IT industry to take on 3 Peaks Challenge for charity

The UK IT industry is being urged to sign up for a 3 Peaks Challenge in aid of CARE International. The event, sponsored by Vanco and silicon.com, will see teams scale the three highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales over the course of one weekend.

Now in its tenth year the Vanco 3 Peaks Challenge is a great opportunity for IT staff to raise money for a deserving charity and do so in the company of their peers, which makes for an excellent networking opportunity.

Already confirmed for this year's events are teams from silicon.com, Accenture, Experian and Vanco. (Find out more about the event and how you can get involved here.)

Lawrence Harvey, Experian's team leader, said: "Experian tries a different challenge each year as a charity fundraiser. Normally we aim for something that will give us some benefit in getting fit while doing something to raise money for agreed good causes."

As such the physically demanding slog up and down Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon seemed an ideal fit. Harvey told silicon.com his team will be hitting suppliers for money as well as taking advantage of a promise from Experian to match any funds raised.

Other employers who have teams entered in the event are also digging deep for the cause.

Geoff Wilkinson, Accenture's team leader, told silicon.com: "Right from the start Accenture has been very supportive by agreeing to sponsor the travel, accommodation costs and clothing."

"We are just getting started on the fundraising and have just held a squash competition and a raffle for some of the surplus prizes which has raised £150. Other ideas are a poker competition, quiz nights and a race night."

But of course training is essential if all those sponsors are to get value for money on their donations and Wilkinson is keen to train the mind as well as the body for a challenge which puts both through their paces.

"To make the training mimic the event as closely as possible, I'm toying with the idea of having everyone sit up all night in a mini bus before our training walks, to recreate that realistic zombie effect," he joked.

However, all the hard work and training can easily be undone at the last minute.

Accenture's Wilkinson said: "The Friday night before the event in Fort William usually gets underway with a curry at the local Indian restaurant, followed by a visit to the hostelries on the high street and some of the local whiskeys. Only one or two turned into three or four and another one back at the hotel for good measure meant breakfast consisted of two paracetamol for a hangover of biblical proportions. A couple of hours later in the coffee shop at the end of the high street the queue for the one working toilet was extending out of the shop and winding its way down the street as our intrepid whiskey tippler is in there for two solid hours praying to meet his maker.

"At one stage we fear that he's not going to make the start but in the end he does recover - don't ask me how - and the team even goes on to post a respectable time on Ben Nevis."