I’ve been climbing Tasmanian mountains for years – but I’m terrified of heights | Ben Walter

Our society emphasises the value of conquering and overcoming your fears - but I can live with the idea of not climbing every mountain

Earlier this year, I finally climbed Mount Anne. This has taken an unlikely amount of time - I've been climbing Tasmanian mountains for years, but had never been up one of the island's signature summits.

A peak bagging" hobby is great fun, and takes you out to all sorts of interesting places. Some Tasmanians set themselves to climb the Abels, a list of 158 mountains that are at least 1100m high, but the list compiled by the Hobart Walking Club, the one I follow, is far more ridiculous - a total of 481 summits to find your way up. A list that huge seems bigger than most of them.