There are a few big French mountain events vying to be the craziest event in mountain biking. This viral vid stakes Mountain Of Hell’s claim to the crown.

>>> Three minutes of Megavalanche madness

What is the Mountain Of Hell? It’s one of those mass-start races down a snow-capped French mountain. The format is simple, fastest down the mountain wins. Except, unlike in other mountain bike races, you don’t do the run alone but with hundreds of other riders all jostling for position.

The race itself looks brutal. The riders all start en-masse and when the competitive instinct kicks in it’s a sure-fire recipe for absolute carnage.

Inspired by this video above, here’s three more edits of mass-start mountain-raiding classic carnage that all feature the true Daddy of stupid mass mountain races: the MegAvalanche.

1. The snowball effect

This poor rider has only just started his run before he gets caught up in a proper Megavalanche crash. Like a snowball, when this gets moving, there’s not much stopping it. This video shows that if you get caught up in an incident like this, there’s not much you can do to rescue your race.

2. It’s not just the top that’s hard

This spectator was positioned a bit further down the Mega course to catch some singletrack action. The steep slab, with multiple line options, proves to be a little difficult for a lot of the riders, much to the delight of the cameraman and his buddy.

3. The bird’s eye view

In this official video, clever use of helmet-cam and helicopter footage gives you an idea of the scale of the race. The racers swarm down the glacier like angry ants before taking in some sun-drenched singletrack on the slopes below.