An 82-year-old man who decided to climb Scotland’s 282 Munros could claim a world record as the oldest person to complete the daunting challenge.
Nick Gardener decided to try and scale each of the peaks - which are all over 3,000ft - after his wife went into full-time care, and is now just days from reaching the final summit.
Nick, from Gairloch in the Highlands, said he was “knocked for six” when his wife of 50 years, Janet, had to be moved into a care home after developing Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis, becoming particularly upset when she stopped recognising him.
The grandfather of four set off into the hills to start the mammoth journey in July 2020, three months after his 80th birthday, to keep himself active. Now, two years later, Nick has just eight Munros left to bag.
“When Janet went into care it absolutely shattered me,” he said. “We were incredibly close as a couple, she was the most wonderful and caring wife, mother and grandmother possible, and now she doesn’t recognise me. I was heading into some mental condition, so I thought I have to get myself a challenge, to pull me out.”
Having never climbed a Munro, the former physics teacher gave himself 1,200 days - just over three years - to complete the challenge while raising money for Alzheimer Scotland along with the Royal Osteoporosis Society (ROS).
But, with his final summit planned for about two weeks’ time, Nick is on track to finish much earlier – in under 800 days. He said: “I am so close to completing it, I really feel like a child in the run up to Christmas. I have butterflies.”
Once he makes it to the finish line, Nick will have climbed more than 500,000ft (152,000m), the equivalent of scaling Mount Everest (8,848m) about 17 times, and walked an incredible 2,000 miles (3,218 km), a similar distance to hiking from Edinburgh to Greece.
One of his two daughters, Sally McKenzie, has nominated him to the Guinness Book of World Records for the oldest person to climb the Munros.
Nick joked that he will "probably cry" when he makes it to the end. He said he loves the feeling of being on the hillside, adding that given his age, he always has company when out climbing.
He said: “I am over 80, and I think it would be irresponsible to climb on my own at this age, so I always have people with me. I don’t climb in a rush, and after the first two or three Munros I just started stopping people on the hill to tell them what I was doing."
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