UKH

Brilliant news that Nick Gardner completed his round of the Munros on Cairngorm yesterday at the age 82. A labour of love for him and a fantastic achievement, he started the round only a couple of years ago when he was 80.

I'm sure quite a few people on here will have run into him on the hills somewhere. A lovely guy and very good company. There's a nice clip of him arriving at the summit on the BBC page. The only bit of the article that is, to the best of my knowledge inaccurate is that he'd never done any Munros previously. I'm certain he was already a seasoned walker but tended to walk the hills near his home in Aultbea, and had many traverses of An Teallach under his belt.

Anyway, great story, warms the cockles. Chapeau Nick.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-62510392?at_custom...

Link to his Justgiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/team/nicks-munro-challenge

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/nicks.munro.challenge/?hl=en

It would be nice if UKC/UKH got an interview with him.

A fine effort in a good cause, as you say. Re the "no previous Munros" thing, that has struck me as odd for a while - it's been said repeatedly in various pieces of late (BBC, Guardian etc) and although I don't know Nick I was sure I'd seen previous reference to lots of Scottish hill experience, just no actual round of Munros until now. So I had a rummage and found this profile piece from this parish last year:

https://www.ukhillwalking.com/articles/features/nick_gardner_aiming_for_all...

That mentions three Cuillin ridge traverses and - as you suggest, lots of An Teallach days (around 100). So goodness knows where the no previous Munros thing has come from - perhaps some crossed wires on the PR / social media side of things, or maybe just another example of the significant and ongoing problem of organisations such as the BBC and the Guardian having got rid of loads of their subeditors with the result that all sorts of mistakes leak through when previously they would have been nabbed. (I say that as an ex-sub...)

Anyway, excellent effort by the man concerned and his support team.

Ah, thanks Dave. I'm not surprised that Dan has already got in there. Yes, it seems he has been a mountaineer of some form for most of his life, which is what I thought, though can't recall where I'd got it from.

Hats off to Nick! A lovely man, and I'm really pleased he's finished. 

I couldn't make it to see him on his last Munro on Saturday but hope to catch up with him soon for a debrief. 

It really is an extraordinary achievement to have started them aged over 80 and to have then completed them so quickly; something I suspect very, very few would be physically capable of.

I suspect the media confused his "clean slate" with never having been up a Munro before.

A splendid acheivement and one that puts many people, half his age, to shame. Well done sir.

Nick, despite his looks, is a very fit and seasoned climber  and  mountaineer, and obviously  living  close to Torridon would  have  inadvertently climbed the odd Munro or two. His  challenge was to climb all the peaks starting  at the age of 80, which  he completed in great style on Saturday, surrownded by friends and  family, and  complete  strangers. His  knowledge of An Teallach is  second to none  and  although  he  has been very busy  over the years, he  has indeed  summited An Teallach (usually over the Pinnacles),  well over a 100 times. I too would  recommend an interview with him, and maybe  some  lucky  journalist/ climber would be guided up his  favourite mountain, for a  once in a lifetime experience, as I have on a couple of occasions.  Well done Nick! 

Short video here worth watching:

https://vimeo.com/715518095/7abb2d34ea 

Lovely, thanks for sharing that.