Chamonix Bike Blog

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Known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns

I grew up riding in Scotland and sometimes, just sometimes, I can really miss the riding there. Don’t get me wrong, Chamonix trails are ridiculously good, who wouldn’t want to be quickly whisked up 1000m to ride off on trails, almost every one looking and feeling like it’s from a movie, all in great weather. Or at least great if you’re Scottish.

But despite this, or perhaps because of this, I miss having to ride up singletrack roads, fire roads, push up muddy sheep tracks and, when all else fails, just sprachel straight up the hill with the bike all for an unknown descent. Or by unknown, I mean you’ve seen the trace on the map so you know roughly where it goes, and you know it’ll be muddy because it’s almost winter, but more than that, no idea!

That the weather is pretty Scottish right now probably helped, but the trails above Servoz are about as close as I have found to the Scottish ethic. With skiing still not quite there in the valley, Jan and I headed out to beast the legs one last time (probably…) before the snow properly arrives.

Heading up from the town to the Trois Gouilles carpark on the road is pretty easy, and gets you the first 300m climbed without too much effort. The next 200m up to the Lac Vert parking are on gravel road and definitely take it out of you a bit more. From there, it’s a mix of easier fire road and occasional singletrack (which is great in the other direction) to the Chalets du Souey, about 770m above Servoz.

So far, so Scottish. A long climb, grey skies, intermittent drizzle and heathery moorland above the treeline. The only clue we weren’t just outside Oban was the occasional break in the cloud giving views of the Domes du Miage. This much of the trail I knew, but from here down all we had was a line on the map and some optimism.

Setting off down the trail we made it about 20meters before spying a natural rock wall ride.

Another aspect of biking back home I really miss is the stopping to play on cool features on the trail and making the most of what you see, rather than riding hundreds of vertical meters in a single go. We played for a while, until my imagination exceeded the level of grip available on the wet rock and I limped off with ripped shorts and a hole in my leg.

Back off down the trail and we were impressed. It’s perhaps not the most flowing or consistent track in town, but you get plenty value for money. Fast bits, slow bits, tech, tight, open, simple. It all seemed to be in there. Normally I try and let some photos do the talking (it saves over a 1000 words each time) but a combination of poor light and having more fun playing on the trail slightly scuppered that. Suffice to say, if you’re riding something between a cyclocross bike and a twin crown freeride rig, you’ll have fun and be challenged but in a good way!

Two hours after leaving town, we rolled back into Servoz, muddier than when we left. At which point Jan, who is already in training for the 2013 Marmotte, suggested another lap.

Merde.

Filling our bottles from the fountain just past the Gorges de Diosaz hotel, we started pedalling up, noticeably slower than the first time! We still managed to stay on the bikes until the Trois Gouilles carpark, pushed up a wee bit further, then headed down.

The hillside here is littered with bike trails, natural and purpose built. Several of the Servoz youth used to build freeride trails here which have been gradually getting rediscovered and reworked. It’s not Whistler, but it’s a good sign of a healthy local scene.

All too soon we were back onto the old Servoz – Passy road, saddles back up and spinning round to town. With a little over 1100meters climbed on our enduro bikes, the legs were for sure feeling the burn. After a days “Scottish” riding, a raid of the fridge gave me only one option for lunch. Porridge and a mug of tea. Braw.

Looking outside the snow’s on the ground and the buzz about town is definitely for winter, not summer. Guess it’s now time to go skiing to give the legs a rest.

28/11/2012
Telepherique des Glaciers. Uplift of a sort.

Jan’s starting to get a bit fed up. For a month now every time he’s been out he’s called last ride, cleaned his bike and put it away for the winter, only to be persuaded to get it covered in mud again the next weekend. Sure enough as we were packing the bikes away at La Saleve he was sure that was it for the autumn. Then I suggested we ride the trail down from ye olde abandonned “Telepherique des Glaciers“….

Just as well he did, I’d have gone up solo, but it’s much easier to take photos when there’s someone else there to wheelie on command.

The Telepherique des Glaciers is the original version of the Midi lift, only it was never completed and, in 1955, was abandoned for the better line of the current lift. Most folk know the lift buildings from descending to the Mont Blanc Tunnel after skiing some of the classic Chamonix lines such as Rond Glacier or the North face of Mont Blanc, but with a bike the push up to the middle station with a bike is pretty easy, and you can knock another 200m vertical off if you drive up to the tunnel entrance.

This wasn’t an option for Jan & I as the traffic was backed up for several km from the tunnel, so we just rode up the edge of the road past the static traffic. After negotiating our way through the tunnel entrance area we started the push up, following the same route as you descend.

The station sits at 1688m, about 600m above Chamonix and 400m above the tunnel. It’s north facing and a bit chillier than down in town, but you can’t visit any of these places and not take some time to explore. If you’ve got the skills of Danny Macaskill you could have an amazing time here. Jan and I had to make do with wheelies and skids, but that was fun enough for us!

