[17 Aug 2006]

The HSBC Tower in Docklands may be rather more vertical and man-made than the peaks of the Lake District, but it is nevertheless being used by a group of mountain climbers to prepare for their forthcoming challenge.

Michael Bush, Chris Dulewicz, Paul Hale and Jack Settle from HSBC's Global Markets department are to take part in next month's Memorial Challenge, which requires participants to scale 24 peaks in the Lake District in just 24 hours.

To prepare for the challenge the intrepid foursome have been climbing the stairs of the HSBC Tower next to Canary Wharf in London's Docklands.

Mr Hale was quoted by ic theWarf saying: "We have climbed the tower every week - it's 44 flights and we can all do it in under 11 minutes, although it was worse when we first started because it was so warm."

Mr Bush continued: "It's become a challenge within a challenge. We start off running and then as we get higher we get slower."

Some 75 people are expected to take part in the Memorial Challenge, included in which is Scafell Pike, England's highest peak.

The event is split into two sections, comprised of a 14 hour walk on day one and an eight hour slog on the second, during which time they will have covered 57km and climbed a collective height of 4,500 metres.