3 Peaks Challenge conquered by IT industry

A team from silicon.com as well as 21 IT teams from companies such as Accenture, Avis and RBS will today be nursing some nasty aches and pains after taking part in the annual Vanco-sponsored 3 Peaks Challenge at the weekend.

The event was hailed by all involved as a major success and CARE International, the charity running the event, was delighted to announce it had raised £140,000 for its highly worthwhile work in some of the world's poorest areas.

Michael Piddock, the team leader from Vanco, said: "Vanco is hugely proud to support CARE through its Three Peaks Challenge event. All of the money raised is going to vital humanitarian projects around the world."

"It is great to see the IT industry making such an important contribution," he added.

The challenge was to climb Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon, respectively the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales in just one 24 hour period. This involved driving through the night from Glen Nevis to the Lake District, severe sleep deprivation, and a logistical headache which had to be overcome long before any team had even donned their walking boots.

In total 14 teams completed the challenge within the 24 hours, with Reed Managed Services claiming first place, despite some stiff competition. Other awards picked up included the prize for the team who collected the most money which went to Experian for raising £8,000. A team from Mellon were also rewarded for collecting a sackful of litter from the top of Ben Nevis.

Team Silicon certainly gave it a go, holding onto second place right up until the summit of Snowdon where injuries took their toll. Even then we managed a highly-respectable finish time of 23:19 and were one of only a handful of teams to have everybody on the team finish the event.

We also enjoyed a friendly rivallry with the team from event sponsors Vanco, catching and overtaking them on Ben Nevis on our way to an impressive time of 4:05.

However, they enjoyed the last laugh, finishing just ahead of us in a fantastic time of 23:06.

Vanco's Piddock said: "When Team Silicon jogged past us halfway down Ben Nevis there were some concerns in the squad. However, this just seemed to make us stronger. We reapplied our warpaint, donned our team Aviators, and turned up The Prodigy in the Vanco minibus to take the bragging rights over silicon for 2005."

All the teams who took part agreed the event was a fantastic challenge to take on and the spirit on the mountains was fantastic with teams all looking out for one another and balancing friendly rivalries with genuine esprit de corps.

Over a few well-earned beers after the event most of the talk in the bar was about how proud everybody was to have taken part in such an excellent event and in aid of such a good cause.

Team Silicon would like to thank all of our sponsors and would also like to congratulate Vanco and CARE International for a well organised event.

The winning team from Reed Managed Services.

Team Vanco, complete with warpaint, psyche themselves up for the ascent of Ben Nevis.