Event Previews & Reviews from Les 2 Alpes

The London Ski and Snowboard show is for many the first event of the winter. Pick up the latest kit, catch up with friends and enjoy the party. It'll be a couple of months before you can do it for real.

The glacier in Les 2 Alpes opened this weekend and in the region of 3,000 people arrived in resort to get their first skiing and snowboarding of the season done.

Craig David is undoubtedly the best-known singer Les Deux Alpes has seen perform but the festival saw plenty more great music. This was also the snowiest Rise Festival so far, keeping the skiers and snowboarders happy and helping along the party atmosphere.

Saturday saw the first edition of the Les Deux Alpes Defí Vertical – a ski touring race from the town at 1650 metres to the top of the glacier at 3600 metres.

With a busy festive fortnight coming to an end, we bring you a rundown of the highlights of the last two weeks.

On Wednesday, Les Deux Alpes attempted to beat the world record for the largest ever torchlit descent on skis. Thousands of torches were ready, the people from Guinness were there to officiate and count, and a large crowd was gathered on La Toura ready for the ski down in the dark.

This weekend just gone saw the fifth edition of the Deux Alpes Night Snowtrail race. As always it was a well-attended, well-run event, but this year saw the 2015 Trail Running world champion in attendance. Sylvain Court, who is also a two-time French champion, was running in the 20km race.

The Mountain of Hell MTB race is now in its 17th year and the 2016 edition saw 700 mountain bikers take part from no less than 18 different countries. For the first time this year there was a children's race with 23 competitors taking part, and 16 women also joined the ranks - I was one of them.

Now in its fifth year, the Deux Alpes Night Snow Trail has become something of a fixture on the resort’s calendar. A growing number of trail running aficionados are choosing their skiing holiday dates each winter to allow them to compete in the race.

The fifth leg of the iXS European Downhill Cup (EDC), held in Les Deux Alpes this weekend, was the last event before the finals at Leogang (AUT) in September.