Once a week treat

A journey of utilising a small village chairlift that is only open for one day a week

Over here there is a lift that is only open on Tuesday, so when the weather plays ball it's time to get up and gain some easy height to access two of the very best trails around all of the Alps.

A bit of pushing straight up a piste and a traverse around the hillside lead us to a col with breathtaking views back across the Beaufortain and Massif du Mont Blanc. In the other direction you could see south into the Isere region. Somewhere below in the clouds was Albertville where we'd eventually finish off for the bus ride home.

The trail from the col traverses across aplages on singletrack before hitting a gravel track that skirts the hillside for several kilometres linking up all the local farms and huts. This is cheese country after all. It's by one of these farm's that we cut off up through a field to find a trail head that just begins out of nowhere when looking on the map. It's strange, because it's an amazing undulating balcon of a trail. It is however about 1 hour from the lift station.

another ribbon of delight

After traversing, don't miss the turn downwards into the some of the tightest swtichbacks around. You must do this section to then be rewarded with the choice of two amazing trails. These really are some of the best around, many people who've been down rate them as the best, topping les Arc, all of Destination X and even topping the best in Europe according to one guy.

Fast tick, loam tick, flowing corners tick, technical sections tick, long, hell yeah!

The two trail's converge 4/5 of the way down and end in a small village which then requires an 8km flat road ride into Albertville to get the bus home. The descent is usually so well received people are not bothered at all. There is also a nice water fountain at the bottom to cool off and re-fill bladders with.

After the excitement of that for one day only I had to put up with trails and views like this in 30.C temperatures:

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. ...

Saint Luc, Valais, Switzerland

In a small hard to reach valley there is a real gem of bike-friendliness Tom H. Photo by Tom G The road up! It was a long drive, but the girls did us well! We'd only seen a few cars on the hairy, Verdon Gorge-esque road up to the ski resort village of Saint Luc. The road up was stunning and the views into the steep sided gorge were worth the drive alone. We'd come to bike, and upon pulling into the carpark we were greeted by a lack of parking spots. Is it going to be too busy today? The funiculare train only runs every 30mins at weekends. The bike park was so busy that they were running the funicular constantly meaning very little que time. Not that 30 minutes is that bad, but it meant we kept going and going all day long. Another reason we kept going lap after lap was that the trails were so good! The Swiss bike park's always seem to have a good setup and are alwats so well looked after. Despite constant funicular access it ...

Search This Blog