THEY call it MacAvalanche – and with good reason. It’s fast and furious, action and adventure, skills and spills all rolled into one. And you get to do it on a bike. In the snow.

In just a few weeks’ time, more than 200 riders will hurtle down the side of a mountain, starting in deep snow and descending more than 900 metres at speed. It’s not for the faint-hearted.

The annual adrenaline event takes place at the Nevis Range Mountain Resort in Scotland, near Fort William, with this year’s race set for Saturday April 20.

It’s described as “a race for the fearless”.

The resort boasts the UK’s only mountain gondola, which was originally built to take skiers 650m up the north face of Aonach Mòr, the eighth highest mountain in Britain.

MacAvalanche riders go even further, starting above the top gondola station, then powering down to the top sections of the trails below, weaving their way through the scree.

Take a look at this video, which captures some of the action from the 2023 race and you’ll see what I mean. It is, says Nevis Range managing director Chris O’Brien “an unforgettable sight”.

A short film about Nevis Range, including some of the MacAvalanche footage wowed visitors to last week’s British Tourism & Travel Show at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre. It certainly stopped me in my tracks.

The Mountain Gondola offers spectacular views amid clear mountain air, and there are trails to panoramic viewpoints from which, on a clear day, you can see as far as the Inner Hebrides.

The resort offers year-round attractions for all ages and abilities but is primarily a must-visit destination for winter sports fans, mountain bikers, climbers, trekkers, hikers, paragliders and walkers.

There’s bike and winter sports equipment hire, a bike school, a hotel and campervan site close to the bottom gondola station, a bar, restaurant and cafe.

MacAvalanche 2024, meanwhile, is just the start of the resort’s mountain biking season, which sees the return of the WHOOP UCI World Series from May 3 to 5, and Round 2 of the National Downhill Series from May 25 to 26.

For full information on MacAvalanche, the resort and its attractions, head to the Nevis Range website.