Charity challenge was HILLuva tough
Shop worker Greg smashes five Munros in a day
A Blackridge man has become king of the mountains after conquering five of Scotland’s highest summits.
Greg Robertson, 25, took on the five Munros - all over 3000ft tall - to raise money for the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society (SANDS) Lothian.
He and friend Andy Stewart travelled to Loch Tay in the Highlands to climb Beinn Ghlas ( 3618ft), Meall Garbh (3368ft), Meall Greigh (3284ft) and An Stuck (3367ft).
And Greg also scaled the tenth highest of all 282 Munros in the country, Ben Lawers, which measures 3982ft.
Despite high winds, heavy rain and poor visibility, he completed all of the climbs in six hours and 26 minutes.
Marks and Spencer worker Greg, said: “The work picks a store charity every year and this time we picked SANDS Lothian.
“My fiance and I are blessed to have been able to have two children so I thought ‘I need to do this’.
“The store was looking for ideas and I decided to go for a Munro challenge. I went with the idea of climbing three Munros and I set myself a target of eight hours.
“We set up at 5am and started the first at 7.30am. The wind was howling and the rain was pelting down but we got up the first one, Beinn Ghlas, within an hour.
“We climbed that one at 1000m and for each one I had to drop about four or 500 metres to come back up again.
“We then got to Ben Lawers, which was the highest at 1,214m. We climbed that and I think we were just that numb with pain that we kept going.
“Before we knew it we had got up five Munros.”
Greg admitted he was shocked to have been able to climb five of the peaks after only ever being able to do one per day before.
He said: I’ve completed Ben Lomond and the Cobbler - which is 100m short of being a Munro.
“There were a couple of areas that I was scrambling up and they were quite steep on the way down too with rocky edges.
“When you started to go down it was a relief on the legs but as soon as the incline started the legs started hurting instantly.”
SANDS Lothian provides support for parents who have lost children at birth and the money will go towards maintaining that service.
Greg added: “Everybody from Marks and Spencer in Livingston was over the moon and we raised over £250 through staff donations.
“We’re in the process of collecting all the money from the sponsor sheet. The store will tell them how much we’ve raised and we’ll present it to SANDS at the end of the year.
“It’s something close to home and when you’ve got kids and it’s a charity like that you just have to do it to give back to those less fortunate.”