Scottish climber Laura Baillie has completed the Laura Baillie full house challenge, reaching the summit of all 1,072 peaks recognised by the Scottish Mountaineering Club to join a group of just over 100 people who have ever done so.
The 38-year-old, who lives in Glasgow and works as a property manager, stood on the top of Carn na h-Easgainn in the Highlands to complete the feat. She chose the peak, near Tomatin south of Inverness, deliberately: at 2,025ft (617m), it offered a straightforward ascent on an estate track, allowing family and friends to join her at the summit.
Among those who made it to the top was her 89-year-old grandmother. With the gran set to turn 90 next month, Laura’s mother was granted access by the estate to drive her all the way to the summit.
‘With my gran turning 90 next month, my mum was granted access to drive her all the way to the summit, which is so, so special,’ Laura said.
What the Laura Baillie full house challenge involves
To complete the full house, climbers must reach the top of every summit across six classifications. That means all 282 Munros (Scottish mountains over 3,000ft/914m), 226 Munro Tops, 222 Corbetts (peaks between 2,500ft and 3,000ft), 219 Grahams (hills between 1,968ft and 2,500ft), 89 Donalds (Lowland hills over 2,000ft/610m), and 34 Furths, which are mountains over 3,000ft in England, Wales and Ireland.
Laura described the Corbetts as the hardest section of the challenge. ‘There is a lot of pathless terrain, chest-deep bracken and you’re just cursing yourself and wondering why you can’t just find another hobby,’ she told BBC Radio Scotland.
The Munros, she said, carry more established paths, but with experience she began plotting her own routes across the hills. ‘The more experience you get, the more confidence you have sitting with a map, creating your own routes and joining up hills that maybe other people wouldn’t do,’ she said.
Years of solo walks and early starts
The achievement was built across years of early mornings, weekend trips, remote routes, wild camping and hiking through every kind of weather. Laura estimates she completed around 75 per cent of the walks alone, often in areas with no mobile phone signal.
‘You’re in the most isolated parts of Scotland, you’ve got no phone reception,’ she said. ‘So I do check in with family and friends, give them my routes at the beginning of the walk, my ETA for when I finish. I check in to keep people informed so I don’t have mountain rescue out looking for me.’
Laura said she left Carn na h-Easgainn for last precisely so others could share the moment. ‘I left that one for last so that friends and family can join. I left them a super-easy one, it’s an estate track all the way up,’ she said.
She is considered among the youngest women to have completed the full house.
A challenge with a small but growing register
Just over 100 people are now registered with the Scottish Mountaineering Club as having accomplished the full house. The club, which dates to 1889, requires prospective members to have completed at least 50 Munros and to have experience of rock climbing and hiking in all weathers and seasons.
One of the more unusual entries on the register came in April last year, when a nine-year-old Kerry Blue Terrier named Betty became the first dog to complete the Laura Baillie full house challenge alongside her owner Shona Marshall.
Laura’s final ascent, with three generations of her family on the summit, now stands as one of the more personal completions on that list. Her grandmother’s 90th birthday falls next month.
