In an emergency call 999 and ask for Police then Mountain Rescue
On a bright day in August last year, 23 year old Sam Brunswick set out on an epic journey.
His quest – to summit every Munro, Munro top, and island Corbett before Christmas.
After 4 months of continuous walking, and with 511 peaks summited, Sam’s challenge concluded triumphantly on a wild winter’s day in mid-December. The bagpipes sounded out across Loch Lomond, and Sam’s supporters rejoiced in his monumental achievement!
Though Sam had ‘compleated’ his round of Munros solo a few days prior – in spectacular snowy weather in Knoydart – he chose to officially finish the challenge surrounded by family and friends on the slopes of Ben Lomond to celebrate in the company of those who had supported him along the way.
Image: Sam and his Mum atop Gairich
In total, Sam raised over £2,000 for his three chosen charities, including Scottish Mountain Rescue.
With 3 out of 5 rescues funded by donations and fundraising, Sam’s incredible efforts make a huge difference, helping our volunteers respond to emergencies across Scotland whenever they’re needed.
Sam kindly shared some statistics from his trip, which we found fascinating to pour through!
Image: Sam and his best friend Jonty on their way to do the Glenfinnan Munros
We are incredibly grateful to Sam, and thrilled to share that he has raised over £700 for our Mountain Rescue volunteers!
Shortly after completing his epic 4 month-long challenge, we caught up with Sam to learn more about his journey and his decision to support Mountain Rescue.
I’m a 23 year old graduate from Swansea university with a master’s in aerospace engineering and I managed to get the summer mountain leader qualification through the Army Reserve whilst at uni.
Born in Alexandria (Balloch) and raised on Loch Long (Portincaple), Scotland has always been my home despite moving South to Lincolnshire as an 11 year old. Having grown up with the outdoors at my fingertips and having adventurous parents, I was able to develop a lot of skills down south, particularly climbing. After moving to Swansea, I lived life spending more time up a hill, on a crag or in a kayak than in lectures but it was worth it! To this day, I’m still out and about on many a journey and may it never end!
The mountain rescue teams in any country are such fantastic people and I’m continually humbled by their selfless commitment to aiding or saving others. The teams in Scotland are another kettle of fish in my opinion, it’s a beautifully brutal place at times and the teams are real heroes for going out in all weathers to do their best. One day down the line I will certainly try to be a part of my local team (wherever I am) but in the meantime, the least I felt I could do is raise money for SMR alongside campaigns for Cancer Research UK and Help for Heroes. Finishing the challenge with £2115 raised across the three charities was just fantastic.
Image: Sam’s views from a summit camp, early in his challenge
I think the background to this question is quite important so apologies in advance for the lengthy answer…
I’ve never had more than a month in my (albeit short) life where nobody has needed me for anything. There have been some awesome singular months (West coast of states and Canada was a highlight) but singular months nonetheless. Having left school straight to university for 5 years and being in the Army Reserve as part of the Corps of Royal Engineers throughout, my spare time at uni has been gobbled up with courses, exercises and my own wee adventures between it all. Having decided to go full time in the British Army after graduating, I asked for an extension so that I could re-enter Sandhurst in January 2025 compared to a rushed September 2024 start. To be granted this extension, I needed to present a plan of self development through a journey – very much gap year style ideas. Whilst a gap year is very individual, it’s safe to say that the popular months in the far East wasn’t what I was after.
My original plan was to sea kayak around Ireland’s rugged coast – something that is still very much on my to-do list! However, with a likely completion time of 40ish days, it simply wasn’t big enough to justify the extension, and so I landed upon Scotland…
Image: Meall Buidhe Knoydart SE Top – Sam’s last Munro Top to compleat
There was some tossing and turning about doing just Munros or Munros and Tops but the core purpose (asides raising money for charity) has been for me to see the country I call home. For that reason and because I enjoy a challenge, I eventually settled on the 282 Munros, 226 Munro Tops and 11 island Corbetts which would enable me to have some mega days out and see as much of home as possible through 519 peaks. The plan had always been to do it in a ‘one-er’ counting no previous summits but in the end the weather had the last laugh and due to some good luck and reasonable planning, I finished as a Munroist and ‘Topist’ but fell 2 days of walking short on compleating everything in one go.
