Chamonix Bike Blog

Author: chamonixbikeblog

Lift openings 2026. Schrodinger’s lift

You’ve heard of Schrodinger’s cat right?

It’s April and the late entrance of the sun into the battle of the seasons is starting to tip the fight in favour of dirt over snow. Time for the annual where can I bike and when post.

Which is where the Schrodinger’s lift comes in. A lift that simultaneously exists in the state of open and closed for the summer season, and we won’t know which it is until we open the box in June and see which Compagnie du Mont Blanc source is right.

And get mauled by an angry cat.

Chamonix

Bellevue: 6th June – 13th September (same as 2025)

Flegere: 20th June – 13th September (open a week later, closing a week earlier than 2025, but really just swapped positions with Brevent)

Le Tour: 20th June – 20th September (opening and closing 1 week later than 2025, which was a week later than 2024. So at this rate it’ll be open for the whole autumn soon)

Planpraz/Brevent: 13th June – 20th September. Then 17th October to 1st November, so same as 2025 at Flegere really

Tramway du Mont Blanc: tbc, mibbies closed, mibbies the same as last year 13th June – 27th September

Vallorcine: 4th July – 13th September (opening 1 week later, closing 2 weeks later than 2025)

Prarion: 27th June to 6th September. Plus the 2 weekends before that. Or… closed? TBC, but back in March 15m€ of works were announced for Les Houches ski area, including refurbishing the Prarion for winter 2026/27 and some CdMB media has the lift down as closed all summer. Hence an excuse to crowbar in a physics reference to the intro.

Grands Montets: Closed. They’re (yup, still) building a new lift.

Chamonix is Chamonix, elsewhere is elsewhere. Both have grand riding, so here’s some of the nearby elsewhere’s:

La Thuile: 6th July- 13th September. Home of the best open to the public DH track in the world? Prove me wrong… Also, for reasons unknown the La Thuile website now includes lift info for La Rosiere so mibbies a more formalised link between the 2 is coming?

Courmayeur: 27th June – 30th August. It’s not just super secret tree skiing. They got a bike park now!

Megeve: 20th June – 6th September. For the Mont Blanc Natural Resort bits. Jaillet side will remain a mystery until nearer the time…

St Gervais: 25th June – 4th September. Odd dates, but that’s what’s up on their site for 2026. Valleen goes 365 from Le Fayet to St Gervais and all.

Les Contamines: 27th June – 30th August. How the mighty have fallen. From consistently the first area up with the summer dates to last 2 years in a row so these dates are TBC. Still, don’t let that put you off, the 20€ day pass covering here, St Gervais and Megeve is one of the best value in the y’aute.

Grand Massif: 20th June – 8th September. TBC. Assorted start and finish times across the area, and each area has a different approach to communicating these. Full marks to Les Carroz, it’s go from the 20th June to 6th September. Guesswork and rumour gives Samoens Flaine and Morillon 4th July to 30th August (mibbies take your EDR pace notes for the Morillon visit).

Pila: 13th June – 13th September. New bigger lifts and new longer opening dates, Pila just keeps getting better.

Portes du Soleil: 22nd May – 21st September. It’s a big area, and stuff happens at different times, but it all roughly breaks down as: Les Gets Chavannes side open weekends only from 22nd May then, Les Gets, Pleny, Super Morzine all open from 12th June to 13th September, Chatel is 27th June to 31st August, Morgins 26th June to 21st September and Champery 26th June to 31st August. Bernex, July to mid September based on their advert for more shapers… For better details, ask Atlasrideco

Verbier: 4th June – 25th October. For the limited area of park off Ruinettes at weekends at least. From 27th June for all the days and 4th July to 21st September for all the lifts, all the days, all the funs. 4th July – 30th August for Bruson.

Les Arcs: TBC 12th June – 13th September. Weekends only at start and end of that, but now the VeloVert festival is opening the season at Les Arcs maybe we can expect full opening and great condition trails from the get go. And rain. All the rain. Also, the lobster pots are getting replaced this summer. End of an era and all that. Am actually quite sad about this, despite the years of cursing them as you try and get a team of riders to fit into a single rotation. IYKYK

La Clusaz: 13th June to 20th September, which looks grand but is the weekend dates, open 7/7 between 1st July and 30th August.

All that’s grand and great for the summer. But it’s not summer yet. So, if you too have a sweet new bike needing dialed in and pedalling up the hill is getting too tiring, try this larger radius and non exhaustive list of options:

Bourg Saint Maurice: The Bourg – Les Arcs Funicular. After last years unpleasantness, the Funi is back to being where to go for spring lift laps up to the end of April. Quite important you stay on the marked trails but. Turns out freeride actually IS a crime, and punishable by fines.

Le Fayet Saint Gervais: The new Valleen telecabine gets you from Le Fayet train station to St Gervais with way less effort than pedalling, quicker than shuttling, is open year round and is free on the Chamonix Unlimited pass.

Pila: Until 3rd May. Which will be way the latest the lift has been open, and I’m kinda skeptical given the resort will be long out of snow by then, but that’s what their website says and the internet. never. lies.

Les Haberes: April 18th-19th then most weekends in May.

Verbier: Always! Kinda… The Le Chable – Verbier telepherique runs for bikes from 11am during the winter and all day the rest of the year. Except random closed days when they do repairs, but there’s usually a replacement bus, so should be reet.

Metabief: Friday to Sunday from the 1st May until 27th September. Plus a wheen of other days, easiest to check their calendar

Sept Laux. Probably weekends only from 1st May to mid June when it’ll open 7/7. Opening info is a better kept secret than when the US airforce would strike Yemen, so keep an eye on the socials. Sept Laux’s not Pete Hegseths.

La Saleve: Open all the time, the trail building association is doing their best to make the trails all time too

St Luc: 30th May to 1st Nov, Another FuniFun venue, one of the longest seasons in bikeparkland

Trail Taxi Are delivering you to the top of Valais and Aosta’s finest singletrack as of already, give Jarno and team a shout for more

You know when the lifts are open, do you know what trails to ride? Have to find the best backdrop ever to give your socials the boost they need? A.I. can probably sort you out with all of this but if you prefer the human touch, here’s the staple plug for my guiding work. alpineflowmtb.com Go have a look. Please. Otherwise I’ll cancel the domain subscription. Although also as like most years I’m pretty much fully booked already, so check out bikevillage endlesstrailsmtb emilyhorridgemtb and MIAS for spaces on their tours and maybe I’ll see you there.

Also, I’ve got a new bike. And its sick! Thanks Raaw 🙂

What more info do you need? See yous out on the trails.

Or after. Cheers

07/04/2026
Olympic legacy infrastructure

For years I have searched…

Countless hours spent looking for evidence in maps, afternoons pacing the forest floor hoping against hope to stumble across something that would lead me to the next clue, find the next breadcrumb, unlock the next secret.

Over time the picture grew more complete, but never more than an outline. The shape and idea was there, yet still so far from something you could say was even near whole. I read all I could, histories from many countries, long dead webpages from the wayback vaults, and still the true way remained elusive. My dream seemed just that, something that would exist in my head only.

Then in 2024 Chamonix mairie did all the work for me. Found it, fixed it and opened a signposted track.

Shouldn’t have bothered. Wait long enough and anything is ridable, guided vallee blanche bike descents available from 2099…

102 years ago Chamonix hosted the first ever winter Olympics and, in what would become the one true enduring legacy of all Olympics, spent big on creating infrastructure of use only to a small number of rich white men.

Infrastructure like a bobsleigh track.

The 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics has just kicked off, simultaneously providing Cortina with the excuse to drop €132 million on refurbishing the original 1923 bobsleigh track and me the excuse to spend €13 on Moodys coffee beans to fuel writing a blog.

Much like room 101, the Chamonix bobsleigh track of 101 (+1) years ago contained only terror. Of the 13 teams that entered, 4 withdrew after just looking at the track. Only 6 of the teams managed all 4 of their runs. 26 years after its creation the track got dropped from the bobsleigh circuit when 5 died in a series of accidents at the 1950 French National Championships.

The track fell slowly into disrepair, then; with the construction of the Mont Blanc Tunnel and it’s access road in the 1960’s, fell rapidly. After the upper turns were demolished to make way for the tunnel road, the lower part of the track which returned to the old Pelerin Telepherique station was absorbed by the sprawl of Chamonix as the town swallowed Pelerin.

The middle part just got grown over.

Which is where I joined the story and decided that riding the track would be cool and started poking about to find where it had gone.

This took a while. There’s a lot of forest and not much track. I’d just been starting to pick up the clues when along comes the Mairie and they do a proper job of it. For which I’m both very grateful and exceptionally pissed off. A reminder that sometimes inspiration instagram posts are right and you need to seize the day, act now, etc. Anyways, it’s not a complete unearthing as there’s still a few chunks that haven’t been renovated so mibbies it’s the best of both worlds?

It needed ridden.

Actually, that wasn’t so so hard to manage. The hard bit was, to make for semi interesting content, it needed ridden AND photos of said riddening taken. Only between me finally riding and deciding that I actually wanted to write something about it, winter came.

Which is in it’s own way fitting. It is a bobsleigh track after all. It was made with the express intention of being descended whilst the snow lay thick and even all around. Does make it harder to convince all but the most committed of riders that going and riding ice and snow covered granite is a good idea.

Fiona didn’t take much convincing, although I suspect she was wishing she’d not been so keen to keep getting the winter biking in as we struggled our way up the section of the trail that bypasses the incursion of the tunnel autoroute. I suppose it would be possible to descend on the true line of the track then hop the barriers and cross the road, which was semi closed for the annual tunnel refurbishment anyways. But you’re not allowed to do that so obviously there’s no way that’s what we did…

Without winter’s layer of compacted snow and ice the track is a way less intimidating prospect than in the 1920’s, a mix of loam and walked in firmer dirt makes up the majority of the descent at reasonable speed in normal weather. Except it’s now late November and winter. The granite walls look pretty damn terrifying with a few cm of snow on them and, much like the tobbonganists of years gone, a couple runs was enough. Dry and grippy in the height of summer will be a different story but. They might not be quite Morgins, but even the worst brake dragger in the PDS is going to struggle to put braking bumps in them.

It’s a fun wee trail, but it’s only that. Wee. Fortunately if you want to make more of a historic meal of it, you could tag it on to a visit to the lift that was meant to be opened for the games. A mere 450m hike-a-bike above the bobsleigh track. Alas, that lift also turned out to be a fine example of how future Olympic infrastructure would work, it’s much advertised opening for 1924 being a bit of sham as only 1 cable had been installed and the lift could only really turn to look impressive rather than carry the great and good who’d turned up to be booed for their association with ICE.

The ancient Gare de la Para was abandoned in 1958 but the building, and even the cable cars, still sit below the north face of the midi. If you can be having with the ascent, it’s a pretty sick descent.

And photogenic.

Or, if you’re feeling a bit more gallus, the aptly named Gare des Glaciers sits in proto brutalist splendour 750m higher at 2400m, usually prime position to gaze back up at the Midi after a lap of Cosmiques, and ideally whilst drinking a Cosmiques (if your friends run a brewery and name an IPA after the run, you’ve kinda got to give them a shout out) but in summer that can of Cosmiques helps you pretend to be Kilian Bron with a play on the structure followed by some of the best ‘oh my gosh what a backdrop’ singletrack you’ll ever ride ever. Getting Lost in the Woods after is optional…

Last autumn’s perma-summer saw me up there with both Fiona and Sapaudia Tim. Which is convenient as there’s only so much content you can get out of a few hundred meters of semi derelict bobsleigh track, so we get to use those photos too.

If you’re not aware of the trail, it’s one of the triptych of big hike-a-bikes on the north facing side of the valley, the Signal Forbes above Montenvers and the Grands Bois side of the mid station of the midi being your other targets. Which also both got ridden in the last year, but that’s stories (and videos…) for another time. The trail in question, the ancient Gare des Glaciers trail, is about as easy as it gets navigationally. From the footbridge at the tunnel carpark, follow the signs for “ancient gare du midi”. Keep climbing until the top/exhaustion. Turn around and head back down.

Simple really.

The trail isn’t exactly simple all the way down, but there is a fair bit of flow between the challenges. If you like riding Brevent / Flegere then you’ll probably enjoy it, if you don’t then it’s a good chance to improve on stuff that might be useful somewhere else in your biking life. Or go ride the refurbished La Wizz at St Gervais, which is about as opposite as it gets, and also a cracking trail.

So what have we learned at the end of all this? Probably that if you try to do something improbable and hard, there’s a reasonably chance you’ll fail. And people will then judge you for failing. So there’s no point really, don’t bother dreaming, don’t bother trying, the Olympic spirit never did anything for anyone. Who’d want to try create an unutterably improbable lift that was almost 50 years ahead of it’s time and without which the lessons wouldn’t have been learned to make that 50 years later Aiguille du Midi lift possible. Who’d want to make a society defying return to competition, prove the naysayers wrong, then risk it all again for the naysayers to get the chance to say they’re right whilst every single one of your peers is in awe of you staying true to your inner belief and doing the hard thing again? Would it be better if the new Olympic motto was “I failed, but did so much more than everyone who never even tried” instead of “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together”?

You’ve probably noticed that there’s not been much content on here lately. Lately being near 4 years. The blog almost got deleted to save some admin fees. Fortunately my guiding website (the point of which is also increasingly negligible given how many folks find stuff from websites now) apparently needs to be kept running so the blog tags on the back of it. There’s not much point to it, this is never going to be NSMB, but it does keep me amused on the once in a 42 month period I feel like writing something. Mibbies I’ll make a substack instead. Whilst you’re waiting for that to not happen, try this: https://www.remontees-mecaniques.net/bdd/reportage-tph18-de-l-aiguille-du-midi-les-glaciers-ceretti-tanfani-dyle-bacalan-3869.html which is where most of the historical info came for this. It’s very detailed…

14/02/2026
Lift openings 2025: Certainties of life

There’s 3 certainties in life; death, taxes and the annual what-lifts-are-open-when post appearing in April.

I’m not dead, it’s April in France so we know all about tax. I guess it’s time for the list of lift opening dates.

Chamonix

Bellevue: 7th June – 14th September (same as 2024)

Flegere: 7th June – 21st September (same as 2024) then 18th October – 2nd November

Le Tour: 14th June – 14th September (opening and closing 1 week later than 2024)

Planpraz/Brevent: 14th June – 14th September (same as 2024)

Tramway du Mont Blanc: 14th June – 28th September (same as 2024)

Vallorcine: 28th June – 31st August (opening 1 week later, closing 1 week earlier than 2024)

Prarion: 21st June – 7th September + the weekend 14/15 June (same as 2024)

Grands Montets: Closed. They’re (still) building a new lift.

Chamonix does Chamonix, but it also does a wheen of rad if you look an hour (hmm, hour-ish) away. Rad like:

La Thuile: 21st June- 7th September Probably, dates not officially up. Watch out for the UCI Enduro and DHI 3-6 July, DH track looks well well well good like.

Megeve: 28th June – 7th September. Megeve is really 2 resorts, so the Mont Blanc natural resort bit is staggered between 28th June and 7th September and the Jaillet side is always a mystery for the ages. After last years EDR/EWS there’s some more tyres on the ground around Combloux, so worth an explore. Less good are rumours of the closure of the Mont d’Arbois area due to a fight in the courts between Megeve and St Gervais over who should operate it, which would be rubbish news for both summer and winter.

St Gervais: 5th July – 1st September. In rare good news from St Gervais, rumour is the Wizz (funnest blue/green flow trail in y’aute?) is getting extended to run from Bettex to St Gervais and will be open by late spring.

Les Contamines: 28th June – 31st August. I think, first time in a long time they’ve not been first up with their summer dates!

Grand Massif: 6th June – 8th September. TBC. Assorted start and finish times across the area, with a usual caveat that these are the website gets updated late, so it’s off of rumours and guesswork. Les Carroz is go from the 21st June to 7th September, Samoens is hosting the Velo Vert festival again 6th, 7th and 8th June, Morrilion is hosting an EDR for the first time (although don’t tell anyone but the Samoens race in 2015 also went there) so expect opening weekend to be busier than a usual chilled out grand massif day. Flaine is maybe 28th June to 31st August.

Pila: 21st June – 7th September. The Gorraz Grand Grimond lift replacement of the Coulis 1 again this summer, so best 2(1)b ready for a climb…. The new lift should be open for summer 2026 but.

Portes du Soleil: 24th May – 26th October. It’s a big area, and stuff happens at different times, but it all roughly breaks down as: Les Gets Chavannes side open weekends only from 24th May Then, Les Gets, Pleny, Super Morzine all open from 13th June to 14th September, with the Charniaz lift linking Morzine to Les Gets opening in summer for the first time eva. Chatel is 27th June to 31st August, Morgins 27th June to 7th September and Champery 19th June to 26th October. Bernex “Mid June to early September” accuracy theirs not mine, along with a new shaper team for 2025.

Verbier: 7th June – 26th October. For the limited area of park at least. 19th June to 22nd September for all the funs, 5th July – 31st August for Bruson.

Les Arcs: 14th June – 14th September. Weekends only at start and end of that, but you get the jist of it.

La Clusaz: 2nd July to 31st August, and weekends all of June plus up to 21st September

All that’s grand and great for the summer. But it’s not summer yet, so if the uplift itch needs scratched now, mibbies try this non exhaustive list of spots:

Bourg Saint Maurice: The Bourg – Les Arcs Funicular used to be where you went for spring uplift, now bikes are banned until further notice. So that’s a bit rubbish. But the further notice is that mibbies playtime is on again from 13th April, just everyone will have to play nice and stick to the marked trails.

Le Fayet: The new Valleen telecabine whisks you up from Le Fayet train station to St Gervais in no time at all, is open year round and is free on the Chamonix Unlimited pass. And bikes go for free too.

Pila: Until 13th April. Even if you can’t be bothered getting on the lift it’s worth the trip to eat, drink and visit Gros Cidac, but if you’re through anyways, probably should go for at least a lap…

Les Haberes: April 19th -21st then most weekends through to the full opening 11th July to 17th Aug.

Verbier: Always! Kinda. And only from 11am…. Except 28th April – 25th May when it’s closed for repairs. But there’s a replacement bus service. Caveats done, enduro action available now from the almost always running Le Chable-Verbier telepherique.

Metabief: From the 1st May. Then every weekend until the end of September, plus lots of otherdays but frankly too complicated to understand, so just check their calendar https://www.station-metabief.com/fr/ouverture-ete

Sept Laux. Probably weekends only from 2nd May to mid June when it’ll open 7/7, but opening info seems to be some kind of guarded secret to only be revealed at the last minute, so keep an eye on the socials.

La Saleve: Is open all the time, and now even has it’s own trail building association

Monts Jura: Weekends only from 8th May to summer. Just outside Geneva, 2 lifts and more than 2 trails

Trail Taxi have already fired up the shuttles for 2024, trips to all the trails you can shake a stick at in Valais and Aosta on their website, give Jarno a shout now!

E-Bikes. I’ve got a eeb now. Every day is uplift day. Thanks SCOR!

That’s covered the certainties in life and uncertainties of lift openings. Which usually leaves room for some vague patter about how winter was better for skiing than last year, but worse for bikes. Still got out enough to get enough content (phone viewing optimized, still struggling with that one) to fill the gaps between the words.

Normally I have some random science thing I’ve liked and can tenuously link into the riding them of the post, but when the post has no riding and the main theme is that this is the last surviving thing that gets put up, there’s not much to link with.

Except, maybe….

The tardigrade. The tardigrade? Yes, the tardigrade. Like the when the lifts are opening post, they’re natures greatest survivor. The 8 legged little (very little, about 0.5mm long) invertebrates are about the only thing to have survived all 5 mass extinctions, along with Keith Richards and Shimano XT spd pedals. Having survived being jettisoned into space (for science), frozen for decades, boiled, irradiated, living at the bottom of the ocean and getting dried out, it seems likely they’ll survive the impending 6th extinction event too.

Unfortunately, unlike the blog, they can survive for years without liquid. Which would make them terrible ambassadors for Sapaudia Brewing. Although, having survived pressures of nearly 165,000psi they would be the perfect spirit animal for Krush.

Which leads to another post staple, the standard, throwaway, pretend-like-I-don’t-care plug for my guiding. alpineflowmtb you should have a look. Although also as like most years I’m pretty much fully booked already too, so check out bikevillage endlesstrailsmtb leripp and MIAS for spaces on their tours and maybe I’ll see you there.

Normally I’d now make a joke about how there might be some actual writing appearing here this summer, but realistically 2022 was the last time any creative content got published, so it’s pretty unlikely.

Bim, done.

See yous next year.

04/04/2025
Lift openings 2024: Up, and not crying

Hey hi!

Yeah, I know, I know.

Long time indeed.

How’re you?

Oh, you know, oppe, og ikke gråter / 你吃了吗 / meshe lhal / could be worse….

Lets ignore a lost year and start where we left off. When do the lifts open for summer?

Chamonix

Bellevue: 8th June – 15th September (opening and closing 1 week later than 2023)

Flegere: 8th June – 22nd September (open 1 week longer than 2023) then 19th October – 3rd November

Le Tour: 8th June – 8th September (same as 2023)

Planpraz/Brevent: 15th June – 15th September (opening 1 week later than 2023)

Tramway du Mont Blanc: 15th June – 29th September (open same as 2023)

Vallorcine: 22nd June – 8th September (opening 2 weeks later than 2023)

Prarion: 22nd June – 8th September + the weekend 15/16 June (opening 1 week earlier than 2023)

Grand Montets: Closed. They’re building a new lift.

As ever, Chamonix probably isn’t the single greatest place to go play bikes, but once you put a 1 hour radius on it…. Different story.

So when does everywhere that’s not Chamonix open?

La Thuile: 22nd June- 8th September A week longer than 2023, just as brutal on the arms.

Megeve: 22nd June – 8th September. Megeve is really 2 resorts, so the Mont Blanc natural resort bit is staggered between 22nd June and 8th September (same periods as 2023) and the Jaillet side is….still unknown. Big Megeve news is that the EDR (EWS for old people) is in town 28-30 June, which might mean more lifts and resurrected bikepark in the future. Or might not.

St Gervais: Probably closed. Another of those new lift things.

Les Contamines: 29th June – 1st September. Two lifts, more than two trails, rarely more than two other riders.

Grand Massif: 31st May – 8th September. Assorted start and finish times across the area, with a usual caveat that these are the website gets updated late, so it’s off of rumours and guesswork. Les Carroz is go from the 22nd June to 8th September, Samoens is hosting the Velo Vert festival again over the first weekend of June, so expect opening weekend to be busier than a usual chilled out grand massif day. Flaine is maybe 29th June to 28th August.

Pila: 22nd June – 8th September. Still the best bike park in all of the world, or at least Aosta. Again it’s the Gorraz Grand Grimond lift and a long, hot push instead of Coulis 1 if you want to do any of the more, hmm, scenic, options.

Portes du Soleil: 24th May – 29th October. The dates include a fair bit of limited area opening at start and end of season, and there’s world cup racing in there too, but it all roughly breaks down as: Les Gets Chavannes side open weekends only from 24th May and everything open from 15th June to 17th September. Chatel is 9th June to 7th September. Avoriaz, all the days from 15th June to 15th September. Morzine 31st May to 15th September. Morgins 28th June to 27th October, Champery 30th May to 27th October. Bernex 29th June to 1st September.

Verbier: 1st June – 27th October. For the limited area of park at least. 29th June to 16th September for all the funs.

Les Arcs: 15th June – 8th September. Weekends only at start and end of that, but take what you can.

La Clusaz: 3rd July to 1st September, and 3 weekends either side of that too again, which is nice if you have weekends off…

But what even is summer? Bike park season started when it ended. Every month since October we’ve been playing bikes off the lifts in the alps (the images need to come from somewhere.) Which is good in some ways and very bad in others. Glossing over the bit where we’re more than a year deep into being plus 1.5 degrees above pre industrial averages, where can we go play bikes now. Now. NOW!

Or if not now, soon. (usual 1h radius from Chamonix a wee bit stretched)

Bourg Saint Maurice: Funicular fun is there up to 28th April. Except Saturdays. Sorry weekend types.

Pila: Until 7th April. Think you’re Sam Hill? You’re not. But you can ride the freeride trail none the less. Or 21b. We’ve been doing it most of winter.