Eventually we figured we’d best head down the hill. I always take a bit more time to savour the descent if I’ve had to get myself to the top of it. The “need” to take some photos was a great excuse to session some of the amazing natural features on the trail. The trail flows so well though, it’s tempting to just keep blasting down. It’s not super steep and tech like you find on many of the valley side trails, but at the same time there’s so much going on on the trail that you aren’t tearing down too quickly.

Reaching the tunnel again we crossed over the concrete and dropped down towards the Cascades du Dards to ride that trail down to town. Another sweet little track, all the better for having no snow on it this time.

Getting to the back of the old Camping Les Molliasses we were still keen for more, so cut right and took the forestry roads up towards the path down from the Midi-Plan. These trails, particularly the Cascade du Dard and Midi paths, are very busy throughout the summer and early autumn with walkers so it was good to ride them without anyone else about.

The last section of this trail down to the ski jump was a fitting end to the ride. Having started at the Telepherique des Glaciers lift which opened in time for the first winter Olympics and hosted the bobsleigh, we finished at the ski jump which had been built and inauguriated for the same event. If only I’d planned it that way!

Is Jan going to get the bike out again? Is anyone? The weather watchers are getting excited about the prospect of some fairly serious snow next week, Verbier’s already open for skiing, Courmayeur opens on Friday and Grand Montets is scheduled to open the week after, so maybe the bikes are away for the winter now.

We’ll see.

24/11/2012
A Saleve for the uplift blues?

After 2 weeks of pretty poor biking weather (grand for getting the ski season going though) whilst the Brevent lifts were open, the skies have cleared and there’s been wall to wall sunshine.

And frost.

It is November after all.

Unfortunately the Chamonix lifts are closed so, always keen to let someone else do the hard work, we loaded up and headed out of town for some mid November lift access mountain biking. Got to love the alps.

45mins to 1hr from Chamonix and on the outskirts of Geneva is the tourist lift “la Saleve” You can buy a single uplift for about 6euro or for 43euro get a book of 10 passes which you can share amongst a few riders and are valid for 12 months from purchase. Bargain. The front face of Saleve doesn’t look too promising for biking, unless you’re filming for Where the trail ends but there’s a network of trails winding down from the top through some fairly unlikely looking terrain.

When we arrived it was cloudy and freezing cold in the carpark, irritating as it was sunny and freezing cold back in Chamonix, however heading up in the lift we got through a cloud band 1/2 way up and into the sunshine. Still cold though.

Once at the top tracks head off in all directions with several popular XC bike loops around the top. We were here to ride down though, so crossed the road and followed the traverse path for a few minutes to where the proper trails start. Despite looking like unofficial tracks, the trails are marked with little bike symbols. Nevertheless, the turn-off from the road can be easy to miss. It’s about 100m down the tarmac road, on your right and a sharper turn than it first looks. Once onto the trail though, just keep following your nose! There’s a huge number of variations, if you want to get to the best of them, speak to a local (there’s plenty of them about!)

The top half of the main trail is a great example of what good trail building should be. Fast and flowing, despite the damp and slidy conditions, with well constructed jumps which look intimidating but ride smoothly if you commit. It gets pretty tight in places with tree gaps little wider than your bars, but the berms keep you on the right line and in the gaps. The limestone geology also makes a change from Chamonix’s granite with a bit more grip in the wet than we were all used to.

The lower section is very good in the dry… it wasn’t dry today. The claggy mud was sticking to everything it touched, leaving everyone with semi-slick tyres. Low speeds meant none of the many, many crashes were serious and generally it was easier to slide down on, or at least near, the bike than try to walk.

As a contrast to the fast, full-face style tracks that take the more direct line down, there are some enduro-style trails that take a less steep line further east to the village of Monnetier. These don’t get ridden as much, and you can tell. The entrance, roughly 200m down the start of the main trail, which breaks off right was covered in leaves and without Wayne’s local knowledge we’d never have found it. Once on the trail the line was a little more obvious, but still well covered in leaves. Hopefully next time it’ll be easier to see where we’re going as it did mess with the flow a bit! To get back to the lifts, head through the village, cycling uphill (wouldn’t be much fun with a DH rig this bit) for about 10 minutes till you round a left hand hairpin and see the gravel road which you use on the main DH tracks on your right.

The last section back to the gondola is common to most of the tracks. The trail starts as a walking path with singletrack cut-throughs to avoid steps made for walkers. Then you get to a long series of rock stairs cut out of the cliff with a fair sized drop to your right. fine in the dry if there’s no one walking up, but not even the local heros were riding them today! After this the trail gets interesting again, with yet more great trail building work.

After a summer of riding trails in the high alps, Saleve feels almost like going back to the riding in the UK. Lots of trails built by locals with whatever materials are available, damp slidy dirt despite it not having rained for several days, lots of trees, except here you have a gondola to lift you 660 metres rather than a farmers trailer or pedalling.

Cheers to the trail builders for a great days riding.

20/11/2012
Getting cold feet

It certainly ain’t summer any more, but there are still lifts turning and the trails aren’t (always) covered in snow, so there’s still riding getting done.

