Chamonix Bike Blog

Tag: Vallorcine

All the lifts.

In 2013 Lorne and I tried to ride every lift on the Chamonix pass in a day. We failed because we didn’t really think it through first. You can read all about it on the blog here.

In 2016 Lorne and I tried to ride every lift on the Chamonix pass in a day. We failed because we were a bit ambitious about how quick we’d move at the end of the day. You can read all about it on Pinkbike here.

In 2018 Lorne and I tried to ride every lift on the Chamonix pass* in a day. We…..

Well, where would the suspense be if you knew the outcome was by the 3rd paragraph? OK, it would be in the well written prose where it’s a literary technique called prolepsis, but here you’re lucky if I dinnay stray into Scots too often, so you can just have good old fashioned chronological prose instead. (play literary technique bingo HERE with the hand guide to words you’ll never remember)

In past attempts there were pages of maps and detailed spreadsheets of timings. For this go it was as much as either of us could do to find a date neither of us were working. Date found, we met for the 0754 train outta Chamonix with a scribbled list of lift closure times and worked it out on the way.

Pedal up to Le Tour, wait for the lifts to open, go up the lifts, ride round to the Vallorcine DH. Its been well hammered by some recent storms, the “black” grading probably needs shaded in even harder. It’s quite the warm up lap.

Up the Vallorcine gondola, pedal up to the Col Posettes, head down through the bike park. It’s the July – August bike ban so the more interesting ways down are all out of bounds. Obviously, being the smoothest and easiest trail of the day, I get a puncture on the green track.

Grands Montets, Flegere and Brevent are all closed to bikes this summer (well, Brevent isn’t, but you can only go up from 1615 and there’s just 1 way down, so we’re treating it as closed) so it’s a fast pedal through the valley to Les Houches and Prarion.

Prarion lift, Prarion DH trail. There’s a new see-saw to enter the track (we don’t like see-saws) the trails running pretty good, and the new finish spits you out just above the Bellevue lift.

Puncture excepted, all had gone smoothly up to now. There was a gondola sitting ready to leave. We weren’t allowed on it and had to wait for the next lift. I bought a baguette. You make the most of downtime on days like these.

There’s a grand yet little known trail starting a few hundred meter down from the Bellevue lift that drops you down towards La Chapiot. We took this trail for those reasons, it really is grand and being little known it wasn’t hoaching. It also handily puts you onto the trail round to Pont des Places and Le Champel and cuts out a wheen of road and climbing on the way to Les Contamines.

A handy feature of many of the lifts outside the Chamonix valley is they either close for lunch or run on 30 minute rotations. Or both. The Les Contamines lift closes from 1230 to 1345. With some smugness we were on the lift by 1200. As the next lift was also closed ’til 1345 we chose to do a bigger lap off the top. Well worth the detour. And we could stop and take some photos as we went too. Bonus.

Bollocks. Having sauntered up to the St Gervais lift well before its 1345 opening we get blocked out of the queue for the second stage and made to wait 15 mins for the next rotation. Will we make the last lift in time? Will we rue those missing 15 mins? Will anywhere have ice cream in Megeve? All these questions and more remain to be answered.

From the top of St Gervais we’re aiming for the Jaillet lift in Megeve, and strike a fairly direct line towards it down the hill. The trails about here aren’t so easy to find as over in Chamonix, you don’t get as many folks exploring this far. If you can bring yourself to make the effort, then joining the dots between Les Mandarines Restaurant, Bornand, Darbelet and Les Choseaux is well worth your effort, even if forestry work and storms have damaged or destroyed some sections of the trail. About a third of the way down we score the first crash of the day too, with Lorne hitting the deck hard. An enduro crash though, he’s up and riding as soon as he can see the bike is fine.

At the Jaillet lift we find Lorne is a little less fine, but it’s only blood and the body had something like 5 litres of the stuff so he can afford to waste some of it. Jaillet lift is also home to some fine trails, a veritable maze criss crosses its way through the forest below the lift. The best way to learn it is to get a day pass and keep trying different trails. We didn’t have time for that, so Lorne had to trust I could remember where I went in races past.

