Chamonix Bike Blog

Tag: Lift opening

  • It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine): Lift (not) closings

    Funny how you never know when's the last time you'll ride a trail for a while.

    Already another summer winds down. Chairlifts are turning for the last time until the snow arrives and we’re faced with the very real prospect of having to actually pedal ourselves to the top of the hill.

    So, just like on a night out when last orders are called and, despite all evidence to the contrary, part of the group insists that more drink is needed, an increasingly desperate search for somewhere open commences.

    Brevent's most photogenic corner.

    First port of call, Chamonix:

    Bellevue: 25th September
    Le Tour: 25th September
    Grand Montets: 25th September
    Flegere: 18th September but re-opens 20th October to 27th November
    Brevent/Planpraz: 18th September
    Tramway du Mont Blanc: 18th September
    Prarion: 11th September

    A slight issue this autumn is the Chamonix trains which have closed until 30th November and the replacement bus doesn’t take bikes.

    Lorne and his yellow Bronson. It needs more yellow, I need a bigger flashgun.

    Outside of the valley the options continue, but tend to get a bit pricier:

    Zermatt the mountain railway just keeps running. If you can afford it….
    St Luc bike park is open until 2nd November
    Verbier bike park goes on until 30th October
    Saleve is presumably open all winter as usual, though the website is only going as far as 13th November for the now
    Crans Montana’s bike park, and perhaps more usefully, non bike park trails too, are available up to 16th October 
    The Dorenaz telecabin and SwissPost buses all count as public transport and keep running through the year, use your imagination. Or google.

    Cheers for a great summer bike.

    All this is a bit irrelevant for me however, having dislocated my wrist. For once I’m listening to my inner adult and am going to stay off the bike for the recommended recovery time, which has scuppered the best time of the year for biking, but them’s the breaks etc. Boredom will no doubt mean I keep writing things.

  • A jaded hack rides again

    Guess the uplift, and spot the new Gwin Onza pro-model tyre....

    ***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 off it (or the worst of it at least), pumping up the tyres and heading out for a wee pootle about the grand trails low in the Chamonix valley.

    Servoz. The usual first ride of the season, and the usual watering stop on the way up.

    In fact, it’s all so mundane that I’ll skip the riding bit and move straight to that rarest of things; a useful blog post.

    The where-can-I-cheat-gravity-and-get-myself-carried-to-the-top-of-the-hill-and-when-does-it-start list, complete with a new 2016 innovation, when does it finish. Elon Musk ain’t got shit on me.

    Chamonix (usual CdMB caveats apply)

    Bellevue: 11th June – 25th September
    Le Tour: 11th June – 25th September
    Flegere: 11th June – 18th September
    Brevent/Planpraz: 11th June – 18th September
    Tramway du Mont Blanc: 11th June – 18th September
    Prarion: 18th June – 11th September
    Grand Montets: 25th June – 25th September
    Vallorcine: 2nd July – 4th September

    And some other handy places

    La Thuile: 25th June – 4th September
    Portes du Mont-Blanc: 24th June – 4th September (and part of the MBU pass now too mind)
    Grand Massif: Assorted start and finish times across the area, but basically between 2nd July – 28th August
    Pila: Weekend 18th/19th June for the Gondola then full opening 25th June – 11th September
    Portes du Soleil: Full area opening 24th June – 4th September with limited openings from 11th June and Les Gets weekends only 28/29 May & 4/5 June
    Verbier: All weekends in June then 27th June – 30th October

    Spence has been dreaming about bikes all winter, seems to have kept his technique sharp.

    The paradigm shifting change that is including closing dates into my early season lift opening dates post isn’t the end of the innovation here at Chamonix bike blog, oh no.

    Sometime in May(ish) an instagram link thingy will appear over there to your right in the side bar where more regular updates on trail conditions will appear and also you can ask questions that might get answered in the same month as they’re asked because, to be honest, I really don’t check the email or facebook inboxes that often and when I do I tend to just delete 1/2 the messages anyway.

    Normal Caillet trail still needs a bit longer to melt out, but the descent down to Les Bois is dry.

    It’s not just me that’s been changing stuff either. CdMB has extended the summer pass to include the whole Portes du Mont Blanc area, so you can now ride from pretty much Switzerland at Vallorcine all the way through the Chamonix valley and over to St Gervais, Les Contamines, Megeve and Combleux with barely an uphill pedal stroke along the way. And back again. Maybe. We’ll test this one out in a couple months.

  • Already?

    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.

    Sandy likes his free Opinel knife, best goodie bag of the season, nae hate here.

    Other things I don’t like? Lift closing dates, so let’s get all the hate out in one go. Here’s a list of lift closing dates, usual caveats of subject-to-change apply, don’t expect the dates to extend though.

    Vallorcine                             30th August
    Flegere                                6th September
    Grand Montets                    13th September
    Brevent                                20th September (re-opens 17th October to 6th November)
    Prarion                                 20th September
    Le Tour                                20th September
    Tramway du Mont Blanc      27th September
    Bellevue                               27th September

    A riding photo! The 1000m descent wasn't enough so they built a wee drop in ramp to give us that bit more to ride down.

