Sheffield Children's Hospital Charity

11/09/2009

Determined staff members from law firm Irwin Mitchell fought off horrendous weather conditions to complete the gruelling Three Peaks Challenge, a 25 mile hike across the three highest peaks in Yorkshire.

Teams of four from Irwin Mitchell, Sheffield Wednesday Football Club and software provider WANdisco took part in the event which challenges participants to scale the peaks of Pen-y-ghent (691m), Whernside (728m), and Ingleborough (723m) in less than 12 hours.

The challenge was organised to raise money for the Sheffield Children's Hospital Charity, but there was certainly no charity for the competitors who had to overcome gale force winds and driving rain to complete the event, with visibility often reduced to just a few metres.

Irwin Mitchell's team was made up of James Berry, David Goy, Lindsay Evans and Tom Paton, who operate out of the firms Sheffield office.

The fitness mad team, who also represented the law firm winning the half-marathon corporate challenge this year, were first to complete the Three Peaks in an impressive eight hours, more than two hours ahead of their nearest rivals.

James Berry, from Irwin Mitchell's Commercial Litigation department, said: "We really enjoyed competing in the Three Peaks Challenge, and are delighted we managed to complete it in such a fast time, especially considering the atrocious weather.

"It was certainly a demanding challenge, at the top of the mountains the wind and rain was so bad we could hardly see where we were going, and we had to cross five miles of bog land to complete the course. We also had to leave Sheffield at 4.30am to make sure we were ready for the 7am start, and we ran parts of the course to make sure we set a fast time.

"We were motivated to take part in the event because we are all keen runners and it was a chance to raise a considerable amount of money for the Children's Hospital. We are keen to enter again next year, but hopefully we will get some nicer weather next time!"