Big-hearted lawyers enjoy brief encounters

But the employees of law firm Pinsent Masons, who entered five teams into this year’s Trailtrekker, raising around £8,000, are part of a growing trend of corporate people signing up to the event to provide an escape from their high-pressured jobs.

The firm, which has offices across Britain and Asia, supplied team names included Funk Sole Brothers, Soul Survivors and the Pie Assassins.

One of the team members, Richard Sharman, 34, who was walking alongside Chris Watts, 28, of Halifax, Tom Ralph, 25, of Leeds, and Richard Fullilove, 26, of Pontefract, said: “We are all really pleased to have signed up to this.

“It is good to get to know each other outside of the office and it has been really nice to have something to work towards. We have had a collective sense of purpose to even get to the beginning of this.

“As soon as you come out here you just forget about your day job and it is brilliant and very therapeutic.

“It has been great training together as well, and have done a lot of fundraising – we have raised £6,000 so far and are hoping to get to £8,000.

“We held a quiz night and also arranged to raise money by auctioning off some local sports memorabilia including a signed Leeds United shirt and a signed Leeds Rhinos shirt.

“It has meant we have all seen so many different parts of Yorkshire when we have been out training, and it has been really good to socialise together somewhere other than the pub.”

Other firms which submitted teams to the event was the Lowell Group Leeds, the leading fundraiser for last year’s event which submitted three different teams for Trailtrekker 2012, and the clothing firm JD Sports which also entered three teams.