Luca Del Pero of Italy took gold in the vertical men’s event while Sweden’s Lina El Kott Helander was the winner in the vertical women’s race.

Participants begun the race at dawn and Del Pero was the first to cross the finish line.

He clocked a time of 39 minutes and 37 seconds, which was four seconds faster than Russia’s Vitalii Chernov and five seconds quicker than fellow Italian Lorenzo Rota.

In the women’s race, Helander’s victory was slightly more comfortable than Del Pero’s as she timed at 46min 31sec and silver medallist Silvia Lara finished fourteen seconds later.

Spain’s Virginia Perez Mesonero took the bronze medal with a time of 48min 9sec.

Competitors were required to cover 4.3 kilometres by going up 3,050 metres in altitude.

This included a 950m vertical climb.

The 2022 SkySnow World Championships will continue tomorrow (February 5) with the classic races taking place at dusk.

Participants will need to get through a 12.5km course with just warm clothing, headlamps and micro crampons - their specialist running shoes.