MEET OUR FIRST CENTURION!
The first person to officially tick off every peak on our Trail 100 bucket list is Trail’s very own photographer Tom Bailey! So, who’s going to join him this summer?
It was never supposed to be an inside job. When we first launched the Trai● 100 back in 2007, we never expected the first person to complete it to work at this magazine. After all, this is our definitive list of the 100 very best mountains to climb in the UK. And since we spend so much time sitting at our desks writing about them while you lot are out there climbing them, we expected a glut of readers to tick them all off before we got anywhere near it.
But we underestimated the powers of our photographer Tom Bailey, who’s not only worked at Trai● for over 20 years, but also spends his weekdays travelling all over the UK, climbing hills and taking the photos that have illuminated the pages of this magazine for as long as many of you have been reading it.
Tom started last year on a grand total of 98 Trai● 100 peaks, bagged Foinaven in the farnorth of Scotland in February 2020 to move to within one of the century, and then Covid lockdown No.1 hit. But last week a Whatsapp message bounced into Trai● HQ, accompanied by a grainy smartphone photo of a cloud-cloaked summit cairn somewhere in the north-west Highlands. “Just made the summit. Can’t see sh*t! One of the hardest things I’ve ever done, now I’ve got to do it all in reverse. Trai● 100!”.
And so that was it, the challenge of a lifetime had finally been completed. Of course, many of you may have completed the challenge without telling us, and if you have please get in touch to let us know. If not, you’ve got some catching up to do if you want to join Tom in the ‘100 Club’!