Les Haberes: May 11th-12th and 19th-20th, then June 29th-30th. Opened their bike park in winter when the snow failed. Fun. Romain “Loudenvielle” Paulhan designed. Finn Illes approved. So a thumbs up all round. Full opening 6th July to 18th Aug.

Verbier: Always! Except 29th April – 26th May when it’s closed for repairs. Plenty enduro action from the now (almost) always running Le Chable-Verbier telepherique.

Metabief: 1st -12th May. Wednesday to Sunday, then weekends, except when there’s a monday. It’s complicated… Anyways, the world Championships were there in 1993. Mountain biking hasn’t changed since then, so it’s still good.

Flegere: 13th – 20th May. Trail bike tech bliss. A brief time window to ride, easily scuppered by bad weather, so if you’re looking for late season storm skiing I suspect this week is when to head to Chamonix.

Sept Laux. Initially weekends only, 8th to 12th May to start, “ou pourquoi pas avant…si les conditions meteo le permettent”. Have you seen the Amaury Pierron Supreme MX launch edit? 2.02mins of why you should ride at Sept Laux.

La Saleve: Is open again, all the time. Yay. And with more local built trails than before. Yay. And several times more expensive. Boo. Wednesdays to Sundays just now.

Monts Jura: 18th May to summer. A wee bit above Geneva, a wee bit more choice than Saleve, a wee bit of a guess at the dates.

Chaumont: 5th April onwards. My bikes from there, might as well take it to it’s home.

Gampel: Always open. More Swiss uplift masquerading as public transport.

Trail Taxi have already fired up the shuttles for 2024, trips to all the trails you can shake a stick at in Valais and Aosta on their website, give Jarno a shout now!

Cheers, merci and thanks to the folk who got in touch with updates to all the above.

This might be the start of semi more regular content, or it might not. It’s the first effort made for phones instead of laptops, it might be the last.

Summer looks pretty busy now with lots of great trips with Bike Village, Endless trails and a few bits with my own clients (obviously, if you’re looking for the best biking holiday of your summer, I’d get clicking on the links above) so maybe I won’t have time to write anything interesting. Then again, there’s a few cool trips planned, so maybe the muse will strike.

Whatever happens, have fun out there y’all, mibbies see yous on the trails.

Ape. The ultimate Italian shuttle vehicle. I just wish they’d swapped the red and orange ones round.

03/04/2024
Lift openings 2023: General Artificial Untelligence

A new summer of lift riding sprawls before us…

What lifts will open? When will they open? How long will you keep reading my tenuously connected intro before scrolling down to the actual info?

Still reading I see.

The big buzz in writing write now is a.i. If you’re in any way stuck for content, just fire a question into ChatGPT, let it write the article for you and then at the end of your piece SURPRISE! drop the bomb that the algorithm wrote it…

So I tried that and it was pretty disappointing. Which possibly sums up your experience of reading the human generated version of this too. No matter, it’s still been declared the future of journalism. Who’s going to get paid to write generic un-referenced copy when a bot will do it for free in seconds?

Turns out it’s the past of job replacement too. In the 1960’s an early go at a Chatbot, ELIZA, basically repeated the users question back at them with a different phrasing.

And so got reputation as a psychiatrist.

But I’m not a journalist. Or a psychiatrist. I’m a bike guide. Surely my jobs safe….

I mean, how could a machine learning tool possibly calculate what terrain a rider prefers based on their whoops and holla’s reaction to the trail they’re on, then pick the next from its database of routes linked to all other A.I. mtb guide-bots?

How would it read who’s getting tired, without maybe analysing the bluetooth synced client heart rate data to know that one more lap is a great idea?

No way it could utilise the 5g chips in our blood (what, you thought that went away with the vaccines…) to project a virtual rider in front of you if you want to follow a line, or whisper left or right in your virtual ear as you approach a junction. Or mibbies just a giant arrow if you’re as bad as me with left and right.

If you use an app like EchoSOS to call for help, is it just one step easier for the algorithm to call the helicopter directly to deal with any injuries?

Can it download diagnostic data from your electronic brakes and fix them before you even know you’ve cooked the pads by using them too much on the last descent?

Most importantly, could it translate the insults of the (likely also automated) barista when you order cappuccino after 11am…?

