Category Archives: Trail conditions

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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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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What, where, when. 2014 lift openings

Posted on 14th April 2014
Spring, because there's flowers and snow in the same shot

In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of mountain biking (Tennyson was a keen early mtber, award yourself 10 smug points if you got the reference), lift accessed mountain biking at that, but where?

Well here’s a list of when Chamonix’s lifts open (probably, subject to usual CdMB changes) and some other options for nearby if that’s too long to wait.

Le Tour: 14th June

Flegere: 14th June

Brevent/Planpraz: 14th June

Prarion: 14th June

Bellevue: 14th June

Tramway du Mont Blanc: 14th June

Grand Montets: 28th June

Vallorcine: 28th… [Read full post]

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Greatest hits

Posted on 4th November 2013
Sometimes it's easier just to miss out bits of the trail completely

Even if you’re far too core to lower yourself to buying a greatest hits album, I’m sure at Christmas an aunt will have remembered your obsession with Cliff Richard and got you a copy of “The whole story” (I googled it)

Before you got the greatest hits though, you’ll have listened through albums, heard singles on the radio. Over time the songs became kind of familiar, a bit too familiar. They lost the urgency and freshness they once had and worse, you can even grow to hate them.

I end up listening only to a select few tracks, the best … [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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Last minute panic lift riding/local races for local people

Posted on 21st August 2013
Winners podium. Cham-style

“The nights are fair drawing in” I’ve heard no-one say recently, but it doesn’t change that at the end of the month, most of the alps’ lift operators start to stop putting the 50 centime pieces in the chairlift machines and going down needs you to consider getting up first.

Here’s a list of the closing dates for our nearby lifts, along with a couple of beacons of hope for us:

Chamonix

VALLORCINE: 1st Sept

GRANDS MONTETS: 8th Sept

PRARION: 15th Sept

BREVENT: 15th Sept (then Oct 19th to Nov 3rd)

FLEGERE: 15th Sept

LE TOUR … [Read full post]

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To the ends of the valley

Posted on 9th July 2013
But why be picky when you have trails like this

OK, it can get a bit insular here in Chamonix. The steep valley walls cut off any sight of the outside world and, as long as you’re only paying attention to mountain sports, then everything you want is on your doorstep.  It’s a bit of a change to look out of the valley occasional and be reminded that the outside world exists, but to do it twice in less than a week, madness.

To cut a long intro short, the bike ban’s started, so most natural trails are now out of bounds thanks to Arrête Municipale (n° 124/2004) which prohibits … [Read full post]

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This ‘n’ that

Posted on 27th June 2013

After a spring of moaning about the cold and snow, the sun’s come out and it’s got dry and hot. So instead now everyone’s moaning about it being too hot and dry. On the plus side, the +30 degree temps, blazing sunshine and a bit of warm rain has put a fair dent in the snowpack and things are starting to get a bit easier to ride up high.

Conveniently most of the valley’s lifts have opened for the summer season now, which has saved us from having to actually exercise in the heat, instead we can just enjoy a … [Read full post]

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Not new, but improved.

Posted on 25th June 2013
Chamonix Bike Blog, biking in Chamonix, it's what we do

After a year of amusing myself with making up the titles of blog posts, I’ve decided it’s time to move the Chamonixbikeblog on to bigger and better things. So with a huge amount of help from Lorne Cameron’s web design I present to you the new, Chamonixbikeblog.

All the content from the old wordpress site has been moved over, and that site will just contain links to move you to here.

Look out for exciting new content!, or possibly just the same old text and images but in a different wheel size format.

… [Read full post]

Posted in Trail conditions

Forever delayed…

Posted on 28th May 2013
Jumping for joy at dusty trails

I’m beginning to sound like a stuck record (or best-of album), but this blog’s here to give y’all an idea of riding conditions and trails around Chamonix, so I can only say what I see!

Yes, winter is STILL in force in the Chamonix valley.

I’ve been back in Scotland for a wee visit (where I got to ride the excellent new Commonwealth Games track at Cathkin Braes, good work guys. Almost made me wish I was back working in Glasgow. Almost) and had expected that upon return to Chamonix the sun would be shining, the air warm and the … [Read full post]

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