Chamonix Bike Blog

Category: Road trip

Saleve, because pedalling uphill is hard work.

Earning your turns, pedalling up the hill, is great for achieving a smug feeling of self-righteousness and superiority, but it’s way easier to take a lift. Looking for an easy life we headed west to Saleve and its year round uplift.

It’s a popular choice for out of season riding (though it’s been closed for 6 months for refurbishment) so if you want more info, here’s what happened last time we went.

The 10 uplift ticket is still 43euro, still valid for a year, still shareable amongst you all, but now gets scanned by a smart phone. The photo’s are still rubbish too, but you try shooting fast moving objects in a forest on an overcast day, with a wee camera and no flash gun before you complain.

The weather’s been a bit damp recently and Saleve has a reputation for not drying quickly but even so we were a bit surprised at just how slick the trails were on our first lap. The wind and heat of the day helped dry things out a bit and as the day went on things got a bit tackier, but you were still never far from a sideways moment.

If you’ve not ridded at Saleve before then you won’t know how much of a maze the trails are. We were basing line choice at each junction on which way we were sliding at the time, so by random the first couple of laps were on the longer tracks over towards Monnetier and their pedal back uphill to the last bit of trail towards the lift station. Great for Lorne & I, less good for Spence and his new DH bike.

The shorter more direct lines were more slick, though were seeing most traffic from the locals (all of whom seemed to have mud tires on, almost like they knew what conditions would be….). Fortunately mud is pretty forgiving to fall on, so it was more entertaining than terrifying.

With the reputation for being muddy you’d hope that there was a hose for cleaning off bikes at the station, but it turns out you’re not allowed to use the hose that’s there. Old toothbrushes are a very inefficient way to dry clean a bike.

There’s still more than a month to go until most resorts open for the summer season, so it might be time to find the old spike tyres in the shed and invest in a power wash.

14/05/2014
Public transport: Dorenaz.

Generally when you think of using public transport to ride your bike, it’s looking sheepish as you trail mud through a Scotrail carriage to hook your bike up by the toilet then sit getting cold on the way back home.

Switzerland is a bit different. In Switzerland the topography lends itself more to cable cars than trains so access to many smaller villages is by publicly run telepheriques. Dorenaz is one such place where the local bus driver also sells tickets and presses buttons on a 670m height gain gondola.

As Dorenaz is at only 450m and the hill faces SW, the trails are generally clear of snow most of the year round, but it can still be pretty chilly in winter. No such problems for Spence and I when we headed out of Chamonix for some t-shirt and shorts riding in low 20’s temperatures and clear blue skies.

After hooking our bikes onto the underside of the gondola by their wheels and panicking most of the way up that they were going to clip the hillside and get knocked off, we arrived at the Champex plateau where it’s a short pedal up the tarmac to the start of the marked DH trails.

It being the first proper days riding (or should I say #pre-season training as this year I’ve gone ENDURO so no more riding, only #training or #set up testing for me now…) of the year I’d hoped for some flowing singletrack to get back into the flow of things.

No such luck. From the get-go the trails are steep, fast and rocky. To add to the fun the lack of rain recently has left the track bone dry. Chatting to some locals later in the day we were told that the track runs better in the damp, giving much more friction. This did make us feel a bit better about our riding, but not much.

After a lap of the DH trail and a few minutes at the lift to recover, collect our thoughts and steel ourselves for another lap, one of the other locals (at least, we’re assuming they were locals as they were flipping quick, turned up in a van with “Crossroad Cycles CH” written on the side, and that shop seems to sponsor the trails, I think Mrs Marple would come to the same conclusion….) took pity on us and said he’d show us some of the “easier” trails…

They were “easier” than the official trail, but certainly weren’t easy!

Back up and back on the official track we explored some of the variations marked on the trail map. Apparently these are graded from blue to black, but I’ve no idea how you tell the difference as they all felt just as interesting. Try them all and repeat the bits you like the most would be the recommendation.

It’s not too easy to find information online for Dorenaz, but if you want to head over and give it a go (and you should if you like the Vallorcine DH track, or techier tracks in general) then check out the Dorenaz facebook page and the telepherique website for more info. To get there from Chamonix, head to Martigny, follow the signs through town for Vernayaz, then the signs for Dorenaz once outside Martigny. Or look at a map.

07/04/2014
Pila, Near Perfect

Well, Graham is out of action for now with a thumb injury and currently 72km into his 100km ultra marathon (yeah, sounds no fun to me either), so he asked me (Lorne Cameron) to do a spot of guest blogging of any big biking days for the time being. I’m not as good with the biking words as Graham, but here we go anyway for yesterday’s roadtrip to Pila in the Italy’s Aosta Valley, just 45 minutes’ drive from Chamonix through the Mont Blanc Tunnel.

A few friends here rave about Pila, but Spence and I had never been before and Nina only once or twice. Parking is easiest in Aosta town then access to the main bike trails is by a long gondola, with day passes costing €18 plus €5 refundable deposit for the lift pass card. The cafes up the hill are reportedly pretty good, but being cheapskates we brought sandwiches which we left in the car so that we could just split one backpack between us and make a run down to the car at lunchtime which worked out pretty well.

Things didn’t start off well with Spence somehow coating his rear disc in lube while tending to his chain, but luckily the mechanics at midstation were pretty friendly and gave him free-reign of the tool station to change his pads while coke and window cleaner got the disc cleaned nicely.

Up the main chairlift, we quickly realised what’s so special about this place. Imagine Morzine with less bumps, less crowds, more interesting trails and far more variations on the way down. There was a bit of everything to ride, from tall tight berms, singletrack, gaps, drops, northshore, the works. Rider’s left of the lift line and directly underneath it were pretty manicured trails, while far rider’s right had a much more natural feel but built up just enough to ride smoothly and the odd kicker scattered around and any bigger features very well marked with JUMP or DROP.

The photo of the map above shows the upper mountain trails, but if it included every little variation there would be twice as many lines marked (especially rider’s right), but with everything leading back to the chairlift it was really fun to find our own variations and regroup when the trails merged. We had one run down the IXS Downhill run which is all rideable for mere mortals such as ourselves, but it’s pretty scary to think that racers ride the whole very technical course flat-out without a break!

Laps off the top lift took us about 35-45 minutes depending on which variations we took, so we did 3 run up there before riding down to town for lunch which is an 18km run of not overly built-up trail with a lot of different variations through the wooded sections, excellent stuff. Staying left near the end on Nina’s recommendation gave us the best exit back to town then a 10 minute ride on the road back to the car – best to ride this with someone who knows the way to avoid getting lost.

After lunch, pretty much the same again finding new variations up high and getting to know some sections better so riding them much faster. The first few minutes of the trails rider’s right before everything started splitting were definitely my favourite; technical but flowy, exactly what I like.

So, definitely some of my favourite riding I’ve ever had. A very different feel to La Thuile, possibly overall better but unfortunately we didn’t make it to La Thuile this year so it’s hard to compare them directly.

Some sections were quite loose and dusty despite 36 hours of rain finishing two days before we were there, so best to ride Pila in moist conditions if possible with fresh tyres.

It’s pretty amazing that Pila isn’t talked about more or isn’t more popular with tourists – we only had to pass a few people all day and never got overtaken, but it was still easy to watch riders from the lifts including some very good locals. It’s definitely not a beginner-friendly resort though, and I wouldn’t take a hardtail anywhere near it. Some sections had quite bad brake bumps but Nina and I got on fine with 150mm all-mountain bikes; in early-season this wouldn’t be an issue at all.

Unfortunately Pila’s lifts stop running next weekend (8th September) so we might just have to take a return trip next Thursday!

30/08/2013
Proper planning prevents (long climbs). Grand Massif

Half way between Chamonix and the Portes du Soleill sits the Grand Massif ski area, and it’s sort of ½ and ½ PDS & Chamonix in the riding too, with Chamonix’s queues and busyness combined with the PDS’s rolling terrain and bike friendly attitude.

After scratching the surface there last year I was keen to return and explore more, with the descent from the top of the Flaine lifts at 2480m down to Sixt at about 750m being top of the to do list. Arriving in Les Carroz a quick look in the direction of Flaine was enough to guess that there is still, at the end of July, too much snow. Maybe next month.

