Incredible photographs that capture an epic 12-day dog-sledding race across the French Alps

A great place to watch it is Val Cenis Lanslebourg - with its Hotel Saint-Charles highly recommended.

A cacophony of barking follows as the next sled gets into position, the dogs jumping and jostling in excitement at the impending 45-mile dash. The annual Le Grande Odyssée Savoie Mont Blanc is now in its 14th year, with 25 mushers competing over nine legs for their share of a £50,000 prize pot.

The annual Le Grande Odyssée Savoie Mont Blanc is now in its 14th year, with 25 mushers competing over nine legs for their share of a £50,000 prize pot. Here a team of huskies pull their musher along during one of nine legs of the 600-mile race. The lake at the bottom of Mont Cenis was frozen as mushing teams from a dozen countries raced past

The elite competition is the brainchild of former telecoms magnate Henry Kam, who confessed to dreaming up the audacious idea after a few glasses of wine.

After spending two years battling to overcome significant local objection in a region where mushing was forbidden, he succeeded in making it an annual event watched by tens of thousands live, and many more on television.

Over the duration of the two-week race, competitors climb more than 60,000 feet - the equivalent of four times the height of Mont Blanc - and travel up to 600 miles in conditions where temperatures of -27C are not unusual.

Each have a team of around 20 dogs, usually Huskies or other Nordic breeds, which can be tactically interchanged by their owners to play to their strengths over different terrains and distances.

This particular leg begins in the resort where I'm staying - Val Cenis Lanslebourg.

The mushers start at two-minute intervals then hare up Mont Cenis, where they will spend the night camped under the stars before setting off again the following morning. 

Just a few hours earlier, skiers had been enjoying the powdery conditions.