An 82-year-old man said he felt “like a kid on Christmas Eve” when he set out to climb the final peak in his quest to climb every Scottish Munro.
Nick Gardner took on the challenge in a bid to raise funds for Alzheimer’s Scotland and the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS) after his wife Janet, 84, who has since moved into a care home, developed both conditions.
The grandfather-of-four set out in July 2020 to begin his impressive feat of climbing the country’s 282 highest peaks, and on Saturday he was destined to tackle his final Munro, Cairn Gorm.
“I’m really fully fit and very excited to have completed the final Munro,” Gardner, from Gairloch in the north-west Scottish Highlands, told the PA news agency.
“I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve. There will be a lot of my friends and some of my family joining me so it’s going to be a big day.’
Gardner, who describes himself as an “experienced walker and climber” on his JustGiving page, had never climbed a Munro before.
The Munros, named after mountaineer Sir Hugh Munro, are Scottish mountains over 3,000 feet (914 meters) above sea level.
Nick Gardner is hugged by his daughter Sally McKenzie after reaching the summit of Cairn Gorm. Photo: Jane Barlow/Pennsylvania
Gardner, a former physics teacher, will have climbed more than 152,000 meters by the end of his challenge – the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest (8,848 metres) about 17 times.
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He would have traveled an astonishing 2,000 miles, a similar distance to the passage between Edinburgh and Greece.
After making headlines with his impressive feat, he also surpassed his £50,000 target for the charities, raising £59,640 as of Saturday afternoon.
Before the final hurdle of his mammoth challenge, Gardner said: “I guess it’s going to be very emotional to do that last climb.”
He added that after being “hit for six” when Janet had to be moved into care, the challenge kept him from having a mental breakdown.
Staff and volunteers from Alzheimer Scotland and ROS were due to join Gardner for the final climb, as were his two daughters, four grandchildren and some friends.
A piper was arranged to play at the top when the band arrived.
Gardner’s daughter, Sally McKenzie, nominated him in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest person to climb the Munros.
Having completed seven Munros in 10 days before his latest challenge, Gardner said on Saturday he was looking forward to giving his knees a break.
“The last three days at Knoydart that I did were really tough,” he said. “As I had already organized this last day and people to join me, I just had to go ahead and I did. I haven’t had any injuries, but my knees are certainly tired. It will be good to give them a break.”
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