Chamonix Bike Blog

Category: Chamonix ride

The end is nigh. Repent.

The weather has, at times, been a bit biblical recently. Given Mount Ararat is 5137m high even Mont Blanc at 4810 ain’t going to save us. All we can do is head out in the rain and enjoy the biking whilst we still can.

The Chamonix trails, being generally steep and rocky, deal with the rain fairly well and drain pretty quick. Only Les Houches turns into a true quagmire and even there it’s possible to avoid the worst of it (which is generally the last 1/3 of the DH trail and all of the old DH trails from the Bellevue). Certainly it’s not as bad as the Portes du Soleil or Grand Massif which reportedly resemble Glastonbury on a bad year at the moment. That’s the mud, not the huge numbers of people, bands, inappropriate clothing for the weather etc.

Keeping to trails above the tree line and exposed to the wind also help you stay dry(ish) and less muddy, though not perhaps as warm.

Anyway, riding mud is like riding powder whilst it’s dumping. You have to head out when the weather’s worst, you WILL get cold and wet, and it’s not easy. The flip side is that it’s so much more rewarding. Why ski down a well groomed piste when you can leave your own trace through the forest? If it’s too hard, you’re just not good enough.

Summer, or what’s passing for it, might still have another month or so to run but that doesn’t mean the lifts do. Shut down in Chamonix starts at the end of the month and it’s the same for most of the other hills.

Here’s the list you don’t want to see:

Vallorcine 31st August

Grand Montets 7th September

Brevent 14th September (re-opens 25th October to 2nd November)

Flegere 14th September

Prarion 14th September

Tramway du Mont Blanc 14th September

Le Tour 21st September

Bellevue 28th September

And futher afield

Grand Massif 31st Aug: http://ete.grand-massif.com/ouverture

La Thuile 31st Aug : http://www.lathuile.it/datapage.asp?id=211&l=1&s=E

Portes du Mont Blanc 7th Sept http://www.combloux.com/en/activities/summer/pass.html

Tignes / Val d’Isere 31st Aug (still FREE up till then) http://www.tignes.net/en/summer-sports/free-and-a-la-carte-activities-252.html

Pila 8th Sept: http://www.pila.it/en/holidays/tariffe/tessere-a-punti/

Portes du Soleil starts closing the weekend of 31st August and is mostly closed by the 9th, except Champery which keeps going to 26th Oct: http://en.portesdusoleil.com/summer-lifts.html

Verbier 22nd September then weekends only until 26th Oct (if weather’s ok): http://www.verbierbikepark.ch/horaires_fr.php

Fingers crossed the sun comes out to play for a few weeks and we can start to complain that it’s too hot and the trails too dusty for a bit instead.

09/08/2014
The longest day

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 anyone else, agreed…..but I was enjoying myself.

With plenty of daylight to play with we had been aiming to get high somewhere in the valley and ride down in the evening light. Unfortunately all the usual supects that face west and would be bathed in dusky evening light are still just a bit too snowy, so we settled on an east facing lap down to Trient instead

With efficiency few locations in the developed world can equal, the last train from Chamonix to Montroc gets you there with enough just time to sprint up the hill and just catch the Le Tour lifts as they are closing. We had an anxious wait at the top of the Autannes chair to see if our bikes had been loaded or if the lifty had clocked off for the day….eventually they climbed into view.

In contrast to last year, the climb up to the Col du Balme only needed a couple of quick snow crossings rather than wanting to have an axe and crampons. The descent on the other hand still has a few snow patches, succesfully negotiated by all bar me. Saved by my bike and Lorne.

The trail to Trient was as good as always, more fast and flowing than the trails earlier in the day, great to ride in a chain of 4, even if being last generally meant choking on the dust from the others.

Although we were on the wrong aspect to get the best light, the later time meant we met no one else on the whole 20 minute descent, only tired arms and overheating brakes gave reasons to slow up or stop.

The tear down the road from Trient to Chatelard wasn’t as good as the tear down the trails, but did prove that tucking works, tucking and drafting works better, and tucking, drafting and running a semi-slick rear tyre works best.

The climb back up to Vallorcine is slow enough that tucking does little to help, though again less tread is better. Either way, it goes easy enough and soon we were looking at the lengthening shadows around the train station and waiting for a helping hand over (or through) the Col du Montets to Montroc where Lorne & I got out for the last few miles down the valley to beers at Rhodedendrons whilst Nina and Spencer put their feet up.

Of course, summer solstice in Chamonix is not complete without the Fete des Musique so a long day still wasn’t finished.

22/06/2014
Bikes on a train, and other forms of mechanical uplift.

