A woman quit her job and sold her house to start a "love affair" with the Great British outdoors.
Over the past five years Nicola Hardy has made a name for herself in the adventuring and hiking communities by taking on a series of increasingly impressive challenges.
During a six month period she climbed all 282 Munro mountains in Scotland with her partner James, scaling 100,000 metres in the process - 11 times the height of Mount Everest.
The 38-year-old walked from Sheffield hospital, her birthplace, to her to current home 330km away over a fortnight, clambered up all 214 Wainwright fells in the Lake District over seven weekends, and hiked 240km around the coast of the Isle of Mann.
These adventures are among many, many others that Nicola has taken on in the past five years in a bid to explore as much of the UK as possible and test her limits, despite growing up in a "not particularly outdoorsy" household.
For ten years Nicola worked in project, programme and records management, business analysis and software testing, without "ever really thinking about it" or "consciously choosing" her career path.
She told the Mirror: "I was spending a lot of time indoors, staring at computer screens and I was so tired when I finished work that sitting in front of the TV with a quick meal was the easiest way to spend my downtime.
"On and off throughout my young adult life I would fall in and out of love with running and going to the gym and short walks on a Sunday around a local reservoir was about as much outdoors time as I was getting.
"Before I knew it I was in my early thirties in a fairly senior management role in an organisation I’d invested over a decade of my life to and work was by far the biggest part of my life. It was where I was the most challenged and I definitely lived to work."
This all changed back in 2016 when Nicola started working with a colleague Matt who had an intense love for the outdoors and would travel between the national parks to hike up mountains.
His enthusiasm rubbed off on Nicola who joined him in organising some team-building trips to the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors, cajoling the other workers along with the promise of a pub stop at the end.
Later that year Matt and Nicola decided to extent a work trip to South Wales into a holiday of hiking up the Pen Y Fan horseshoe in the Brecon Beacons and the Cadair Idris in southern Snowdonia.
"We had the best time ever. I often look back at that week in April 2017 and wonder if it wasn’t for the fact the weather was perfect for that week if I’d still be doing what I’m doing now, but the weather gods were certainly looking down on me that week and I had a ball," Nicola said.
"It sparked something in me and from that point onwards I wanted to go higher, further and challenge myself."
The experience was such an intense one that Nicola realised she was no longer content in her job and so she quit, before selling her house so she could properly focus on adventuring.
"I was no longer happy for work to be my main focus. I pondered a career break, could I rent my house out and go on an adventure sabbatical?" she wondered.
"I could, but it would mean I’d have to come back to this same life in a year and I knew I’d outgrown it. So I took the ultimate plunge, I sold my house, quit my job and banked my hard earned savings and hit the road."
Nicola's first challenge was to hike the 282 Munro mountains of Scotland, all of which are over 914 metres and are spread across the Scottish highlands.
They’re named after British Mountaineer Sir Hugh Munro who compiled the list in the 1800s and have been hiked by more than 6,000 hill walkers.
Nicola particularly loved the task as it combined her two loves - hiking and recording data on spreadsheets.
While the challenge takes some people decades, she managed it in six months along with her partner James, travelling from mountain range to mountain range in their Ford Focus.
"Together we ventured out in all weathers, hiking both on well-trodden paths and over pathless, remote, unforgiving terrain which included river crossings," Nicola recalled.
"Most nights were spent sleeping under canvas with the odd hostel or Airbnb booking thrown in for an occasional treat. We hiked 95 routes which totalled over 2,000 km and we ascended over 100,000 metres of vertical ascent."
When Nicola got back from her trip she realised she could make a living telling stories of her adventures in magazines, speaking at outdoor festivals and working with brands like Komoot and Inov-8.
Among the many hikes that would follow, a Lake District fell walk of Low Fell and Fellbarrow is the one which has the fondest place in Nicola's heart.
"I love the view down Crummock Water to Buttermere from Low Fell. I've been up this hill with my partner, my best friends, my parents who are in their mid-60s, my nephews when they were six and six-years-old," she said.
"It holds so many special memories for me. My favourite long distance trail is the Cumbria Way - you can't beat walking through the Lake District from bottom to top! So many cafes and pubs to rest your weary feet."
On the long list of reasons why Nicola loves adventuring are the fact it wears her out so much she sleeps peacefully, it keeps her "in better shape" than she was in her 20s, and offers mental space to reflect on life.
"Even on the wettest of days, with my hood over my brow and my eyes on the ground, I see things that calm me," she continued.
"The rhythmic crunch of gravel as I take each step, birds singing, trees rustling, water droplets hitting puddles and creating the most perfect circle droplets. It’s all beautiful and calming, even on a poor weather day.
"The hardest thing to do is find the energy to get out there when you’re feeling down. But for me, it’s always worth it."
For those who might want to start challenging themselves with big adventures, Nicola recommends going on a training course to build confidence with navigation, use a route planning app like Komoot to help plan, and choose a personal route.
She recommends: "Pick two places that are special to you and walk between them. I walked my own pilgrimage from the hospital I was born at in Sheffield to my new home in west Cumbria.
"It was 330km and involved walking parts of the Pennine Way, Dales High Way and Coast 2 Coast and it was special to me because it symbolised my life journey and that made me more determined to do it."
