IT teams ready for the 3 Peaks Challenge

Regular readers of silicon.com will know we are sending an intrepid team to take part in the Vanco Three Peaks Challenge in aid of CARE International.

But we'll not be alone in the gruelling challenge. There will be 21 other teams drawn from IT departments at an array of companies, including Accenture, Avis, Goldman Sachs, Royal Bank of Scotland and Unilever.

Here we catch up with the Royal Bank of Scotland team to find out why they would volunteer for such a tough task.

Team leader Matt Hardwick said: "We wanted a challenge," adding that it is also "a good excuse to get some exercise and most importantly a worthwhile charity to support during 2005".

And the team sound ready for the challenge. "We've been training hard at the gym and have also been using a punishing route in the Derbyshire Dales involving several steep ascents and descents in a short period of time," he added.

"We also went up Scafell Pike and Snowdon as quickly as possible on two consecutive Sundays."

It certainly sounds like silicon.com should be looking out for the RBS team on the mountain. We've got a 50 minute head-start on them but we're not so sure our training has been quite so thorough. The closest some of us have got to hill-walking has been Tower Hill, where our offices are, and it's only a hill by name, not nature.

However, some of the team-building RBS has done may have taken a bite out of their fitness.

"We recently had a very heavy 'team building' night in Nottingham, involving cocktails and various other high strength liquids. A trip to trendy young night spot, Rock City, followed and it all soon became too much for one of the team who was found fast asleep on the steps of Rock City by his teenage niece," said Hardwick.

We'll update you after the event on how it went. If you would still like to sponsor us for the event, please click here.