Category Archives: Trail conditions

A jaded hack rides again

Posted on 12th April 2016
Spence has been dreaming about bikes all winter, seems to have kept his technique sharp.

***Edited on 30th May with the updated opening and closing dates for summer 2016. Two weekends to go y’all…**

I did some reading over the winter on how to betterer use english good for right stuff.

“Start with an analogy or an image” is one common recommendation for getting over the awkward hurdle of sullying the blank sheet of white paper (pixels) infront of you.

Rising, like a phoenix from the ashes, the bike emerges from its winter slumber. Sounds a bit too heroic a comparison for me digging the bike out the back of the cave, shaking the dust … [Read full post]

Posted in Trail conditions , tagged

An interlude.

Posted on 21st December 2015
Up above the (cold in the shade) streets and houses.

It’s December. The day of the longest night to be exact. Eleven days before the end of the year, and we’re riding our bikes.

As a lefty-liberal-pinko-socialist who will talk at you for hours on why capitalism will fail as it doesn’t obey the 1st or 2nd laws of thermodynamics, it’d be expected of me to launch into a rant about global warming and how it’s all our fault here.

But it’s christmas, you’re saved, I’ll be nice and no bother. Anyways, December is often a poor month for snow, often warm, often dry. Mibbies not so often good for … [Read full post]

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Techy treat

Posted on 5th November 2015
4th November Aig des Houches: Banger of a shot courtesy of Lorne and much wheelie practice.

You into religion much?

I’m not sure why I put in the question mark, I don’t care in the slightest and it’s not relevant.

What does matter is that the French like a bit of Catholicism and just can’t get enough of their saints. Hence, all saints day is ‘something’ here, and we get a holiday.

Presumably we should be celebrating all those lucky souls who’ve made it to heaven, and all those the next day who’re stuck in purgatory. Instead we put on fancy dress* (c’mon, tell me bikers aren’t going to look back at what we’re wearing in … [Read full post]

Also posted in Chamonix ride , tagged

Already?

Posted on 14th August 2015
Valloire, Seventh August, Coupe du France round five.

Not been much activity here for a bit, there’s been some races (Les Orres and Valloire Coupe du France Enduro, the latter’ll do for the photos), some riding of trails I’ve already written about and an injured wrist, but mostly I’ve lost my psyche for writing.

You can tell I’ve lost my psyche because I’m using words like psyche. I’d hate ‘psyche’ even more than ‘bants’ if it wasn’t for the racist/sexist/homophobic connotations you get with banter, but it’s still high up in my list of words wot I don’t like.

Other things I don’t like? Lift closing dates, so … [Read full post]

Posted in Trail conditions , tagged

Encore une fois, Lift openings 2015

Posted on 20th April 2015
A brief image interlude. remember summer?

It’s great that bikes have pedals for, like, pedalling and stuff, but we’d rather sit on our arses and let something else do the work. Preferably whilst belching CO2, cos that’s more like a 2 stroke crosser, and we all just wish we could ride motocross don’t we.

So, opening dates for Chamonix lifts, and the surrounding area. Boom, voila and here you go (and a bit of music to listen to whilst you read):

Chamonix (usual CdMB caveats apply)

Bellevue: 13th June – 27th September

Le Tour: 13th June – 20th September

Flegere: 13th June – … [Read full post]

Posted in Trail conditions , tagged

Verbier. Open for business

Posted on 8th April 2015
Shot possibly used in umpteen bike magazines over the years.....

Miss us?

Winter has been. Maybe not quite gone, but certainly been. Spring is here with her promises of skiing in the morning and biking in the afternoon. Of course it rarely works quite that perfectly, but it’s still been good to get either a good ski and a short ride, or a short ski and a good ride in. Tuesday was the latter, a short ski in the morning followed by loading up the car with Spencer and Nina for the first road trip of the year. To……………

Verbier. But then you probably guessed that, what with the blog … [Read full post]

Also posted in Road trip , tagged

A night at the opera

Posted on 11th December 2014
When you resort to riding on your own. At night. With some snow. You should probably accept it's time to quit for a bit.

The fat lady is singing and Chamonix Bike Blog is getting put to bed for the winter.

Granted it’s still not proper winter in the valley, but it’s near enough so the bike’s been cleaned and put away for a while. Words and pictures will probably start to re-appear February or March(ish) with some sunny warm dusty trail riding. Or mud. Check out Lorne Cameron ski blog if you want to see what most of the fictional characters on here get up to during the winter.

Merry christmas, bonne fete, happy hogmanay and aa that.

… [Read full post]

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The last big weekend of the summer

Posted on 30th November 2014
Shredding the orange pow. That sounds wrong.

End of summer? Ok so it might be the end of meteorological autumn, but outside it’s double digit temperatures, with a warm drying wind rolling over from the south, so for us lot, it feels more like the end of summer.

And what do we do in summer? Ride bikes.

The Loriaz chalet loop is one of the first of the higher trails we ride each year, it’s altitude and aspect ensuring snow free trails that bit sooner than other points around the valley. That and the only way up is under your own steam, so there’s no point putting … [Read full post]

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‘Effing excellent

Posted on 15th September 2014
Spence seemed to enjoy his first time.

You might not have noticed, but there’s a wee bit of a referendum happening in Scotland next week. It seems that Westminster hadn’t noticed either as over the last 7 days there’s been a sudden realisation that folks north of the border might just go vote for independence, and for reasons other than watching Braveheart too many times. Cue a love bombing campaign of Scotland. Promises that we won’t take you for granted, we won’t ignore you, it’ll be different this time, trust us, we’re politicians…

But this isn’t a political blog, so what’s with the intro? Well, I worry … [Read full post]

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The end is nigh. Repent.

Posted on 9th August 2014

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 … [Read full post]

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