Lectures at the University of Law will never seem the same again after bedding down for a week in the freezing cold with a pack of dogs
Pub bores can argue for hours over whether a Russian or American was the first to reach the North Pole by land, but a plucky English law student is geeing up a pack of huskies for an arctic adventure of her own.
Sarah Cripps (pictured above) from Harlow in Essex won’t actually get anywhere near the geographic top of the world, but her charity expedition will nonetheless be far more challenging than average law student pastimes, such as schlepping down the boozer for a quick five pints.
The Legal Practice Course (LPC) student at the University of Law’s Moorgate branch in London will spend seven days on a 155-mile sledding trek around the northern reaches of Norway and Sweden.
Keeping her company will be 10 other fundraisers — she’s raising cash for the St Clare Hospice, which provides palliative care for residents of west Essex and east Hertfordshire — and a lot of dogs.
Despite setting off on the adventure in early spring, the 23-year-old student will be well advised to leave the law books at home, as temperatures on the trek are expected to dip to around minus 30 degrees centigrade. When it’s that cold, the temptation to throw the LPC property law handbook on the fire is likely to be overwhelming.
Indeed, especially for Cripps, who earlier this week told her local newspaper, the Harlow Star:
“I’ve always felt the cold more than most people, so for me especially it will be tough.”
Still, she’ll have thoughts of the start in a year’s time of her forthcoming training contract at City law firm CMS Cameron McKenna to keep her warm.
The law student went on to enumerate the expected trials of her forthcoming Easter fun:
“I will be setting up camp each day in the icy wilderness without a toilet, shower or bakery for miles. I’ve never done anything like this before and it’s frightening. It’s a unique challenge that will really test me mentally and physically.”
Cripps has set a target of £3,000 for the hospice. She told the paper the institution “is really close to my heart as they looked after my grandfather before he died”.
For information on sponsoring Cripps, her fundraising page can be found here.