face of the Eiger, before graduating to the Himalayan peaks.

He was appointed an OBE in the 2006 New Year’s Honours. He is an Honorary Citizen of his home town and is involved in charitable work for Water Aid, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and mountain rescue. He also works closely with the British Mountaineering Council.

Tickets for the lecture cost £15 or £8 for Wainwright Society members and are available direct from Rheged.