Latest News

Love adventure travel? Looking to get started in the world of marketing? Charity Challenge are looking for a Marketing Intern.

July 11, 2014

Charity Challenge are looking for a Marketing Intern

Background

Our company – Challenges (Un)Limited, trading as Charity Challenge – has been in business for fifteen years and is currently 14 people strong. We work exclusively for the charity sector, raising millions of pounds for worthwhile causes. We operate treks, bike rides, mountain climbs, and other adventure travel itineraries, whereby our clients raise money for their chosen charity through their participation. We operate about 100+ challenges a year and have raised over £40m for 1670+ UK, Irish and Canadian registered charities to date. We have also just launched a new operation out of Toronto, Canada for the Canadian charity sector.

We are best known for organising the very successful BT Red Nose Day Climb for Gary Barlow, Cheryl Cole, Kimberley Walsh, Ronan Keating, Chris Moyles, Denise Van Outen, Alesha Dixon, Ben Shephard and Fearne Cotton which raised over £3.35million for Comic Relief, and the Zambezi Hell and High Water Challenge in 2013 with Mel C, Jack Dee and Dara O’Briain.

The company has gone from strength to strength developing an excellent reputation both within the corporate and charity sectors, donating hundreds of thousands of pounds to local community projects in the countries in which we operate, and building houses, schools and health centres in developing countries as part of our award winning community challenge programme. Continue Reading…

Latest News, Tips & Advice

SECURITY UPDATE: EXTRA TIME NEEDED AT ALL UK AIRPORTS

July 11, 2014

In light of the recent announcement by the Department of Transport regarding the need for extra security measures at airports, we strongly advise all customers departing on any of our challenges to ensure they arrive at the airport with extra time to spare to allow for airport security.

Anyone traveling with mobile devices must make sure they are charged and if possible carry a spare charger. If you cannot turn on your device when asked, you will be forbidden from boarding the plane. Airlines will not be holding flights for anyone stuck in security due to the extra delays these measures may cause.

As an absolute minimum, all Charity Challenge participants must arrive for their flight no later than 3 hours prior to the scheduled departure time. Please note this affects ALL flights to ALL destinations. In the event you do not board your flight, neither the airline nor Charity Challenge will be able to reimburse you and you may have to purchase a new ticket.

www.charitychallenge.com

Tips & Advice

Tips & Advice : Sleeping Mats

June 17, 2014

Your sleeping mat goes by a number of names – mat, mattress, pad or the eponymous thermarest but it’s probably the single most important factor in getting a good night’s sleep, giving insulation and cushioning from the cold hard ground. If you sleep cold then you’re better off upgrading your thermarest-neo-air-02camping mat than your sleeping bag. Even the best sleeping bag insulation compresses beneath your weight and loses its insulation properties and if your mat isn’t highly insulated then you lose that heat to the ground.

There are three basic options for your mat:

AIR MATS are inflatable mats and pack down incredibly small and light. If of high quality they will have built in insulation and will inflate to a thickness of 7 to 10 cm providing fantastic cushioning.  They are inflated either by mouth or external or in-built air pump.

Pros:                                 Cons:
Very Light Weight               Expensive to buy
Small Pack Size                  Can be punctured
Excellent Insulation             May Be Difficult to inflate at high altitude
Excellent Cushioning
Easy to Deflate and Pack

SELF-INFLATING MATS comprise a foam core enclosed in an airtight shell. When the valve is opened the compressed internal foam expands sucking in air and inflating the mat. They seldom exceed 3 cm in thickness and so provide less cushioning than air mats but are usually significantly bulkier.

Pros:                                 Cons:
Easy to Inflate                    Bulky and Heavy
Good Insulation                  Expensive to buy
Good Cushioning               Can be punctured
Slow to Deflate

CLOSED CELL FOAM MATS are the simplest and cheapest mats available. They are made from solid closed cell foam and are light weight but very bulky to pack. They provide the least cushioning and insulation of the three types of mat and are really only suitable for short camping trips in warm conditions.

Pros:                                  Cons:
Light Weight                        Bulky
Very Inexpensive to Buy       Poor Insulation
Can’t be punctured              Poor Cushioning

exped-syn7-mattressGetting a good night’s sleep!

When it comes down to it this is what it’s all about, if you aren’t sleeping well it can have a massive impact on the enjoyment of your challenge. At Outdoorhire we recommend hiring an air mat with internal insulation such as the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir or Exped Synmat (see: http://www.outdoorhire.co.uk/quick-links/sleeping-matts.php). The Synmat has a built in hand pump to aid inflation at altitude but is slightly bulkier than the NeoAir which has no pump and packs down very small. By hiring your mat you have access to the best products on the market for the cost of a cheap foam mat and we can supply extra-large NeoAir mats for the larger man.

