Event Previews & Reviews from Les 2 Alpes

There are many trail races in the Deux Alpes area, but the Vertical Trail weekend is reserved for two of the steepest, most gruelling hill-climbs on the calendar.

Saturday afternoon saw the arrival of around 3000 Rise festival-goers in Les Deux Alpes, and it didn’t take long for the party to get underway. Back for the third year running, this time around looks set to be bigger than ever.

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.

For the nineteenth edition the competitors were greeted by three days of good weather and perfect biking conditions. The fastest riders hit speeds well over 100km/h and covered the twenty-five-kilometre-long course in just under thirty minutes.

Saturday saw around thirty classic cars, vans and bikes assemble in the square for a brand-new event in Les Deux Alpes; the Vintage Motor Show.

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.

Back for the seventh year running, Les Deux Alpes’ Night Snow Trail continues to attract a growing number of trail runners each winter. In 2018, over 500 runners took part in the three courses.

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.