    And but a short roadtrip away

    Grand Massif 28th Aug: http://ete.grand-massif.com/ouverture
    La Thuile 30th Aug: http://www.lathuile.it/datapage.asp?id=211&l=1&s=E
    Portes du Mont Blanc 30th Aug: http://www.combloux.com/en/activities/summer/pass.html
    Tignes / Val d’Isere 30th Aug (still FREE up till then): http://www.tignes.net/en/summer-sports/free-and-a-la-carte-activities-252.html
    Pila 6th Sept…..probably: http://www.pila.it/en/holidays/tariffe/tessere-a-punti/
    Portes du Soliel starts closing the weekend of 30th August and is mostly closed by the 4th, except Champery & Morgins which keeps going to 29th Sept: http://en.portesdusoleil.com/summer-lifts.html
    Verbier 21st Sept then reduced hours until 25th Oct (if weather’s ok): http://www.verbierbikepark.ch/horaires_fr.php

    Free Galibier beer, very welcome to ease the pain in the hand, Frederik also getting in with the pain, his first enduro race obviously leaving him a bit confused, WC DH is much shorter....

    And assorted other wee places which have been written about more than enough on the internet already, if you don’t know about them then put some effort in for yourself.

    If I don’t get any love for writing again soon, I’ll do an extensive list of words I don’t like instead.

    Valloire Sunday morning. It rained a bit.

  • Encore une fois, Lift openings 2015

    A bike on a lift. No effort required.

    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 – 20th September

    Brevent/Planpraz: 13th June – 20th September

    Tramway du Mont Blanc: 13th June – 27th September

    Prarion: 20th June – 20th September

    Grand Montets: 27th June – 13th September

    Vallorcine: 27th June – 23rd August

    A brief image interlude. remember summer?

    And some 1hr distant roadtrippin’ options

    La Thuile: 27th June – 30th August http://www.lathuile.it/datapage.asp?id=223&l=1&s=E

    Portes du Mont-Blanc: Not up yet, but probably 27th June – 6th September http://www.combloux.com/en/activities/summer/mountain/lifts.html?obt=sitraLOI455581#detailsobt

    Tignes/Val d’Isere: More than 1hr, but still free, 27th June – 30th August http://www.tignes.net/en/summer-sports/free-and-a-la-carte-activities-252.html

    Grand Massif: Not up yet but probably 4th July – 30th August http://ete.grand-massif.com/les-tarifs

    Pila: Not up yet, but probably 20th June – 6th September http://www.pila.it/en/pila/estate/stagione-estiva/

    Portes du Soleil: Mostly 26th June – 30th August but some earlier and later http://en.portesdusoleil.com/summer-lifts.html

    Verbier: All weekends in June then 29th June – 25th October http://www.verbierbikepark.ch/horaires_fr.php

    Dusty trails. Coming to a lift near you soon.

  • The end is nigh. Repent.

    You want a challenge, try getting a shot like this using self timer......

    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 Bellevue). Certainly it’s not as bad as the Portes du Soleil or Grand Massif which reportedly resemble Glastonbury on a bad year at the moment. That’s the mud, not the huge numbers of people, bands, inappropriate clothing for the weather etc.

    Heavy weather (Jarvis Cocker obviously)

    Keeping to trails above the tree line and exposed to the wind also help you stay dry(ish) and less muddy, though not perhaps as warm.

    Anyway, riding mud is like riding powder whilst it’s dumping. You have to head out when the weather’s worst, you WILL get cold and wet, and it’s not easy. The flip side is that it’s so much more rewarding. Why ski down a well groomed piste when you can leave your own trace through the forest? If it’s too hard, you’re just not good enough.

    The brown, brown mud of home. (any cover'll do)

    Summer, or what’s passing for it, might still have another month or so to run but that doesn’t mean the lifts do. Shut down in Chamonix starts at the end of the month and it’s the same for most of the other hills.

    Here’s the list you don’t want to see:

    Vallorcine 31st August

    Grand Montets 7th September

    Brevent 14th September (re-opens 25th October to 2nd November)

    Flegere 14th September

    Prarion 14th September

    Tramway du Mont Blanc 14th September

    Le Tour 21st September

    Bellevue 28th September

    And futher afield

    Grand Massif 31st Aug: http://ete.grand-massif.com/ouverture

    La Thuile 31st Aug : http://www.lathuile.it/datapage.asp?id=211&l=1&s=E

    Portes du Mont Blanc 7th Sept http://www.combloux.com/en/activities/summer/pass.html

    Tignes / Val d’Isere 31st Aug (still FREE up till then) http://www.tignes.net/en/summer-sports/free-and-a-la-carte-activities-252.html 

    Pila 8th Sept: http://www.pila.it/en/holidays/tariffe/tessere-a-punti/

    Portes du Soleil starts closing the weekend of 31st August and is mostly closed by the 9th, except Champery which keeps going to 26th Oct: http://en.portesdusoleil.com/summer-lifts.html

    Verbier 22nd September then weekends only until 26th Oct (if weather’s ok): http://www.verbierbikepark.ch/horaires_fr.php

    Fingers crossed the sun comes out to play for a few weeks and we can start to complain that it’s too hot and the trails too dusty for a bit instead.

    No way I was setting up a timer shot on this, just appreciate the landscape for a change without a focal subject.