Val Thorens is offering a new activity this winter for those in search of a new adrenaline rush – high altitude downhill mountain biking on snow, at night. Participants start their descent at one of the highest lift-served points in the French Alps, 3,000m up at the foot of the Péclet Glacier. They then hurtle down the six kilometre (nearly four mile) long “Tête Ronde” run on their mountain bike, descending 700 vertical metres back to the resort.

Val Thorens, Europe’s highest ski resort in the world’s biggest ski area, the 3 Valleys in France, and the second resort to open in France this winter, has good news for first time skiers visiting this season, as the resort has spent 1.5 million Euros on a state-of-the-art, 40 hectare, special beginners area.

This area is equipped with four new conveyor lifts, complete with plastic tunnel weather-protection covers, improving the circulation on the whole snow front without effort.