Do you ever see a video of an event and ask “why would people willingly want to do that?”
I ask myself that very question every time I see people running marathons. Let me get this straight, you want me to get up and be excited to run 26.2 miles for 5 hours and have to pay someone else to do it? If I am running that far, for that long, I will be expecting a check with my name on it at the end. You won’t ever see me paying to do something that I’ll hate.
And you probably won’t see me paying to join in on whatever the heck this bicycle race is either. The annual event is actually called the “Mountain of Hell,” and is a free-ride mountain biking race straight down an icy glacier that is held at the Les Deux Alpes ski resort in France every summer.
Riders (usually 700 to start) brave a 15-mile course of snow, ice, dirt and danger, descending over 8,000 feet in the process on tracks that are usually reserved for snowboarding and skiing. All competitors start at the very same time, so calamity and hilarity are almost always guaranteed to ensue.
The three day bike race costs around $120 dollars to participate in, and as it turns out, it’s fun for the whole family. Not only do they have an adult division in the “Mountain of Hell,” they also have a children’s version of the downhill ice-biking race. What right-minded parent would sign their own kid up for something called the “Mountain of Hell?”
This massive pileup in the video below happened during the 2019 edition of the event. As you’ll see, it doesn’t matter how much tread is on the bike tires, bicycles and ice just don’t mix. Once one person goes down, the slope turns into a real life pinball machine of flailing riders and bent-to-hell bikes.
Whoever named the thing the “Mountain of Hell” did a great job. Take a look:
That can’t be worth it right?
Well, people keep doing it year after year, so there must be something “fun” about it. And apparently no injuries were reported from that above video in 2019, which is honestly hard to believe. I think I smell a “Mountain of Hell” coverup…
To prove to you, the reader, that this is a real thing, I tracked down the most recent footage of the event. This additional video from this past year’s “Mountain of Hell” is absolutely electric, and could not have chosen better background music.
Have fun watching people fall off their bikes to the hardcore violin version of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” below:
