I’m beginning to sound like a stuck record (or best-of album), but this blog’s here to give y’all an idea of riding conditions and trails around Chamonix, so I can only say what I see!
Yes, winter is STILL in force in the Chamonix valley.
I’ve been back in Scotland for a wee visit (where I got to ride the excellent new Commonwealth Games track at Cathkin Braes, good work guys. Almost made me wish I was back working in Glasgow. Almost) and had expected that upon return to Chamonix the sun would be shining, the air warm and the trails dusty.
No.
It was snowing in town, with it lying on the ground just a few hundred meters higher. The only thing for it was to get the skis back out the cave and go ride some powder.
In the meantime, the valley tracks such as the Petite Balcons, Trois Gullies etc and clear, and it’s only really been a dusting of snow below 1800m so the slightly higher trails will be fine too, just wear more than shorts and a t-shirt!
With a brief window of sunshine ahead of a forecast 60-100cm of snowfall below 2000m in the next 24hr, a group of us met outside Chamonix Bike Rental in Cham Sud to go for a wee spin round the valley.
Following the petite balcon sud across from Brevent to Les Tine gives a nice chilled out xc ride, and the trails were surprisingly dry. We headed back into town through Les Bois where the weekends XC race has worn in some of the smaller tracks through the trees nicely, plus the in-run to the dirt jumps has been reinstated too. If only any of us could actually do dirt jumps anymore…
Another result of the winter that won’t end is that road cols are struggling to open (not great if you’ve got a road bike) and that Les Gets has had to postpone its opening due to too much snow. Which, in the absence of much riding to write about, seems as good a link as any to give you the opening dates for the uplift around Chamonix. Start planning your roadtrips now…
Chamonix:
PRARION: 15th June
BREVENT CABLECAR: 15th June
LE TOUR GONDOLA & CHAIRLIFT: 15th June
PLANPRAZ GONDOLA: 15th June
FLEGERE: 15th June
BELLEVUE: 15th June
TRAMWAY DU MONT BLANC: 15th June
GRANDS MONTETS: 29th June
VALLORCINE: 29th June
And surrounding area :
Grand Massif, 6th July: http://www.grand-massif.com/les-tarifs
La Thuile 7th July : http://www.lathuile.net/datapage.asp?id=200&l=3&s=E
Portes du Mont Blanc, 29th June : http://www.combloux.com/en/activities/summer/pass.html
Pila, 22nd June: http://www.pila.it/en/holidays/tariffe/tessere-a-punti/
Portes du Soliel 15th June for daily, weekend only from now, maybe (not last weekend!): http://en.portesdusoleil.com/summer-lifts.html
Verbier Weekends in June (when the snow melts) and daily from 6th July: http://www.verbierbikepark.ch/
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