Guests traverse sharp ridges, cross a suspension bridge of dizzying heights and scramble over the final summit, all the while taking in the snow-capped mountain scenery and watching the occasional eagle fly overhead.

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While Brownlee had no qualms about heading out in the snow on his mountain bike, he and several team-mates also decamped to the Canary Islands for warm-weather training.

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To the west are the saw-edges of glacier-encrusted rock and ice, serrated by more than 30 jagged peaks heavy with snow, the highest of which is 6, 768m-high Huascaran, the tallest mountain in the tropics.

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Last month, Daniel Maddox, 41, from Clackmannanshire, died in an avalanche while off-piste skiing near the Glencoe Mountain snow sports centre.

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