Ah, the birds are singing, flowers poking through the grass. It must be spring, and so the bike has been dragged out of the cave it’s languished in for the last 4 months of winter and I’ve been back in the saddle.
Of course, this being the mountains, no sooner had the sun come out and the snow melted then it started to dump with snow in the valley and the big skis came back out of the locker again. This pattern will be set to continue for the next month or so, but at least it means we get to go skiing & biking on the same day!
Much like the skiing is best on the high north facing slopes, the biking is best on lower south facing aspects. With this in mind I thought I’d try the Trois Gullys route above Servoz, but it was too early and I turned round to explore the tracks criss-crossing the pastures on the hill above the village. The trails are pretty mellow, but nice for getting the feel of cycling back and finding out which mechanical niggles I should have fixed properly before putting the bike away…
After attacking the bike with a random selection of tools, I thought I’d give the trails around Coupeau a go. The hill faces south to south west but, perhaps more importantly, the sun tracks round on lower mountains that the rest of the Chamonix valley so the hill has been getting the sun for a lot longer. Despite this by 1200 meters there was still a bit much snow on the trails in the trees to be worth the hassle however you can still get the legs working on the spin up the road and there’s enough trails to be going at from there down to Les Houches, where you can wait for the train to arrive sometime in late summer to take you back to Chamonix.