It seemed to work, 45 mins after getting off the St Gervais lift we were at the Rochebrune lift and ready to rock. Except the Rochebrune wasn’t running for another 15 mins. That answers that question.

Are there any worthwhile trails to ride off the Rochebrune lift? So far the answer there is no, but I’ve not tried every trail, so mibbies there’s something. Eitherways, it’s on the lift pass, takes bikes, and the 4×4 trails help get us over to the next lift with a minimum of pedaling, so it gets taken and ridden.

Petite Fontaine. This is more like it. We’re running seriously tight here to get to the next lift by 1630, so there’s no photos only memories (and they don’t convert to 1’s and 0’s well yet), but this lift is way more what folks have in mind when they think of undiscovered alpine chairlifts. Big rolling terrain and sweet rooty singletrack. Over all to soon but with the schedule we’re on, probably soon enough. Or maybe not, we get to our next checkpoint with so much time to spare we can buy ice creams. Another question answered.

Mont d’Arbois. Fourth of the poorly named Megeve trilogy, the lift brings you back up to more or less the top of the St Gervais lift. That means it brings you up to the top of the “Wizz” flow trail. In a region of the alps not known for getting flow trails right, this is a wee gem of a trail that could have been lifted straight out of Whistler. Early season Whistler before the braking bumps form up at that. Not sure about the name though.

Wizz trail ridden, we’re still 620m above and 16 mins before the last tramway, our last lift, of the day. Whilst it would be nice to do those 620m on some quality singletrack that’s not an option in this area, and even the average singletrack is a bit time consuming, so we crack on with a bit of road riding and cut through finding.

Two minutes early is as good as 10. Two minutes is enough to buy a can of juice whilst you wait for the Tramway car to appear over the horizon. You learn to make the most of downtime on days like these.

Arriving at the bike high point of the tramway, Bellevue, it sort of dawns on us that we’ve actually managed to get round all of the lifts. We’re both a bit tired and the cumulative wear and tear of the day is showing. The sensible choice here would be to take the classic GR5 trail down as a victory lap…..but somehow that doesn’t seem quite the fitting way to end. No, to celebrate we decide that we’ve not done enough today and the perfect way down would be to drag our battered bikes and bodies up towards the Col Mont Lachat and ride one of the most technical and consequential trails in the valley.

I’m not sure I could truthfully say the Arandellys descent is the most suitable trail to end this day on, but I guess there were a few parallels to the rest of the ride. You need a certain amount of ambition, confidence and luck to ride it clean. Neither of us rode it clean, but we were both above our average for getting through each section. Amazing what a bit of success does for the riding confidence.

Another convenient coincidence of this trail, it ends at a pub. So did our ride**

*Some caveats. These are all the lifts on the Chamonix Mont Blanc Unlimited annual pass that you are allowed to take a bike on during the bike ban months of July and August. Outwith these months there are more choices in the Chamonix Valley, but then most of the lifts outside the valley are closed. Brevent is the complicated one as after a few years of being closed to bikes in July and August has no opened to bikes, but only after 1615 and only to ride the road down. So we missed it out.

** Well, only figuratively. We then rode home after a couple pints (err, don’t drink and ride kids). As I live in a ground level apartment and Lorne a 3rd floor flat then I assume this is why my strava gives 9819m of descent and Lornes’ 9996m. A fair bit either way. Lorne worked out the numbers on the ride without the lifts and train. 123.4km, 2070m climbing, 9996m descending. Up for it?

Relive ‘Every lift August 2018’

17/08/2018
Le Tour Triptych

Three stories about the Tour du France. No, not really, but I wonder how much traffic from VTT’s lycra clad brethren will be directed this way as a result of that title. Page views are views, it all aids the google rating…

No, this is the story of the three descents from Le Tour that seem made to be appreciated together. The trail trio that take the tumultuous twisting turns towards Trient, Chatelard and Vallorcine. I’d prefer it if those last two were renamed Tatlard and Tallowscene but I want doesn’t always get as Trump appears never to have been told as a wean.