Hmm, yes. Yes it probably can.

And I, for one, welcome our robot overlords, plus I’ll have plenty time to ride the chairlifts in my beckoning unemployment, so when are they lifts open?

Chamonix, from CdMB, but provisional dependent on evolution of… well this year probably strikes rather than pandemic, but let’s see what surprises ’23 has up its sleeve.

Bellevue: 3rd June – 10th September (opening and closing 1 week earlier than 2022)

Flegere: 10th June – 17th September (open 1 week longer than 2022)

Planpraz: 10th June – 17th September (open 1 week longer than 2022) then 21st October – 5th November

Brevent: 10th June – 17th September (open 1 week longer than 2022)

Tramway du Mont Blanc: 10th June – 1st October (open 2 weeks later than 2022)

Le Tour: 10th June – 10th September (was closed in 2022 for a new lift to be installed, still to find out whether bikes will be welcomed in the shiny new telecabines…)

Vallorcine: 10th June – 10th September (same as 2022, hopefully the new normal)

Prarion: 1st July – 10th September + the 2 weekends either side of that (opening 2 weeks later than 2022)

Grand Montets: 1st July – 3rd September (same dates as 2022)

And all those other conveniently nearby places for your spotify trail playlist to suggest:

La Thuile: 24th June- 3rd September Same as 2022, and again no EWS this year to clutter up the season.

Megeve: 24th June – 10th September. Megeve is really 2 resorts, so the Mont Blanc natural resort bit is staggered between 24th June and 10th September (same periods as 2022) and the Jaillet side is….still unknown.

St Gervais: Probably 24th June – 3rd September TBC

Les Contamines: 1st July – 3rd September. Same dates as last year, and same as last year, one of the first to publish dates and easiest website to navigate. Cheers Les Contamines

Grand Massif: 3rd June – 11th September. Assorted start and finish times across the area, with a usual caveat that these are their target dates and it might change yet, and that not all the areas have decided when they’re opening yet. Les Carroz is go from the 24th June to 10th September, Samoens is hosting the Velo Vert festival again over the first weekend of June, so it’d be grand if they’re open from then but it’s possible (likely…) they’re then closed until 24th June. Flaine is 1st July to 27th August

Pila: 24th June – 10th September. Still the best bike park in all of the world, still not that quick at getting opening dates up online. Looks like the Couis 1 chair for accessing the ridge and other “if you know, you know” trails ISN’T open this summer, but the Gorraz Grand Grimond lift will be. Whether this opens to bikes, and what it means for the trails I dunno.

Portes du Soleil: 26th May – 29th October. The entire world cup circus comes to town 7th to 17th September, so who knows how that’ll pan out, but for the rest of the time: Les Gets Chavannes side open weekends only from 26th May and everything open from 16th June to 17th September. Chatel is weekends from the 9th June and all the time from 23rd June to 3rd September. Avoriaz, all the days from 16th June to 17th September. Morzine probably 16th June to 17th September but dates not finalised yet. Morgins and Champery 18th May to 29th October… Except it kinda looks like Morgins is closed this summer whilst they replace the chairlift, so that’s potentially a bit rubbish. The old lift has already been demolished, so maybe the works will be done in time, we’ll see….

Verbier: 3rd June – 29th October. Weekends only from 3rd June all the days from 17th June. Le Chable to Verbier is open from 05h15 to 23h50 every. damn. day. 1st July – 27th August for Bruson. Or of course, the Trail Taxi runs from April through until the snow comes back!

Les Arcs: 17th June – 10th September. A way longer season than usual! But with some caveats, so easiest just to look at their website

La Clusaz: 1st July to 3rd September, and 3 weekends either side of that too, which is nice if you have weekends off…

That should be enough to go at for another year, even if lift access season started back in February for most Chamonix locals, hence the photos which are mostly riding Pila from the lifts, and a shot of my shiny (no, sparkly…) new bike from Meyrieu bikepark. Many, many thanks to SCOR for dragging me into the current with my first ever big wheeled bike.

Oh yeah, and the obligatory snow picture to show the winter’s not been anything like as bad as tabloid editors have made out.

(So whaddaya reckon, did I write this, or was it a.i….?)

07/04/2023