Tour du Mont Blanc: Voie Toller- Just heading home...

Sometime around 21:10, Le Fayet, Haute Savoie, France (580m)

Somebody's office building in the backstreets, some guys are sat sheltering from the rain drinking cans of Red Bull. They were discussing yet another new route back to Chamonix...

Me and Jo were now 17 hours in, we'd done around 5300m of climbing. My Sunnto altimeter watch had re-started itself. Either it can't handle 6000m of vert or I've got memory stored up on there I don't know about. We had the last 500m of climbing left to do up the horrendous Vaudagne road to Les Houches and onto Chamonix church.

The Red Bull really helped and we were soon going the up the road, the quick route, the Voie Oli to this Jo route. It went really well, with lights off to avoid detection, a quick sprint and we were at the beginning of Vaudagne before we knew it.

sans voitures?

somewhere we shouldn't be

We caught our breath, and shared a caffiene energy gel. We cruised up the Vaudagne climb in good time, 30 mins? We made calls to say we were heading home. As we got into Les Houches the spray started getting into our eyes, it had been wet in the chamonix valley all day, and we'd missed the worst of it.

We didn't care now. Both of us stood up, out of the saddle and stormed up the little hill from the Bellevue lift and on through Les Houches, Taconaz and Les Bossons.

Chamonix Sign, Les Gaillands- 22:45- one final sprint to the line!

nearly back

Add caption

Chamonix Church, France- 22:50

Under 24 hours later!

In 19 hours and 24 minutes me and Jo had made it round the TMB Voie Toller. Tired and releived, but with some energy left we posed for photos:

Mr. Toller

19 hours and 24 minutes

Jo's main worry for the evening was that Midnight Express would be closed, luckily it was little after 11pm when we ordered our big burgers to celebrate our adventure around 3 countries. Jo's bike had held up, my 29ner (THANKS AGAIN ECHOBASE!) was perfect, we didn't get too wet, or too hot.

Stats:
Vertical height gain- Almost 6000 metres (not 100% sure due to my watch re-sestting)
Distance covered- Around 180km (more accurate to be worked out sometime)
Gels consumed- 10. High 5 taste horrendous, Go Bar ones are better
Total money spent on food & drink in Italy- £30
Packs of breakfast biscuits consumed by Jo- 5?
Number of times Jo asked about Col de la Croix du Bonhomme- 70
Number of times Jo asked about Col du Bonhomme- 65
....

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. ...

Being shown around my classic stomping ground

Another chance to be shown around trails. Not as glamorous as Switzerland, but just as good! Mortimers Forest and Bringewood, Ludlow, Shropshire, England The woods of Mortimers Forest and Bringewood are where I grew up mountain biking so I always love going back. A few years ago I built a long section of singletrack trail to link in above a much loved piece of trail that had been a staple of rides for many years. It was my way of giving back to the forest riders and builders. Over the last few years whilst I've been away riding 1000m+ descents my Dad has still been out exploring every corner of these forests. Sometimes walking with my Mother, other times out on road rides with his Wednesday night Pub Ride group or usually with his main Sunday morning off road group. They are trail connoisseurs, though they might not look it. They are the type of group that make up every British Forestry carpark on a Sunday morning...

Search This Blog