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 face away from the official DH track before dropping down ‘Who’s way‘ to St Gervais followed by a lap of the Pipeline trail and icecream whilst waiting for the Tramway back up to the Bellevue stop.

The 40 minute ride back up gives you plenty time to recover, so after heading down on the GR5 trail back to Les Houches it was back to quick laps on the Prarion front face again.

All the trails were riding well, though a bit of traffic to clean the loose stones and twigs will help. The official bike trails have had a bit of maintenance and, although there are no new sectors, the long muddy section low on the trail has had a wooden boardwalk put down to save you from the worst of the clart.

Tomorrow, more of the same I think. In the words of Adrian Moffat, it’s the first big weekend of the summer (though I don’t think he ever had riding bikes down hills in France in mind)

15/06/2014
Seven days and counting

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 different and we started a long and relaxed climb from Servoz to the Le Mont carpark. Then Lac Vert. Then Gite Le Chatelet. Then the Chalets du Souay.

The climb is never difficult and just keeps plodding on, but it’s hard to plod when you’re a) not that fit and, b) run a 36 tooth chainring. Spence on the other hand is testing out a Oneup components 42 tooth sprocket which, combined with his 30 tooth chainring, meant I spent a lot of time watching him disappear, and he spent a lot of time waiting for me.

Still, the views are outstanding and the weather good for topping up the sunburn/tan so neither of us were too rushed and arrived a relaxed 2hr 20mins after setting off at the Refuge Moede Anterne, a good 1200m above our start.

After a customary break for food, drink and reflection we got on with the main reason we were here. To go back to the start again. Ain’t biking just pointless eh?

We started on an awesome bit of ridgetop singletrack which saw us flee down from the refuge to the first small climb aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand snow.

We’d thought there might still be a wee bit hanging about, and sure enough, there was. Nothing compared to the amounts of last season fortunately but still enough to force us from the bikes a couple of times and cause our brakes to howl like banshees being metaphorised.

The next section down to, then contouring with, the Souay river we’d checked out from the opposite side of the valley, and it was pretty good too. A mix of bright orange dirt singletrack and just the right side of super tech rock sections. At least, they were just the right side until I got a bit gallus and pinged off the bike and both me and bike bounced through a pile of rocks. Somehow this only resulted in a wee hole in my rear tyre.

Stan’s tubeless gunk is great stuff though and a spin of the wheel and 5 minutes straightening bars and putting air back in the tyre saw the bike good again. I was less convinced though and, having managed to escape breaking the bike once, was keen not to watch it bounce through sharp pointy boulders again so took things a touch easier.

Unfortunately the trail then started to get very tech, with in-situ chains and iron steps. Progress and flow slowed for a km or so.

Once passed, we were back on it and the fun continued down to the junction with one of our favourite trails in the area. To save me the effort of describing it again, you can read all about an earlier ride on it here.

Instead, I’ll just let the photos do the talking (err, again, that’s the cop out I used last time I wrote about it.) with the caveat that it’s much more fun to ride than photo and as we’re not getting paid for this, you can just have the average photos.

Cold beer time.

07/06/2014
Dear green place

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 trails being particularly far from town.

Spencer and I felt the need to explore so headed off up towards the Mont Blanc tunnel in the hope of finding some trails to link known favourites across the north facing side of the valley down to Les Houches.

Even a cursory look at a map shows that there’s not too many trails and a lot of rivers in this area, but we didn’t have any better ideas, so figured we’d have a look.

Not far from the tunnel we crossed our first stream, the Torrent de la Crosset. Given it’s one of the main drainages for the Bossons Glacier it was pretty easy, I couldn’t help but wonder how long the snow we ski on the west face of the Midi takes to make it to the stream.

Once over and this (and with dry feet), the trail heads downhill. Fast with greasy rocks and roots, just like Mugdock.

Next challenge, Torrent des Bossons. Again the water is relatively low so crossing is pretty easy, the hack through the deforested area less so. Fortunately we found a manicured garden for a millionaire’s chalet to skip through…..

The hill above Le Mont has some great wee trails accessed off the old green run from when the chairlift was for a ski area. You even get to pedal past Cedric Gracia’s attempt at getting a bike park in Chamonix, also long abandoned.

Fortunately the singletrack is longer lasting and we get another great descent until we find the Torrent de Taconnaz. This time there’s a bridge, so nae danger of wet feet, but the bridge goes nowhere (there used to be one of them in Glasgow too) and we’re left randomly riding about Les Houches trying to find a trail until we get bored and head to Super U for 50 centime cookies.

Doesn’t sound like much, but it was good to be out exploring instead of on the sofa. The elusive trail-to-end-all-trails remains elusive, but at least we know a few more shortcuts….

27/05/2014