He drinks and reaches the summit with hesitation (5)
I believe the answer is:
toper
'he drinks and reaches' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'summit with hesitation' is the wordplay.
'summit' becomes 'top' (synonyms).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'hesitation' becomes 'er' (sound used when hesitating).
'top'+'er'='TOPER'
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for toper that I've seen before include "Someone with a drink problem" , "Trope for habitual drinker" , "Drinker, imbiber" , "One who drinks to excess" , "Regular drinker" .)