Folk have mostly been taking advantage of the Brevent lift being open for two weeks. However with the snow line going up and down from somewhere near the top of the lift at 2000m to just above town, the trails around Servoz and down to Le Fayet have also been getting hit, especially since a group of local riders have started work on an excellent new freeride trail near Lac Vert. The mix of rain and snow has put an end to the wonderful dry trails of the last few months, but away from the rockier trails (such as, err, Brevent) the dirt is pretty grippy and the mud washes off! This hasn’t stopped local riders looking further afield to find dust, with groups heading off to Aosta for van shuttle riding and others even off to Morocco.

I’ve had a few runs on Brevent since the last update, including checking out Sentier des Gardes which, as Oliver said, is now much improved with only about 5 trees still down and once again worth the effort. There was also first tracks in a few inches of snow on Le Charlanon and watching the scariest crash of the season when Lorne went over the edge on Plan des Chablettes and ragdolled down the hill for 25 meters…

With the local meteo forecasting as much as 50cm of snow at 2500m overnight and frequent snow showers during Sunday, Jan, Robbie & I headed up Brevent for what we figured would be the last time today. First lap we dropped down the 4×4 track into the main Brevent couloir and discovered that the rocks were pretty slippy and a river was running down large sections of the track. Not wanting to finish the season with injury, we walked a couple of sections that are normally ridden. Before long we were at the junction choosing whether to ride Sentier des Gardes or Plan des Chablettes when, mid photograph, we heard a jet plane pass overhead. Only, it didn’t sound quite right and looking up towards ENSA couloir saw a plume of rising dust. At first it looked like a small snow avalanche, however as the sound of falling rocks got louder, we decided to scarper fast into the safety of the trees on Plan des Chablettes. Looking back we could see and hear rocks bouncing down the main funnel line over the path to Sentier des Gardes and towards town. A rude reminder that in Chamonix, even the biking has objective danger!

The rest of the trail went without incident, though also a bit slippier than usual which kept speeds down a bit till we got back to the lift station. With the PGHM helicopter now circling the Brevent couloir we decided to give that a miss and went up for a lap of Le Charlanon instead. The initial technical singletrack traverse looked fairly clear of snow, but we still decided that it would be a better idea to descend on the 4×4 tracks towards Col Cornu and then push (or ride in Jan’s case) back up to the start of the descent.

This route was livened up by some off piste excursions off the 4×4 track and into the snow, culminating in a megavalanche stylee blat straight down the hill, ensuring fun, swearing and baltic feet & shins for all.

Once onto the trail the snow had pretty much melted away and it seemed as good a track as any to end the summers uplift before the winter. If you’ve not ridden it, make the effort next year, it’s a great ride.

Eventually we ended up in Le Praz at the old north shore trails behind the Rabbit on the Roof workshop. The north shore’s been dismantled but the dirt jumps still remain which gave a last bit of variety to the day, though I doubt any of us will be entering crankworx at L2A next year.

So, an eventful but good day to finish the big descents on for the season, hopefully with more to do lower down. We’ll see.

10/11/2012
Brevent

This weeks riding has been brought to you by the word Brevent!

First off, if you don’t live in the valley and are looking for a wee conditions update to decide whether to make the drive over or not, check the webcams. The snow line is wandering up and down the mountain and, if the forecast is correct, will continue to do so for the next few days.

How’s the riding been the last few days? After the snow down to the valley last weekend, it took a few days for it to be worth heading up with a bike, but my Tuesday the skies were blue, the temperature crisp, and tracks were appearing on the ground again.

Umpteen laps of the main descent down the fall-line (Plan des Chablettes) have been logged. Unfortunately my preferred entry where you ride up the hill for a couple of hundred meters from the lift station, past the parapont take off field and drop in on excellent techy singletrack is still a bit too snowy to be worthwhile. Instead better to descend under the gondola station and beneath the gondola cables onto the 4×4 track which, though boring, clears of snow much quicker and gets you onto the amazing lower half.

There’s been some small landslips on the lower section, but it’s still 100% rideable if you’ve got the confidence, and once in the trees the riding is some of Chamonix’s finest. I even finally plucked up the courage to air the rock drop just after the start of the trees, the rock lip giving more “kick” than I thought, and Lorne too, hence the missing head!

Generally the paths have been clearing on most aspects, but even down to village height snow has been hanging on in shady N.E. aspects and ice forming near streams, so watch out when exploring….

After Oliver commented on a previous post about the Sentier des Gardes path now being clear again, I headed up on Thursday to check it out. Unfortunately as I went up, the snow started coming down and by the time I got out the lift station conditions were pretty grim.

Instead I decided to loose height quickly on the 4×4 path down past the Col Cornu chairlift and onto the home run. A couple of switchbacks down you’ll see a wee path diving off to the right, and it’s definitely worth following! There’s a few short sections where it’s easier to get off and carry round rocks and trees, but mostly it’s fast flowing singletrack all the way back to the Brevent base station. The trees were holding back the worst of the snow, and the extra moisture on the ground gave the trail amazing grip in the corners. what’s more the miserable weather seemed to be dissuading folk from going for a walk, so there was no-one else to slow up for. It really can be worth heading up, no matter the weather.

02/11/2012