Last weekend 14 members from Edelman’s Corporate Reputation team traded laptops for compasses and suits for waterproofs (in most cases) before taking to the hills in our attempt to show the National Three Peaks Challenge what we’re made of.

Our adventure began at the foot of Ben Nevis and the team emerged some 27 hours later from the mist of Snowdonia National Park. We may have been somewhat wetter and grumpier, but were otherwise unscathed – quite an achievement considering our training consisted of little more than hosting a bake sale in the Edelman offices.

In that time, we battled the elements to climb over 3064 metres and cover over 37 kilometres on foot, with our driver, Crisis-lead Duncan Gallagher, driving us over 744 kilometres between peaks and even serving up well-deserved mugs of hot tea when we returned from Ben Nevis at 11pm on Friday night.

The ultimate team-bonding experience saw us descend from Britain’s highest mountain in the pitch black, traverse treacherous river crossings on the way up Scafell Pike, and shelter from the wind on Snowdon.

Whilst levels of expertise on the team varied from ultra-marathon runners to hiking newbies, no man or woman was left behind despite the various aches, pains and body odours accumulated en route.

Our motivation to keep going as Mother Nature threw everything she could at us was The Passage, our chosen charity for the challenge. Based just down the road from us in Victoria, The Passage runs London’s largest voluntary sector day centre for homeless and vulnerable people.

With homelessness on the rise for the seventh year in a row, the crisis is more apparent than ever in Central London. The money we’ve raised so far will help The Passage continue to support up to 200 people each day with homelessness prevention projects, and access to primary services and accommodation, amongst countless other resources.

Over 30 hours spent living out of a damp minibus with questionable levels of personal hygiene was made all the more worthwhile with the knowledge that our efforts would make a real difference to the lives of hundreds of vulnerable people.

See our JustGiving page here.