For the ultimate in camping luxury make sure that you have a silk sleeping bag liner and an Exped inflatable pillow (http://www.outdoorhire.co.uk/prodpages/exped-comfort-pillow.php).
You can find all Charity Challenge’s Kit lists from Outdoorhire online at http://www.outdoorhire.co.uk/charity-challenge/index.php

Outdoor_Hire
Special thanks to  outdoorhire.co.uk for writing this blog for Charity Challenge.
Inspiration, Latest News

Charity Challenge hits 15: An interview with the BOSS!

June 9, 2014

CC 15y Celebrate Banner Website

June sees Charity Challenge proudly celebrating 15 years of inspirational fundraising challenges! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US! So we thought it would be nice to interview the boss, Simon Albert, about Charity Challenge’s journey over the last 15 years.

What was the inspiration behind setting up Charity Challenge?

Simon-trekkingAbout 18 years ago I signed up for one of the first challenges of their kind with about 120 other people. I saw an advert to trek Petra which was somewhere I had always wanted to go to. We trekked through Jordan and it was really quite inspirational. Then the charity asked me to climb Kilimanjaro and I did that the following year having never climbed or trekked at altitude and I managed (with some difficulty) to get to the top. There were only three people in their 20s including myself. Most of the people were more or less of my parents’ generation and I felt there wasn’t anyone who offered inspirational challenges for young people to raise money for charity.

So over the next two years I travelled with Jeremy Gane, a very respected tour operator who later became my business partner, first to Tanzania to design a trek with the Maasai through the African bush, and then to Cuba to trek the trail of Cuba’s revolution. Jeremy organising the tours and I became the tour leader with a view to take a group of around 40 people to do each challenge.

At the time I was doing a graduate training role and a very respected business person gave me some sage advice that I have never forgotten. It was that if you want to be successful at something you should do something that excites you and that you are passionate about. I realised then that I could combine my love of travel with organising events to raise money for good causes. A few months later I came up with the idea of Charity Challenge. Continue Reading…

Sales & Promotions, Tips & Advice

Tick off your kit list for less this weekend!

May 16, 2014

This weekend only, The Outdoor Shop is offering an outrageous 25% off on all kit we sell. Yes, everything! That’s even more than your usual Charity Challenge discount!

If you’ve been putting off buying your top quality down sleeping bag or mountaineering boots, this is what you’ve been waiting for. In-store, over the phone and online we have the full range of kit for your challenge – expedition-quality down sleeping bags, rucksacks, boots, waterproofs, clothing and considerably more besides. We supply the brands that we believe are the best in the industry – Mountain Equipment, Rab, Black Diamond, DMM, Therm-A-Rest, Scarpa, Meindl and Lowe Alpine are just a few of those represented in our range.

Even more importantly, our specialist team of outdoor experts are ready to help you with every choice. You don’t have to come to our Milton Keynes store to take advantage of their knowledge and experience either – call 01908 324 977 during shop hours for personal advice and opinion on what would best suit your needs, while you sofa-surf our website! Continue Reading…

Tips & Advice

What to look for when buying a sleeping bag

May 14, 2014
What does it all mean?

In Europe, the EN 13537 standard normalizes the temperatures at which a sleeping bag can be used. Tests provide four temperatures:

Upper limit is the highest temperature at which a ‘standard’ adult man is able to have a comfortable night’s sleep without excess sweating.  This rating is not normally used by sleeping bag manufacturers.

The three key rating to look at are:

Comfort rating is based on a ‘standard’ adult woman having a comfortable night’s sleep.

Lower limit is based on the lowest temperature at which a ‘standard’ adult man is deemed to be able to have a comfortable night’s sleep.

Extreme rating is a survival only rating for a ‘standard’ adult man. This is an extreme survival rating only and it is not advisable to rely on this rating for general use.

So when you’re selecting a sleeping bag for your trip look at the temperatures you are likely to experience and pick a sleeping bag with a COMFORT RATING which matches the lower temperature you will find.

Getting a good night’s sleep!

When in your sleeping bag you lose more heat through the ground than the air, so it’s important to insulate yourself by using a good sleeping mat, we recommend an inflatable mat with built in insulation such as the Thermarest NeoAir or Exped Synmat (see: http://goo.gl/amdpp ), which both have built in insulation. While in your bag it’s also a good idea to tighten the shoulder collar and hood drawstrings in order to trap your body warmth inside the bag.

If you feel the cold, it may be a good idea to add a fleece liner to your kit list which will add extra warmth to your sleeping bag.  Also getting up in the middle of the night for a pee is an easy way to get cold, so consider taking a pee bottle, to save getting up. For Outdoorhire’s selection of sleeping bags and liners which have been tested for their selected environment see: http://goo.gl/QOzi9

Special thanks to  outdoorhire.co.uk for writing this blog for Charity Challenge.