Les Deux Alpes Night Snow Trail 2018 Review

Trail running in deep snow, in the dark, in a blizzard

Imprint: By Ian Huyton, Updated 24 January 2018

Les Deux Alpes’ unusual trail running challenge returned for its sixth and perhaps its toughest instalment this weekend. Heavy snow, high winds and avalanche risk meant that courses had to be altered. Some competitors had a shorter run and others a longer one but all had a difficult time trying to race through deep snow.

This year I had entered the fifteen-kilometre race and, on seeing the weather forecast, I was wondering if the ten-kilometre one might have been a better choice. All the courses start on Les Crêtes and finish in town, meaning that there is around 500m meters more downhill than up. The 10k usually does a circuit of the Crêtes green runs before the descending to the resort centre on the Demoiselles piste. The 15km and 20km options take the same route for the first few kilometres before crossing over to the Vallée Blanche side of the ski area for the second half.

At the pre-race briefing in the main square, we were told that the finish line had been moved to the Amphibia sports hall. By my reckoning that made the shortest course slightly shorter and the longer courses slightly longer. We were also told that the first section on Les Crêtes had been shortened. This seemed like good news, given the conditions. After the briefing, the 300 or so runners headed to the White Eggs lift to get to the start. I was near the back of the queue, being in no hurry to stand in the blizzard at the top. I arrived at Les Crêtes a few minutes before the race started and joined the crowd on the start line. At this point, one of the organisers took to a microphone to give last minute instructions.

The good news, he said, was that the 15km runners only had to run 12km. The bad news, he continued, was that the 10km runners now had to do 12km as well. The two courses had been combined into one race. As a 15km runner, the news was not unwelcome. For those expecting a mostly downhill 10km, this was less popular news. Although an extra 2km does not sound like much, three easy kilometres had been swapped for five hard ones. The total climbing had increased too, from about 200m to around 350m. To make matters worse, some runners at the back did not hear the announcement. Those that knew the 10km course from previous years thought they were close to the finish when they were diverted onto the usual 15km route with 5km of hard slog still ahead.

Large parts of the route felt more like wading than running, with the snow often knee deep and sometimes a lot deeper. On the second half of the route, overtaking was near impossible, as it meant leaving the furrow ploughed by the runners ahead and breaking a new trail through waist deep snow. The runners at the front of the field must have had a hard job to keep going and deserve extra credit this year.

The last kilometre of both courses took us to the far end of the town before returning to the centre along the foot of the pistes. Passing the original finish by the main square was tough, although it was only another 200m to the new finish. The finish funnel took us through the back door of the sports hall to cross the line indoors. Given that many runners would've been quite cold at this point, the indoor finish is a good improvement. Like all the French trail races I have done, the refuelling station at the end was loaded with food and drink to rehydrate and replenish depleted sugar levels.

This was a good event, as it always is but finishing this year was extra satisfying given the extra degree of toughness. Everybody I spoke to was glad they had completed the race and I’m looking forward to the next one. Hopefully on firm snow on a calm moonlit night after a beautiful sunset.