The Le Tour riding encapsulates much of what makes biking in Chamonix so great. A mix of gondolas and chairlifts interspaced with traversing and climbing under your own power. Thin ribbons of singletrack high above the treeline dropping to ancient paths through the forests, all with a range of technical challenge from the fast and flowy to the feck that I’m pushing and everything in between.

The catalyst for riding all these trails in a day came in a visit to Chamonix from Fred Leth. I seem to make a habit of riding with friends from the flattest countries in Europe, presumably in the hope that I can be faster than them. Riding the Enduro des Belleville last week with Bas from the Netherlands, where he kicked my ass, and most peoples ass, on every stage he had inflated tyres for shows the folly of that theory. Fred being from Denmark doesn’t seem to cause him any issues with knocking out some impressive race results as he trundles about the alps each summer in his caravan. Even better, Spence made a return visit to town to get reacquainted with the trails that made him the rider he is today.

In the usual narrative the trails would be ridden in ascending order so you could use a line like “each trail was better than the last” but I think we probably rode the best trail first. Though the second trail runs it close. And the third is up there too.

Up the Charamillon gondola and the Autannes chairlift, onto the bikes and pedal round to the Refuge du Col de Balme and onwards towards le Bechat. Uphill dealt with and some cryptic clues from Spence and I about what lies ahead we drop in and start the fast flowing blast round towards Catogne that forms the first part of the descent to Chatelard.

It’s a particular pleasure, getting to show someone a trail for the first time. You know what’s coming up and, whilst you no doubt still enjoy the trail, some of the excitement has gone out of it. With someone new to the trail along for the ride though, so much of that comes back as you watch their reactions. Fred seemed pretty happy!

With the 200m prelude down to Catogne done, we continued on for yet more alpine singletrack through fields and past old cowshed to the tree line. As the trail enters the trees things start to get a little more challenging, but still nothing too technical. A new built section of trail near the Esserts reservoir brings you away from some grassy 4×4 track and keeps you on singletrack all the way to the tiny hamlet of La Mena. It’s an odd contrast, going so suddenly from dark woods to weaving through perfectly tended chalet gardens, then back into the dark woods but that’s how it rolls about here.

The next dark woods are a bit different from those above. The roots are to be expected, but it’s the most rocks we’ve had to deal with all descent. Much steeper and more technical it’s a challenging finish when the arms and core are getting tired from all the trail above, but very satisfying.

The trail spits you out onto a viaduct for a short flat pedal, another little bit of jibby trail, a picturesque bridge and an old school version of falling water house and then it’s done. 1100m of first class and varied descending. Now just pedal back up the road to Vallorcine before the lifts there close at 1250 (not 1300 as the website claims) and for added fun, watch the train that saves you this effort go past shortly after deciding that there probably isn’t a train at this time of day.

Lap two. Off to Trient. Once more up the Autannes chairlift, onto the bikes and pedal round to the Refuge du Col de Balme but this time keep climbing to the Col below the Croix de Fer. You can pedal all the way to the col, but you can also chill out and push up, it’s not a race. The col is a good spot for lunch, so we stopped for lunch. Bikes are grand, and going downhill fast is grand, but lying on a grassy hill in the sunshine with stunning views all round is grand too.

Even better if you can add in some good French bread. An Italian coffee too would have been perfection, but you can’t always get what you want (is Trump a fan of the Rolling Stones?)

Eventually we accepted we would have to sit up and exercise. The trail to Trient has been covered here before, away have a look at the other blog entries or check out Tom’s Chamonix Bike Book if you need more information (or give Wayne a shout if you want to be shown a few of the variations that have been left out of the blogs to keep a bit of the trails hidden…) but suffice to say it’s a Chamonix classic for a very good reason and there are a lot of people out there who’d rate it as the best descent in the valley.

There has been some trail work on the first section that has seen the arrival of some very aggressive drainage features, rock slabs sitting vertically out of the trail about 30 to 40cm proud. How you deal with them depends mostly on how high you can bunnyhop, but despite it messing with the flow it’s probably for the best if it helps slow down some of the folks blasting down here on one of the busier walking trails. On which subject, some kind soul has been putting screws and nails into drainage ditches presumably in an effort to puncture tyres, though the angles used could equally puncture trail shoes or livestock hoofs. Gonnay no dae that would seem a fair comment.

Back to the trail, which has finished. We’ve spun back round to France on the road and are about to head up the Vallorcine gondola for the second time of the day. The group grows by three as we bump into Lorne and Edinburgh ski shop Freeze‘s finest Al and Becky.

We’re heading for the Vallorcine DH track (Fred is a downhiller after all), they’re heading to the DH track, so we get a fun lap as a big group feeding off each others laughs/screams at surviving rain eroded berms and some of the best man made biking in the area.

After another ride up the Vallorcine lift we head back round to the front of the hill for the third big lap of the day. Spence has to head home and the others are going for the Trient lap to finish the day so Fred and I re trace our steps from the mornings first lap, but with none of those pesky flow-breaking photo or crash stops.

At the chatelard junction we head up the short climb to begin the third variation of the day down to Vallorcine. We hadn’t really noticed time or fatigue creeping up on us during the day, but suddenly both were becoming a pressing concern. Energy levels were low and we only had 12 mins to the last lift out of the Vallorcine valley, so we skipped the link into the Vallorcine DH track and it’s associated singletrack to instead dump a couple hundred meters of altitude on 4×4 track and short cut throughs. This wasn’t a full wave of the white flag though, we still broke off for the final 200m of fine forest singletrack back to the gondola to arrive with 5 minutes to spare. An irrelevant 5 minutes as the ferme barrier was already up.

Fortunately the liftie took pity on us and we were ushered under the tape and onto a gondola. As we stepped off the top the motors were shut down and the lift stopped turning. Time to head for home.

In an ideal world we’d then have hit the Posettes trail back towards Chamonix, but it’s August and we didn’t want to invite conflict on one of the more contentious local trails. Nothing to do with being tired or how much I like looking down from my high horse (though I hear the higher they are the more they hurt when you fall off). Instead it was a cruise through the bike park and assorted simple trails by the river to home and a fridge of cold drinks.

Another day in paradise ticked off without having to think twice or listen to Phil Collins.

25/08/2017
Yeah, but what’s the best descent in Chamonix……

Dinnay fret, I’ve not gone full buzzfeed, just written too many replies to emails* asking “what’re the best bike descents in Chamonix” and figured if I write it here then a link will do the job.

That and I’ve been riding a lot of these trails recently but taking no photos and kinda wanted to share how good the trails are with folks.

Hence, in no particular order, here’s nine of the best descents in and around Chamonix plus a sandbag just to keep y’all on your toes. Obviously I’ve missed out my favourite line and a couple that are seeing enough traffic already.

It also turns out that I’ve not actually written about all these lines, so the links might just cover half the trail. Get a copy of the Chamonix Bike Book and/or the IGN map though, you’ll work it out. What’s the worst that could happen, etc….

Aguillete des Houches to Merlet
Bit of a double whammy this one, not only is there the descent of the Aig des Houches, but you also then get the Merlet (or Animal Park as it’s sometimes kent) trail too, and without the effort of pedalling up the Merlet road. Winner winner chicken dinner.

Vallorcine DH track
Totally unmaintained, unloved, unknown and awesome. One of the best DH race tracks I’ve ridden. The bigger features have fallen into disrepair a bit of late but the lower half is raw as, and all the better for it. Unmaintained is not quite true either as there’s been some good work done on it this year. And I love it so that kinda knocks the rest of the opening line too.

