Photo Gallery: Rene Wildhaber's Megavalanche

Reunion Island is one of Europe’s most remote places. The island, which lies east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean and belongs to France, is considered to be the outermost region of the European Union. Not much happens here, with the exception of an occasional volcanic eruption every year or two from the Piton de la Fournaise Volcano. But for the past thirteen years Reunion Island has also been host to the Megavalanche downhill event that plummets 6,500 vertical feet in 12.4 miles from the top of the volcano through the dense jungle to the sea.

Rene WIldahber, a Scott-sponsored, Swiss racer with a long history at the Megavalanche event enjoys escaping the snowy Alps, where he is a ski instructor, to race on Reunion. “From the spray of powder snow to the spray of dust – not bad,” is his only comment. He calls La Reunion his second home.

Rene tackles the challenge of Megavalanche along with as many as 400 other racers charging at the front of the pack with the likes of Remy Absalon, Andrew Neethling, Filip Polc and this year's winner Nicolas Vouilloz, who has won the event eight of the nine times he's entered it.

A long dry spell made for extremely dusty conditions on all of the trails including the jungle. For the majority of the racers, stuck behind other competitors, visibility was compromised considerably. Under these conditions the fastest racers leading the pack with a clean view of the trails gain an even bigger advantage.

Wildhaber was happy to finish the 2007 Reunion Megavalanche without injury and in third place: one minute behind Absalon and two behind Vouilloz.