Asset-backed bankers and traders from Credit Suisse First Boston and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein recently undertook gruelling sporting feats for charity. A six-man group from CSFB including ABS syndicate banker Adrian Carr swam the English Channel in aid of NCH (formerly National Children's Home). The four-man DrKW team--Charles Hyatt, Richard Kemmish, Fraser Malcolm and Nick Morgan--trekked a 54-mile stretch of the treacherous West Highland Way in Scotland as part of the State Street Caledonian Challenge, which benefits various Scottish charities. The aim of the challenge is to complete the hike in 24 hours.
The CSFB team crossed from Dover to Calais in 13 hours covering roughly 25 miles. The team would swim for an hour and then rest on a boat following them. "I brought my mobile phone with me, tried to make one business call and then became violently ill," says Carr. The Dresdner team completed their hike in less than 23 hours in extreme weather conditions that forced most of their competitors to abandon the challenge. They would have completed it quicker if it had not been for a prolonged and somewhat suspicious stay in a massage tent by Malcolm, reports one of his colleagues. Speculation that both feats were the result of radical cutbacks in travel budgets was denied.