IT’S all planes, trains and automobiles in the world of Nick Nairn, with a bit of cooking thrown in for good measure. Trying to get him on his mobile is no easy job; ET had an easier time of it when he tried to phone home.

At the umpteenth time of asking I eventually catch the 56-year-old chef as he disembarks from a flight home from London, where he has been conducting business – a new restaurant is in the pipeline. Nairn runs cookery schools in Aberdeen and Port of Menteith, owns restaurants in Dunblane and Aberdeen and regularly crops up on TV. In short, he's a busy man, yet every now and then he manages to take a break from the mountains of work.

That’s when he likes to tackle a very different type of mountain. Nairn isn’t just a celebrity chef – he’s also a celebrity munro bagger, though he was recently forced to take a break from his favourite pastime after suffering a slipped disc. Now he’s making a comeback to take part in the second Isle of Skye Blended Scotch Whisky Munro Challenge.

It’s a cause dear to Nairn's heart, as he knows the money raised goes to a great cause – supporting the essential work done by Scottish Mountain Rescue. But is he a little nervous about climbing so soon after injuring his back?

“Yes, I am,” he chuckles dryly. “I don’t want my back to go while I’m on the top of a hill. I’ll be taking my walking poles with me, even though I’m not a great fan of the poles, as I’m quite a purist when it comes to walking.

“But they will take a bit of pressure off my back, and give me stability so that I hopefully won’t be stumbling down the hill.”

Nairn might be a purist, but the great thing about the Munro Challenge, in which munro baggers can take part as teams or on their own, is that walkers of varying ability are welcome. Even Nairn wasn’t always such an expert, discovering the majesty of munros a mite late in the day.

It was his friend, Hamish Barbour, the husband of broadcaster and journalist Muriel Gray, who got Nairn hooked just before his 40th birthday. “He couldn’t believe I hadn’t been up a munro, so he promised we’d go up Ben Lomond. This was in January, the height of winter. I didn’t even have a proper pair of hiking boots. I was in shoes.

“We went up the Ptarmigan route; the back of Ben Lomond. And it was very steep and covered in icy snow. I got to within 60 or 70 feet of the top, then I got stuck. I had to be rescued by a guy coming down the other way, who had a rope. However, it didn’t put me off. Quite the opposite. It absolutely fired me up.”

Nairn began climbing munros in earnest – he also climbed them in style. “If there was any excuse, I’d be up a hill," he says. “My favourite thing to do for a long time was to get a tent, make some nice food and grab a wee bottle of wine. Then I’d go up a hill somewhere. Just being up there, on your own, watching the sunset, is amazing.”

It certainly sounds like a spectacular experience, especially since the picnics enjoyed on those excursions were prepared by one of Scotland’s finest chefs.

Nairn's mountain rations are usually more exotic than a few crumbs of Kendal mint cake. Does he have any advice when it comes to the perfect munro munchies? “You want something that’s not too heavy and that’s easy to cook," he suggests. "The favourite thing I like to make is a Thai green curry. Or I’ll do pasta with a nice sauce. I avoid all that boil-in-the-bag stuff.”

His skills and outlook as a chef are helpful in other ways when he’s up a mountain. “Working in a kitchen, one of the first things you learn is to always be prepared, and that’s how I am before I go up a munro. I’ll make sure I have my hat and gloves, and I always take water, a first aid kit and a whistle."

Although he’s always prepped to perfection, forays into the mountains have occasionally gone awry. Once, Nairn decided to climb Ben Venue, not far from his Port of Menteith cookery school, in early January. He reached the 2,392ft/729m summit and was enjoying lunch when he noticed an ominous black cloud heading in his direction. “I remember thinking: ‘That looks quite substantial,’" he recalls. “Four or five minutes later, I couldn’t see more than a few meters in front of my nose.”

Nairn spent an hour trying – and failing – to find the path down. “The wind was picking up and it was strong enough to blow me over. I was starting to think: 'This is a bit dodgy.' Nobody knew where I was and it was starting to get really cold and snowy.”

So he took a gamble. He sat on his rucksack and attempted to slide to safety. “I went flying down this hill and hit a big rock and went shooting up in the air. It was that thing when you’re rolling and bouncing up and down, and I’m thinking, 'If I hit my head, I’m in big trouble.' However, I landed the right way up, and I was fine.”

Not all climbers are so lucky. That’s why the work done by the volunteers who make up Scottish Mountain Rescue is so invaluable. Nairn agrees. “It’s incredibly important what they do," he says. “Anybody who has ever been out on the hills and has got into trouble knows that. We’ve all got the reassurance of knowing those guys are there for us.

“I know some of the mountain rescue team, and I know they even get called out on Christmas Day. They save lives and they do it for nothing, so it’s great when we get the opportunity to give a little bit back.”