Physically, nothing. I’d read a blog sometime back in April during my exam procrastination when I did much of the planning for the trip. The blog was of two middle aged lads who did something similar but just for the Munros and they commented on how their fitness just built with doing more and more hills. I think it’s key to point out that this has only worked well as I started injury free and generally fit, if I’d had any niggles, I’d have never got as far as I did.
Mentally, a lot. I went through stages of utter shock at the number of peaks to summit turning to absolute calm, ‘its just some hills’. I think where my mental preparation went well was my route planning. Again during exam procrastination I was sat on my bed for 5 days straight going through the SMC Munro book, Harvey’s Munro book and OS maps creating a route map for each and every day. The idea being that I could simply select the route for the day from my virtual library and know that it was well thought out. Originally I had intended to print these, as a paper map and compass is my go to navigation setup. However, I quickly found that having the route on my phone and a paper 1:50k of the area was plenty. I have a brick of a phone with a 10000maHr battery which survives constant use in all weathers for 4 days minimum, if I’d had anything else, I think this wouldn’t have worked. So much so, that early on for many of the single days, I’d just take the phone and a compass, a decision many will argue about, understandably so, but it reliably worked for 100+ days for me along with my prior experience. I always had a paper map for any campout/multiday expeditions.
(A small note here: While we’re glad that this worked out for Sam, we would always recommend having a map and compass for navigation in Scotland’s mountains).
With the route plans sorted I think it allowed my mind to picture success and see how I could get to the finish line!
The most physically challenging and most memorable days are clear. The 2 day Cuillin Ridge Expeditionary Style Traverse (CREST). As a climber and scrambler with much recent experience and my less current but very wise Dad, this two day traverse was hot (early September heatwave) and a huge effort. Many days go by where I still can’t believe we did it for the first time with no prior Cuillin experience – a credit to Adrian Trendall’s traverse guide books.
The most mentally challenging days are not so clear. Having completed just over 70% of the hills on my own, the mental battle has been much harder than the physical. Early on in the trip I got scared of being so remote and so alone at times. Later, the clear winner is my attempt at the Fisherfield 6. These are our most remote hills and the amount of snow that had been on the Fannichs the day before was manageable but sadly not consistent with what was in the Fisherfields. The Fisherfields smacked me round the face with mid thigh deep snow toward the top which I hadn’t expected. After a 4hr slog just to get to summit of the first peak things weren’t looking good and after the dicey crossing to the next hill, I was mentally and physically done. Full on emotional breakdown ensued but thanks to some wise words from Dad (there’s always 4G at the summit!) then a rapid descent to Carnmore shelter prevented any further situation arising.
There’s plenty more excellent and difficult days to pick from but I think these are good highlights!
My next journey is my career in the British Army. The military is very good at encouraging adventurous training and I plan to continue to exploit the opportunities. Key items on the ‘to-do’ list:
Image: Sam’s ‘parking spot’ after kayaking the length of Loch Mullardoch to do the West Mullardoch Munros
I’ve been lucky throughout to have a fantastic support network in friends and family and it’s been vital to success and has made many hills more enjoyable.
“It’s a gift to go up the hills but it’s a joy to share the day with someone else.”
I’d simply say that you should make sure you have this strong network to lean on when you need it most.
Image: Sam and his Dad towards the end of day 1 completing the Cuillin Ridge Expeditionary Style Traverse
You also need to back yourself. But to back yourself, you need to know what’s going on – get experience (being a Summer Mountain Leader has really helped me, along with my climbing/scrambling experience). Get your head in any and all books, WalkHighlands, mapping, other walkers, and get her as much knowledge as you can. Understand Scotland’s weather systems also. It’s worked really well for me and I’d have seen a lot less and been a lot wetter if I didn’t go where the weather was likely to be best.
Nonetheless, at the end of the day, you can do all the prep in the world but you just don’t know until you get up there, that’s one of the joys of it and it makes the journey much more of the centrepiece than the start/finish.
When it comes to kit/equipment/van, start with what you’ve got and build from there. My van had absolutely no work done to it (apart from coat hooks) so paying 1000s for camper renovations is certainly not needed.
On behalf of our 26 Mountain Rescue Teams and their 850 volunteers, thank you, Sam, for taking on this tremendous challenge to support us. The huge amount you have fundraised through your hard work and dedication will power our Mountain Rescue Teams – allowing us to continue our vital work, and bring injured mountaineers home to their families.
Image: Sam compleates the Munros on Sgurr Mor