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| The Riverside Raiders team at the top of Mt Snowdon on their charity hike. |
The Widnes based Riverside Raiders ice hockey team have hiked to the top of Mt Snowdon in aid of a mental health charity.
The Raiders had won the Summer Classic Cup competition twice in recent years but this was an altogether different type of challenge as they set out to conquer the 1085 meters of the highest mountain in England and Wales, battling against the wintry weather as well as the steep incline itself.
It is thought that this is the first time that an ice hockey team has undertaken the walk –especially wearing full ice hockey gear - and Raiders coach Ben Donkin planned to go the whole way wearing ice hockey skates, which if you have ever tried walking in them, you will know is difficult enough on the flat surfaces around an ice rink, let alone on the rocky slopes of a mountain.
The idea came about the Raiders wanted to do something unusual and dramatic to mark their 10th anniversary as a club and also to support a worthy cause, so they decided to do the walk to help raise funds and awareness for the Rethink Mental Illness who are a charity that seek to improve the lives of people severely affected by mental illness through their networks of local groups and services, information and campaigns.
The walk to the top of the mountain and back down again took 6 hours to complete and coach Donkin managed to do the whole route in his skates. Afterwards he commented:
“It was amazingly not as bad as I was expecting in skates. An absolutely amazing effort by the boys. We smashed it - even in the snow”!
The Raiders had originally set themselves the target of raising £1000 for Rethink Mental Illness but have already doubled that through online donations and are keen to keep the tally rising.
For anybody who would like to sponsor the Raiders’ walk up Mount Snowdon, they have a justgiving page at: https://www.justgiving.com/team/dropthepuck
You can find out more about the Rethink Mental Illness charity on their website at www.rethink.org