Nid d’Agile to Champel via Col du Tricot
Some of these descents come easy, others a bit less so. This one (two really) is in the less so category. Still, only 900m of climbing for 2200m of descent. The first descent is in fairly full on mountain biking territory, you’re passing folk resplendent in mountaineering gear ready for a jaunt up Mont Blanc, and there some huge exposure and the odd ladder to down climb. Well mint descent though. The second down is still out in big scenery, but this time much more flowy with 2+km of sinuous singletrack contouring along the hillside.

Col du Balme to Trient
Total Chamonix classic, despite being totally in Switzerland. Big open alpine views singletrack at the top then tighter and rockier when you get into the the trees lower down. Probably the easiest of the ten lines here.

Col de Balme to Chatelard
Better than the descent to Trient? Almost exactly the same amount of pedalling back up to Vallorcine (it’s only 15mins at an easy spin, no, you don’t need to take the train) as the descent to Trient but it feels much closer. Less flow and more tech than the Trient line lower down, but the upper singletrack through the alpages is what photographers’ dreams are made of (if they can be bothered getting far enough away from the trail for the shot). And yeah, I know the link isn’t actually for all of this descent, but it covers about half of it and I’d not realised I’d not written anything about it before. No one’s perfect.

Loriaz
The best evening ride in the world? Take the train over to Buet, pedal your way up to the Loriaz chalets, sit and watch the view for a while, there’s no rush, then enjoy one of the best “easier” natural trails in the alps. From Vallorcine you can either sit in the station cafe for a bit then get the train over the col to enjoy the ride back into Chamonix, or just pedal up. It was one of my first rides when I moved to Chamonix (cheers Spence) and through it I’ve met some amazing friends and had some amazing times.

Bellachat trails via Sentier Des Guards and the Brevent couloir
The hillside below the Brevent and Flegere lifts is covered in steep singletrack. It’s also covered in families out walking and off limits in July and August. The riding’s great, but you need to be early or late to really enjoy it without constantly stopping to let folk pass or chat. Sentier Des Guards is a bit further out the way and much less travelled, so it gets the pick here. Obviously you need to start from the high entrance about 100m above the Plan Praz station rather than the 4×4 track, anything else is cheating…..

Plan de l’Aguille
Normally the best areas for skiing are the worst for bikes, and vice versa. Below the Telepherique Aig di Midi is the exception to this rule. Of course, the skiing is easier as you can use the lift. If you want to ride the trail it’s 1300m of climbing, most of it carrying or pushing the bike. Good descent mind. Climbing up by the Pre de rocher side and descending via le Grande Foret is the more interesting loop.

Chalets du Souey
Early and late season ride usually this one, either waiting for the snow to melt high enough or hoping it’s not settled too low. It’s also a good trail for when I’m pining a bit for Scotland, the easy but long pedal up on tarmac and forestry road followed by tight trees, rain runneled gullies, root mazes and the odd well built bit of walking trail is a lot of what I miss. That and I’m usually riding there in the rain.

Le Prarion Summit to Les Bouchards
It doesn’t matter how good you are, there’s always something too hard for you, something that you know you need to get better for. This is mine. I might never be able to ride the full trail, but the challenge is always there and I’m pretty sure it’s possible. If there’s a more tech trail in the valley (that doesn’t have ladders or a glacier in the way) please let me know.

*I hardly ever check the emails, so if you’ve got a question and want an answer in the same month, ask it on an instagram picture and I’ll get back to you quick-sharp. Or in a week at least.

03/08/2016
Border.

It was the Les Gets opening weekend last week and I got a bit excited at the prospect of a whole day in the bike park chasing down Nina & Spence’s new local friends on their DH bikes. As a result I ended the day with an old thumb injury flaring up again and needing to take it easy on the bike for a couple of weeks.

This seems like a perfect time then to go and explore some new trails, with a guarantee of a maximum of faffage and a minimum of actual downhill riding time to aggravate my ulnar collateral ligament.

One of my favourite ski tours from last winter was the little known Barberine Couloir near Loriaz so what better than to try and repeat it in summer.

Obviously this was a stupid idea as the places that give the best skiing are rubbish for the bike (Champex-lac) and the best riding is poor skiing (Les Houches) and to save you the bother of reading on, the ride followed this theme with predictable accuracy, so you can just look at the pretty pictures now.