Instead our plan became to hit the Les Carroz bike park for a few laps before riding over to Samoens whilst the lifts were closed for lunch, lap Samoens & Morillon for a bit then head back to the car. Sorted.

The Les Carroz bike park hadn’t changed much from last year. Some maintenance keeping it in order, a bit more signage, a few new features, but still the same trails and still fun.

With the lifts closing for lunch we started the trek over. Armed with no maps, a reasonable sense of direction and a mix of bikes ranging from superlight enduro race rig to DH monster bike, we figured to begin with “up” and see how it worked out.

The previous year we’d ridden the “La Vieille” trail for part of the way over, which was good but unfinished. This year we managed to find it again, and it was finished. Unfortunately it involved a fair bit of contouring, but no complaining from Richie & Alex on the big bikes.

Eventually we made it round to the Samoens trails and let gravity do the hard work again. There’s a maze of trails coming off the main Grand Massif Express lift here, both official and locals. We managed to avoid repeating anything from last year and found some amazing riding, a day could easy be spent on this one lift without getting bored.

My afternoon started to get a bit worse at this point, with the discovery that my shiny new Spicy 516 had been spec’d with cheap inner tubes too small for the tyres. After 2 punctures, 1 of which happened when the bike was lying on its side, I was getting quite grumpy.

The mood wasn’t improved with discovering that the second Samoens lift, the Chariande Express wasn’t running. This was the lift we needed to get back to Les Carroz. And the car. No problem, we can use the Morillon lifts for only a bit more effort. They weren’t running either. Moral of the story, check the Grand Massif website to see which lifts are running on which days before making the trip.

As we were armed with the pedalable bikes, Lorne & I set of to ride back over the hills to the car, whilst Alex & Richie grabbed some more laps of the Samoens trails. It wasn’t the worst riding back over, but in the humid afternoon it would have been nicer to be sitting on a chairlift with a gentle breeze.

Next time, proper planning and no snow.

30/07/2013
Les Gets. Fast food riding

I’ve got a bit of an embarrassing admission to make. I first raced MTB’s 20 years ago, I’ve ridden them on 3 continents, hit some of the finest areas and trails on earth. I’ve never been to Les Gets. Or Morzine. Or any of the other Portes du Soleil resorts.

And it’s not that I’ve had any eliteist hangups about going there, I’ve ridden at Glentress out of choice before and everything.

Anyway, a roadtrip out of town was needed and as the braking bumps were only going to get worse, we thought we’d eschew the draw of Italian coffee in Pila and loaded up the car to hit Les Gets. A quick google for biking at Les Gets gets you pleney of forum posts about “off piste” “locals” and “hidden” trails. But being based out of Chamonix we’re pretty sorted for all that, so just wanted to ride super easy access bermed, jumpy tracks with no stress and hopefully no walkers. I guess even when you get to eat at the best restaurants, you sometimes just want a big mac.

So we unloaded at Les Gets, marvelled at the number of riders, paid our 23euros for a day pass and joined the queue. The actual queue! We don’t have that here (well, not for bikes anyway) We hooked our bikes over the back of the Chavannes Express (brilliant carrying system, don’t have that in Chamonix either) and once at the top dropped into the main line straight back down. Here we discovered something else that we don’t have in Chamonix. Braking bumps.

Only Angus had been over before out of our group, and he was the one most disappointed when I informed everyone that due to some car issues, only light bikes with small downtubes could make the trip, meaning his 224 DH rig would have to stay behind. After the 1^st couple of berms we could understand why! It’s a shame, but by taking super high lines through the corners, or entering and exiting early you can avoid the worst of them. Or just man up, speed up and get loose….

Having neglected to pick up any form of trail map we spent the rest of the day following our noses around Les Gets and Morzine. I’ve no idea if we hit the best trails, but we had fun. Nina consistently out-aired everyone, especially on the jump park under the Nauchets express chair. We all thought the trails under the chairlift after the Super Morzine gondola out of Morzine was the best trail of the day, and that the run under the Super Morzine was the worst (locals were downloading on the gondola, I can see why) and nobody and no bikes got hurt.

Fast, easy, enjoyable. But we went home feeling a little empty, though wanting more….

14/07/2013