Louise Fairfax first began climbing mountains with her late husband Bruce Fairfax when they were teenagers.

"From when we were teenagers, we would climb mountains in the dark with our head torches on, and sit at the summit and watch the dawn, he's [Bruce] always loved that," she said.

Dr Fairfax has never been content staying at sea level. Like an agile cat, she is at home in the tall, leafy canopy of a tree as she is on the ground. The same goes for rocky outcrops and mountain peaks.

A former cross-country mountain runner Dr Fairfax said bush walking and hiking to the summit of mountains is not something she does solely for the physicality - but to "spend time with her friends".

Her friends though are not numbered to the community she has cultivated, but rather the mountains themselves, who each have their own unique personalities.

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"It's the beauty, I mean, I'm a former mountain runner. I love going up," Dr Fairfax said.

Reminiscing on a climb she'd done only the day before speaking, Dr Fairfax described it as a "pussycat climb on four legs."

"I absolutely love that motion," she says, gesturing with both arms and legs to show just how physical a climb can be.

"But each mountain has its own shape, it's own character. You know, the good weather character is different from the bad. The character of some of them can be dark and moody."

After 10 years, Dr Fairfax has become only the third woman in the world to complete all 158 Abels in Tasmania, after she completed "a horrible climb" to the summit of Camp Hill a fortnight ago.

"We were crawling like wombats, snaking under bushes on our bellies trying to get under the scaparia. I'm covered in scratches because we were on our bellies crawling and sliding under the scaparia because it was just from the knee to above the face prickles if you didn't do that and you know, that's not fun," she said.

A man she met on the way to the start of the route, asked incredulously why she had bothered to leave Camp Hill to last, because of its notoriety among bush walking circles.

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Bush walking was never something Dr Fairfax did for the accolades, it was something she did with her late husband, Bruce.

But she might never have walked again, with bush walking memories and Bruce inextricably linked forever.

A teacher who had inspired many during his career, Bruce Fairfax disappeared without a trace while he and Louise were walking in Tasmania's South West National Park in 2017.

After completing a climb together, the pair had planned to do individual walks, but Bruce never returned to their campsite.

A full scale rescue operation was launched after Dr Fairfax rose the alarm, and included walking volunteers from various aspects of Bruce's life, such as the police, SES, staff and students from the school, and members of Launceston walking clubs.

Sadly, Bruce, who was living with Parkinsons, was never found.

That lack of closure has a silver lining though, at least for the family.

"Bruce has always been a part of our lives and in a sense, the lack of closure gives us more space to keep it like that. We haven't had to be faced with a dead body and all its grizzly finality; we can just think of him as 'disappeared', and that's how we mostly refer to him. After all, he's not officially dead yet. There is no death certificate," Dr Fairfax said at the time of her husband's disappearance.

"We're not denying that he's gone - it's just a different way of thinking about the whole thing."

Dr Fairfax said she took a long time of bush walking after that, and returned to the passion once the finality of her husband's disappearance had sunk in.

Always the optimist, she said she "finds a way" to cope by doing, and spending time in nature was a way she could reconnect with her husband and also improve her own mental health.

However, after taking a break from all her hobbies, a path to re-connection came in the form of an unexpected invitation.

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"I never lost my love of mountains, but I stopped everything after Bruce died. But I got an invitation from a friend who knew that I wanted the Southern Ranges and asked if I'd come with," she said.

"There were five mountains I wanted to climb, so I went. But, we failed. I broke my wrist and I had to retreat," she laughed.

A small-framed woman, Dr Fairfax has to ensure she is physically capable of carrying her pack, that can weigh up to 13 kilograms, and carries all her supplies. She also straps her weighty camera gear to her front and carries a bum bag.

Because not only is Dr Fairfax an accomplished "Abelist" as those who have completed the formidable list are known, she is also a blogger and photographer, with many photography accolades.

"I always try to pitch my tent as close to the summit as possible, and while I like to have my pack on my back, I put the camera gear on my front, and more often than not I have a tripod as well."

Dr Fairfax says she doesn't like to say she "conquered" any mountains, but more so that she was able to share their beauty with her hiking community, which she has cultivated after Bruce's death.

"What I really had to conquer was Louise Fairfax," she said.

Staring into the tranquility of nature from the top of a mountain is an experience that many people won't get to share, and as such Dr Fairfax said it's humbling to collect the stories from her trips.

Over the years, she's had plenty of ups and downs, and some of the mountains, her "friends" have challenged her.

"Federation [Peak] challenged me to the core of my being," she said.

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"It is such an impressive and imposing mountain, it's unmistakable and it demands a lot from anyone who wants to go up there. But there's something very beautiful and majestic about that huge tooth that sticks up above the ranges, it calls you from many places."

"You know, I never thought I could get there."

She said the ones she has the most love of are the ones that challenged her and making it to the summit of those challenging mountains has moved her to tears.

"I'm taking the last steps to West Portal and it just hits me - I must be a 'real bushwalker' and yeah, I felt moved. I cried on the way up. That's a favourite one because it was a journey of self-discovery."

Another of her favourites is Precipitous Bluff, or PB.

"It's the same thing, you see PB from so many different places. It's got this aura about it because you don't skip up it. It requires an enormous amount of endurance, fitness and perserverance, and it tests the qualities of anyone. Anyone who wants to get to the top must offer something in return."

"For me, it was a special fear, because I've been blown off the southern ranges by massive winds four, five, six times and haven't been able to progress because the winds reduce you to lying on your stomach. If you don't do that you're blown right off the range."

"To actually stand there on the summit, there was a moment of complete disbelief."

While she doesn't conquer (she really hates that word) bush walking does require mental toughness. And her advice for anyone about to tackle any tough bush walk? Don't look down.

On a recent walk, while walking along a narrow ledge with her walking partners, Dr Fairfax said she was faced with a sheer rock face she could only traverse by scrabbling with her fingertips and toes.

"If you do anything wrong, you fall 600 metres through space, there's nothing there to catch you," she said.

"But I had my partner [walking partner] in my peripheral vision and he broke up the distance. All I could do was keep chanting to keep my focus - 'three points of contact, don't look down', I repeated that over and over until we made it across," she said.

And what does she do when she finally reaches the summit?

"I sang all the way to that summit. If I'm on my own or with friends, it doesn't matter. I take my pack off and I still feel a bit bouncy on those mountains," she said.

For Dr Fairfax, experiencing the sun rise or the sunset while bush walking is the most magical experience of them all and it makes her feel closer to her husband and all that love.

"It's about a whole relationship with the mountain. The physical side of the relationship is important as with any love affair but it's about far more than that," she said.

"Enjoying nature is for everybody, finding a place in nature that you can relate to, and soothe your soul against the stresses of modern living, that's what it's all about," she said.

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