Still reading? Must be a slow day in the office.

To be fair, the ride started pretty well. Train with no conductor hassle to Buet, painless climb to the Loriaz chalets then starting across some fun traversing single track with amazing views in front to Switzerland and behind across the Mont-Blanc Massif. There were a few short sections that were a little to tricky to ride with a dodgy thumb, but nothing too harsh.

Some trailrunning friends had said that the traverse across to the Emosson dam was mostly rideable, with only a couple of technical sections with chains. This was much the case and as Lorne pointed out, most of the best trail have rock climbing with chains somewhere along the way.

Once over by the Emosson dam (obviously it would have been easier to have just climbed the road to the dam carpark, but where’s the fun in that?) we had a break for me to discover I’d forgotten to pack any water and to pop pads on for the main event, the descent down below the dam to Barberine.

We’d been getting glimpses of the trail below us on the traverse, which looked good. Alas we’d also been getting glimpses of the steep upper slopes covered in scree where the trail emerged from. Turned out for the first 100m or so of vertical we were carting the bikes down a rubble filled gully. Not ideal, but not so bad if the trail below is worth it.

Which it wasn’t. Quite. There were lots of great sections, but the flow was constantly being interrupted by awkward rock steps and slow speed boulder runs where you were constantly fighting to stop the front wheel getting hooked up. Not ideal with a bad thumb.

The lower third gave the best riding as we traversed on fast trails through the forest, which was kinda the theme of the ride. Traversing trails good, descending trails bad.

Eventually we arrived at Barberine, the collection of houses masquerading as a village, and started the long spin up the road to the Col du Montets and home, after a much needed stop at the random buvette before Vallorcine for a can of coke.

Not a ride we’ve got plans on repeating, but nothing ventured nothing gained and there were some excellent wee sections that we’d never have ridden otherwise. I’ll be back with the skis but.

08/06/2015
Loriaz v1.5

Big fan of the Loriaz ride, fairly easy up, great views, few people and an excellent descent. Hard to fault really.

But it’s easy to get complacent about these things, it’s good to mix it up a bit. What if Neo had chosen the blue pill?

So, after a run in with the SNCF’s grumpiest conductor who wouldn’t let 1/2 the cyclists at Chamonix central onto the train and a little over 60 minutes of climbing Lorne and I stood ready at the Croix de Loriaz ready to eschew the truth of the red pill/normal Loriaz trail and explore the illusion of the blue/turning right onto the other way down the hill.

In truth, we both kinda knew where we were going, having been up the trail several times in the winter on ski touring missions. But then, things generally look a bit different with a couple foot of snow on them and this was particularly evident above the tree line where the trail snaking through the undergrowth was strewn with boulders.

Far from unridable, but tricky to master with any flow.

From the tree line down things were much more agreeable, unsurprisingly pretty similar to the normal Loriaz descent. Not better mind, but still a fun trail.

The main reason for never giving the trail a go before is that it spits you out onto the ascent track about 40% of the way up, and no one want to coast down the same fireroad they sweated up.

Fortunately there’s a selection of trails that mean you only need to ride a few hundred metres on 4×4 track, so no great loss. Choosing the line signposted to Le Nant for no reason other than it went in the opposite direction to the road we continued down.

I know you shouldn’t anthropomorphise animals let alone trails, but this section of trail did have slightly schizophrenic tendencies. Lulling you into a false sense of security with swooping single track you’d attack a bend behind a rock only to discover hidden rock gardens or off camber roots. Alternatively an innocuous 90 degree bend would suddenly plunge you straight down the hill through rubble.

Still, all good fun.

Popping back out on the road half way twixt Vallorcine and Buet we considered a re-match with the conductor, but instead pedalled up over the col and cruised down a selection of valley trails back to Chamonix.

Which is better then, reality or illusion? The original trail I’d say, but there’s no harm in a bit of a change every now and then.

31/05/2015