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.