An 82-year-old man mentioned he's "prepared and really excited" to scale the ultimate peak in his mission to climb all of Scotland's Munros.
Nick Gardner has made headlines for setting himself the problem to scale the nation's 282 highest peaks since his spouse Janet, 84, was moved right into a care residence after creating Alzheimer's illness and osteoporosis. The grandfather-of-four, from Gairloch, within the north-western Scottish Highlands, set off into the hills in July 2020 to start his spectacular feat.
Now, simply over two years later, he's about to embark on a bid to bag his last Munro - Cairn Gorm. Talking to the PA information company forward of his climb on Saturday, Mr Gardner mentioned: "I actually am completely prepared and really enthusiastic about ending the ultimate Munro.
"I actually really feel like a toddler on Christmas eve.
"There will likely be a variety of my associates and a few of my household becoming a member of me, so it will be an enormous day."
Having by no means climbed a Munro earlier than - a Scottish mountain that reaches a minimal of three,000ft (914.4m) - the previous physics instructor, by the top of his problem, can have climbed greater than 500,000ft (152,000m), the equal of scaling Mount Everest (8,848m) about 17 instances, and walked an unbelievable 2,000 miles (3,218 km), a distance just like mountain climbing from Edinburgh to Greece.
Spreading the phrase about his mission alongside the way in which, the skilled climber has raised greater than £50,000 for Alzheimer's Scotland and the Royal Osteoporosis Society.
Employees and volunteers from each charities will likely be becoming a member of him for the ultimate climb, in addition to associates and his two daughters and 4 grandchildren.
A piper has been organized to play on the summit.
Certainly one of his two daughters, Sally McKenzie, has nominated him to Guinness World Data for the oldest particular person to climb the Munros.
Having accomplished seven Munros within the final 10 days alone, Mr Gardner mentioned he's trying ahead to giving his knees a relaxation after he has reached the ultimate summit.
"The final three in Knoydart that I did had been actually powerful," he mentioned.
"We sadly had unhealthy climate for Ladhar Bheinn, so it was a bit more difficult.
"As a result of I had already organised this last day, and for folks to hitch me, I simply needed to push on by, and I made it.
"I've had no accidents, however my knees are definitely drained. It is going to be good to offer them a relaxation."
Talking about how he feels being hours from finishing the epic problem, he added: "It's going to in all probability be an anti-climax on the finish of all of it.
"Doing this last climb, I think about, goes to be very emotional."
Mr Gardner mentioned he was "knocked for six" when his spouse Janet, needed to be moved right into a care residence.
Feeling getting ready to a psychological breakdown, he mentioned he wanted to discover a problem to maintain him going.
Having at all times felt at residence on the mountain facet, he set off to bag all of Scotland's Munros.
To donate to Mr Gardner's trigger, go to www.justgiving.com/crew/nicks-munro-challenge.
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