Tag Archives: Flegere

Milestones

Posted on 21st June 2018
Oban cycles roof drop. In hindsight, the trials bike was a better choice for this...
The bike's 1, the blog's 6, the sun's 4.603 billion and the lifts are open. Mostly. A bunch of words covering most of these issues.
Posted in Trail conditions , tagged , , , , , ,

Unintended consequences/Chamonix Bike Ban

Posted on 12th July 2017
Chamonix's most photogenic corner. No can do in July and August.
Why the Chamonix Bike Ban doesn't really make much difference to summer biking in Chamonix.
Posted in Trail conditions , tagged , , , , ,

Yeah, but what’s the best descent in Chamonix……

Posted on 3rd August 2016
Picture this: Another one of Chamonix's top trails, it just didn't make the cut though...
What are ten of the best mountain bike descents in Chamonix? Well it might be these....
Posted in Chamonix ride , tagged , , , ,

‘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]

Posted in Chamonix ride, Trail conditions , tagged , ,

Last chance to ride ___________

Posted on 23rd September 2013
Robbie getting distracted by the view

Normally “where shall we ride today?” is a tricky question, but for the last week it’s been a bit easier to get an answer.”We’ll ride wherever the lifts are about to close”. So that’s Brevent, Flegere and Le Tour, in that order.

An alternative answer has also been “I’m not going out in that, it’s snowing”. Which is true, winter made its first appearance of the autumn resulting in a fair bit of snow down to 1700m or so and some purty looking north faces once the clouds finally lifted. It didn’t do the biking communities enthusiasm to ride any … [Read full post]

Posted in Chamonix ride , tagged , ,

3.10 is the magic number

Posted on 13th September 2013
Ridgeline. Putting the "pic" in Epic

And why is it the magic number? Because that’s when the last tram leaves Le Fayet for Bellevue, but I’m getting ahead of myself, back to the start.

Every spring I start with the intention of riding all 10 bike friendly lifts on the Chamonix lift pass in a day, and every autumn arrives without me having done so. It’s a trickier challenge to complete than it first appears as the window to get it done is pretty small. Most of the good riding from the lifts is on trails off limits during the July & August bike ban, and … [Read full post]

Posted in Chamonix ride , tagged , , ,

A bit of peace & quiet

Posted on 7th September 2012

September has started and Chamonix has emptied! Overnight the population of the valley has halved and, conveniently, the weather has stopped thinking it’s winter and moved on to cool mornings, low 20’s during the day, blue sky and bright sunshine. All in all perfect bike weather.

This week is probably the best of the year to visit Chamonix to ride the classic steep & technical trails that it’s famous for as the lifts are still open, the bike ban is over and you don’t have to stop all the time for walkers. After a week off the bike, I wanted … [Read full post]

Posted in Chamonix ride, Trail conditions , tagged , ,

Le VTT et les Vaches…

Posted on 11th July 2012

Whilst bikes seem to be getting discouraged in some areas of the valley, they’re looking more and more welcome up at Le Tour.  There’s some sort of link in the alps where the more suitable the terrain is for cows, the more bikes are welcomed.  After all, Morzine is known locally as the mountain for the cows.

As the trains aren’t running from Vallorcine this summer (more information here: http://www.thechamonixbikebook.com/news/2012-the-year-there-wasnt-a-train/ if you’ve not already heard)we had to wait for the Vallorcine gondola to finally open at the start of July before the full potential of Le Tour could be enjoyed … [Read full post]

Posted in Trail conditions , tagged , ,

Flegere

Posted on 7th July 2012

The bike tracks at Flegere were never going to win any awards or become cult favourites but they still make for a good workout in quality surroundings, so I was pretty disappointed to find out that the bike racks aren’t going to be put on the Index chairlift for the rest of the summer. The liftie didn’t think it was the end of VTT above 1900m, but certainly we’ve lost the 2 tracks that drop the 700m vert from the top.

To make matters worse, there’s been forestry work about 1/3 of the way down the remaining bike track and … [Read full post]

Posted in Trail conditions , tagged

Beaucoup de neiges

Posted on 20th June 2012

Almost all the bike uplift is now running in the Chamonix valley, with just the Vallorcine and Grand Montets telecabines left to open on the 30th June. Pretty much all the walking trails off the lifts are clear of trees and the “Elfe Secret” track at Flegere was nearly clear on Monday and should be clear by now.

There is a wee fly in the ointment though, whilst the Brevant telecabine and Index chairlift are running, bikes aren’t being allowed on for just now as there’s too much snow to ride! The lifties reckon the Index will be open for … [Read full post]

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