The Retired Bagger

It wasn’t until Norman Wares was 62 and retired that he caught the hill-bagging bug. In 2006 he joined Nevis Hillwalking Club, based in Fort William, and ticked off more than 250 Munros to complete his first round in August, 2008.

By this point, he had climbed 97 Munro Tops and he spent the next couple of years finishing these subsidiary summits.

By July 2011, Norman, of Crieff, Perthshire, had finished his next list, the 34 Furths.

He says: “At this stage, I’d climbed only 12 Corbetts, so I spent 2012 to 2014 walking the remainder.

“I was 70 and I considered the next

SMC list – the Grahams – but I thought it might be too onerous so instead

I focused on the Donalds and

Donald Tops in 2015.

“I felt fortunate because my health and fitness remained very good so I then decided to have a go at the Grahams after all. I completed on the summit of Druim na Sgriodain on September 17, 2017 and became the 48th person to log a Full House with the SMC.”

Being a self-confessed lists addict, Norman’s Full House completion also coincided with a few other personal records. He said, “Having become aware of other hill lists, such as the Marilyns (all UK summits with a prominence of 150 metres or 492ft), the Humps (Hundred Metre Prominence) and Tumps (Thirty Metre Prominence), I engineered that as I completed the Full House, Druim na Sgriodain would be my 1000th Marilyn, my 1200th Hump, and my 2000th Tump. I am eccentric!”

Now 74, Norman continues to bag Marilyns and he is an enthusiastic member of the Relative Hills Society. He said, “I couldn’t be without a list. Having a list of hills drives me on and gives me a reason to walk new hills. One list leads to another to another. “The hills have taken me to some fantastic places and as the lists develop, you go to even more places that you never would have done so if you weren’t bagging hills.”