A man has raised over £2,000 for charity after a monumental hillwalking challenge which saw him attempt to scale every Munro, Munro Top and Island Corbett in Scotland over the course of four months.
Sam Brunswick, 23, set off on his journey in August 2024, finishing just before Christmas with 511 out of 519 peaks completed, having walked for more than 2,000km over the course of 788.5 hours in 122.5 days, with some stretches also done by mountain bike.
The aerospace engineering graduate and British Army reservist set up a fundraising page for his adventures, which has raised £2,115 for his three chosen charities- Scottish Mountain Rescue, Cancer Research UK and Help for Heroes.
Sam was born in Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire, and grew up in Portincaple, Argyll and Bute, before moving south to Lincolnshire at the age of 11.
However, he has always called Scotland home, and wanted to see more of the country before joining the Army full-time after serving in the Reserves for four years. He is expected to re-enter Sandhurst at the beginning of 2025.
He chose his three charities for personal reasons, after losing his gran to bowel cancer and seeing friends supported by Help for Heroes. He is also “continually humbled” by the selfless efforts of Scottish Mountain Rescue teams, and hopes to join his local team in the future.
Speaking to Scottish Mountain Rescue shortly after completing his challenge, Sam said: “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.”
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He settled on aiming to complete the Munros, Munro Tops and Island Corbetts, totalling 519 peaks. His original plan was to do them all in one go, but struggled to stay on schedule due to poor weather. Despite this, he finished as a “Munroist” and “Topist”.
Sam told the charity about the mental and physical challenges he faced, including the Cuillin Ridge Traverse, one of the most demanding and complicated climbs in the UK, which he took on alongside his dad, branding it a “huge effort”.
He continued: “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.”
Traversing the Fisherfield Six, Scotland’s most remote hills, was his biggest mental challenge, with poor conditions including thigh-deep snow.
He said: “After a four-hour 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.”
He brought his four-month expedition to an end on Ben Lomond, celebrating by playing the bagpipes surrounded by everyone who had supported him along the way.
With his military career in front of him, Sam is looking forward to taking advantage of the adventure opportunities it has to offer. When asked to give advice to others looking to do a similar trip, he encouraged people to make the most of their support network so they had people to lean on when they needed it most.
He stressed the importance of gaining experience beforehand, and knowledge from relevant books, mountaineering sites, maps and other walkers, as well as understanding the Scottish weather.
He added: “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.”
Sam’s fundraising page can be found here.
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