British Climber Names Remote Asian Mountain After His Daughter Fiona
2010-12-02 12:53:28.702 GMT


Dec. 2 (Telegraph) -- A leading British climber who became
the first person to scale a remote peak in Asia has named it
after his daughter.
Alan Hinkes, 56, conquered the then unnamed mountain alone
and without any ropes.
As a result, Mount Fiona, standing 5,300ft tall, is now on
the map in the former Soviet Republic of Kyrgyzstan.
Mr Hinkes, a former geography teacher who became the first
Briton to scale the world’s 14 highest peaks, took a picture of
Fiona, 26, to the summit, as he does with each mountain he
climbs.
He said: "I had been guiding an RAF expedition to climb four
new peaks and name them after fallen pilots but I fancied having
a crack at a fifth on my own.
"It was basically a rocky scramble with a few icy and snowy
bits. There were parts where I had to climb - it certainly wasn't
a walk - but it was relatively easy and took around seven hours.
"When I returned I asked one of the other climbers what it
should be called and he said I could call it what I liked as I
had climbed it lone. I automatically thought of my daughter so
Mount Fiona was born.”
In order to complete the 2008 trek, Mr Hinkes, from
Richmond, North Yorks, took a flight to Kazakhstan and then used
various methods of transport to reach the Tien Shan range.
He added: “I always have a picture of (Fiona) with me when I
climb. I thought it was much better to have my family with me
than be jingoistic and put a flag up.
“It focuses my mind and makes me think about dying or
getting killed for selfish reasons. "I think she is quite
flattered and has told me since that she wants to go and see it,
but the fact it is so remote is takes about three weeks to get
there means that could be a problem. But you never know."
Fiona, who has two children of her own, said: "I couldn't
believe that in this day and age there were mountains that didn't
have names, so when I found out what my Dad had done I was really
surprised and incredibly amazed. I was really flattered, proud
and felt honoured too.”
Mr Hinkes said that any mountain without a name can be given
a moniker as long as the country's authorities do not object. He
was told recently that Mount Fiona was now officially on the map.
The climber revealed that his next challenge would be to
find two more remote mountains and name them after his
grandchildren, Jay, seven and Mia, three.
In 1997, an attempt to become the first person to conquer
six of the world's 14 great summits in one season ended when he
suffered a slipped disc sneezing and had to be airlifted off the
mountain.
He was resting during an ascent of Nanga Parbat in Pakistan
when flour from a chapati he was eating got up his nose.
Mr Hinkes, who was awarded an OBE in 2006 for his climbing
achievements, is also a motivational speaker.

I read in some book (I think it was a John Roskelly book) that the first climbers to visit the Trango Towers region of Pakistan asked their local guide the names of various peaks. The peaks had no names but the guide did not want to dissapoint his clients so he just pulled names out of his ass, naming peaks after family members, a shampoo brand (because the shape of the tower reminded him of the shape of the shampoo bottle), a skinny chicken (Uli Biahoo if I recall correctly) and the and names stuck.

ExcitibleBoy wrote: ... asked their local guide the names of various peaks. The peaks had no names...

Yep. Unlike in the Nepal Himalaya, locals don't live that far into the big mountains because it's so dry and gnarly they can't graze their animals or do anything else useful in there, so they hardly ever went in there. It's one reason why K2 never got another name, and 'Chogori' was just made up relatively recently, for similar reasons to what you've said. It has no significant heritage, despite what the Chinese say. When foreigners started coming to K2, obsessed, the locals got a bit mixed up and when asked, referred to all other mountains as 'kay-too' as well, because that's what they thought big snowy mountains were. There were kay-toos here there and everywhere for a short time, but things got named pretty quickly. Still better than the Italians, who have a history of going there and naming peaks after foodstuffs from home ...