The greater Le Tour area

The last day of June must be spent riding footpaths

Despite the Mont Blanc marathon being on, it wasn't going to stop us riding at le Tour.

Or the guide (who I had actually transfered a few weeks before) trying to tell us off for riding a trail, he was actually very nice, but once I mentioned a lack of arrete municipal he seemed a little put back and gave up arguing. (please let me know if you know any official word otherwise on le tour trails)

The lower downhill track has a few nice new berms, and a few completely random new berms. So one lap down was enough.

We headed to Catogne area to cruise the turns and flow before nipping left and back towards Vallorcine. Just above the tete de la Balme chair is a wonderful meadow, where I did some impromptu flower Identification (still got lots to learn for my IML).

Catogne should look like this, but there is still snow to the left of the buildings

I was interested to drop down to Vallorcine to see what was going on, the lifties everywhere had told us the DH course was shut. So down the 4x4 track, but luckily for us mountain bikers, the singletrack footpath the goes from near the end of the downhill course is now mandatory for everyone to take. GREAT! though the two girls on hardtails pushing down it probably didn't enjoy as much as us. It was wet in there from the previous days heavy rain and as ever you can really hit some dangerous section's with more speed and end up on poor lines. Well atleast I did... as my downhill bike skipped all over the place underneath me.

After a coke zero stop we headed up. Don't forget the lift closes for lunch, but we'd timed it pretty well. From heading up, the work that has been done so far seems to be in a field just outside of the village, and maybe some minor alterations to home run 4x4 track. We didn't have time to come down the DH track, but I'd like to guess you could probably ride most of it. However I'm not sure how much of the other pistes have been altered as it looked like a section had been done nearer the top of the lift station, towards where the wooden drop used to be that lead into the 'jump' section of the DH trail.

The official word according the deviation is that they are working on a reservoir or piping for drinking/household water. It did however say "plan de Envers". This could of course be a generic name given to an area, but it reminded me of the Valley Blanche ski variant.

Comments

Aiguille de la Grande Sassiere 3751m

One of those pure adventure days *warning mega photo post* Ali-venturing as it's been known by over the summer. When Ali from trailAddiction gets grand idea's in his head it always leads to hike-a-bike. Read here on DIRT Mag about a previous mission, its the highest rideable peak in the alps! A special team was organised: A top ten finishing team from the Bivouac Enduro, Mael and Max, Ali, myself and Fred the mountain bike mechanic from Mavic. All keen, all stupid? And then my alarm went off at 04:30. Time to eat and drink as much as possible. I hadn't been up this early since ski touring in refuges last winter. In my tired state I did subconsciously know how to load the bikes onto the trailer, it's easy after doing it everyday all summer. We drove up towards Val d'Isere, then turned left up a singletrack road. It was around 6am, and it was still pitch black. Slowly the sun began to rise: Tignes...

What guides do between work in the peak of July

Summer is here, and after fantastic spring riding in Southern France and then all over Valais, Aosta and Haute Savoie with good friends it's been time to get back to summer guiding, taking hikers around the Tour du Mont Blanc circuit. There's much worse things to do, but with three weeks off the bike I was itching to get back on some trails. With a carefully planned week between tours I was excited and made some plans to hit up some classic lines, and some new stuff too. It's mid July now, so in Chamonix valley you have to think carefully about where to go to miss the crowds, and to avoid going on the bike ban trails (July & August). Luckily it's still easy to find quiet trails in nearby resorts, or to simply drop round the back of a hill away from the frontside lifts. It went a little like this: Day 1- La Thuile with Wayne of newly qualified French legal mountain bike guiding service Chamonixmtb.com . Enduro race venue at it's best, rough and raw. ...

Alta Via dei Monti Liguri

Summit to Sea grande finale for the Provence Posers "The Alta Via dei Monti Liguri is a long-distance waymarked hiking trail in the Italian region of Liguria. In about 440 kilometres and 44 day hikes, it runs through the arc formed by Ligurian Alps and Ligurian Apennines from Ventimiglia to Ceparana" How does high mountain rocky singletrack cut out of the the hillside during World War II which descends into beautiful deciduous forests and ends with dry dusty fast trails above a seaside town sound? The final stage of Alta Via, 45km, 3000 metres of descent, 9 hours & 10 foccaccia's & close to 30 scoops of Gelato. Many thanks to Martial again for joining us and showing us the way. http://www.alpsmountainbike.com/index.html for booking a trip to do the whole thing in one holiday.

Search This Blog