Category Archives: Chamonix ride

The longest day

Posted on 22nd June 2014
1km vertical of singletrack

Summer solstice. The longest day, shortest night and start of the countdown to winter. Also an excuse (if an excuse was ever needed) to both go in to the hills to do stuff and go out on the town.

After some warm up laps around Les Houches (trails all riding nice, bit of rain would be good to give some more grip though) we headed up the Bellevue gondola and climbed round towards the Col du Mont Lachet.

The trail down from the col is fairly exposed in places, but I think it’s pretty fun. Not everyone else, or possibly … [Read full post]

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Bikes on a train, and other forms of mechanical uplift.

Posted on 15th June 2014
Today I am mostly liking green

Lifts are open, no more pretending that pedalling uphill is worthy and good.

An opening party was being held at Le Tour with demo bikes, drinks and rumours of new trails, so we headed in the opposite direction to Les Houches.

It seemed a fairly popular choice and it was surprising to see just how much the main DH track wore in over the course of the day.

Not having big bikes in addition to our normal bikes with their mere 160mm of travel, slack angles and huge brakes, Lorne & I rode a few laps of the Prarion front … [Read full post]

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Seven days and counting

Posted on 7th June 2014
Singletrack, boulders, sunshine. All good.

Summer’s here. Skies are blue, temps are high, taps aff etc.

Eager to enjoy the weather before it turns (another side effect of being Scottish, you can never, never learn to trust the weather to stay good) Spence and I headed out for an easy(ish…) day to check out a new trail and see where the snow level had got to.

I try to avoid the lift accessed trails when the lifts aren’t running (seven days till they open) in favour of more esoteric trails so I’ve spent a lot of the last month riding above Servoz. Today was no … [Read full post]

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Dear green place

Posted on 27th May 2014
Torrent des Bossons

The Chamonix valley. It’s expensive (so move somewhere less dear or quit whining), it rains (well, how else does it stay green) and it’s miles from Glasgow (the original dear green place). But between the winter & summer seasons there’s a lot in common with the Weeg.

The clouds are down in the valley hiding the aiguilles and leaving a view of green, tree covered, hills. None of the lifts are open so we’re pedalling up fire roads to bomb down damp singletrack. And it’s raining, so there’s not too many other folk out and about despite none of the … [Read full post]

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New term, new toys

Posted on 9th May 2014
It's like a boy band, but worse

The skiing might not be over for everyone, but most of us have put the planks away now and are looking at pinkbike instead of TGR, or endurotribe instead of skipass depending on your nationality…

Of course, new season means everyone has spent their money on new toys and group rides are a smorgasbord of shiny bits. 650b, pikes, BOS, 1xwhatever and wider still bars. Ruaridh hasn’t had any upgrades (unless that’s a new collar), but still seemed to be the quickest up the hill.

With no bike lifts running in town, a quick lunchtime ride meant pedalling up the … [Read full post]

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Last train to cold*

Posted on 13th November 2013
A balmy summers day ride, if you're from the north east.

Winter’s turned up again in Chamonix, only this time she’s brought her luggage and it looks like she’s staying for a while.

Normally the easiest way to escape her clutches is to head down the road to Saleve, only a quick glance at the website showed they’ve closed until the end of March for works. Valley trails under our own steam it is.

Down the valley and past Vaudagne the geography of the valley changes from the granite boulders and steep coniferous lined slopes around town to mellow slopes with deciduous trees and loamy ground, perfect for the icy conditions.… [Read full post]

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Open for business. Still.

Posted on 27th October 2013
Wheeeeeeee(lie)

With the lift closing for summer at the end of September it seemed there was 2 options. Ride up the hills for once, or leave Chamonix until the lifts opened again for the French ½ term break. I chose the latter.

Back in town almost 4 weeks later and the leaves have changed colour but otherwise it seems to be business as usual for riding. Only the Brevent lifts have been opened mind, so if you don’t like steep techy rock sections and/or fast flowy but narrow singletrack, then tough I guess.

With the upper section of Brevent running this … [Read full post]

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Tricot two

Posted on 5th October 2013
Would this view tempt you into finishing lunch and getting back on the bike?

Who said September’s the best month for mountain biking in the alps? I did, and I submit this last week as evidence. Stable weather, cool temps, blue skies and quiet trails. We’ll just ignore the snow of a fortnight ago if that’s ok with you.

Last big day off the Chamonix lifts for the summer, where to go and what to do. Well THE Les Houches classic ride from last summer was the Col de Tricot down to Le Fayet. None of us had repeated it since so we figured, why not?

If I’m honest, the weather was a wee … [Read full post]

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Two trails

Posted on 29th September 2013
Picture this

It might be the last week of proper uplift in the valley before the end of summer but it certainly doesn’t feel like the end of the season.

Les Houches is where it’s at right now and after the success of the ride from Nid d’Aigle it seemed a shame not to check out some of the other lines on the map.

The dotted red line that traverses round rather than over Mont Lachat was the first, and whatdaya know, turns out it is a quick easy way round to the Col Mont Lachat. There is one short section with … [Read full post]

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This is mountain biking.

Posted on 26th September 2013
If you're going to fall, try to fall right.

You hear “Epic” describing a lot of things about Chamonix. Surrounded by deeds of derring do from alpinist, skiers, parapontists and such then as a lowly mountainbiker you really have to work to earn the title “epic” for a ride. You could try having horrendous weather to battle through, major mechanicals that required ingenuity & creativity to overcome and make it back. Distance, height gain, length of time riding are options for epic. Injuries can count too because after all, epic doesn’t have to mean good.

So why do I think this ride should count as epic? It wasn’t particularly … [Read full post]

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