A  solo mission today led me to Dorenaz to check out the trails There seems to be an ongoing theme, the Valais region of Switzerland keeps pulling us over the boarder.  On Sunday we skied what this season was considered quite nice snow in a 40 degree couloir above Finhaut, and today I was near Martigny to sample the trails on offer using the Dorenaz gondola.  The beauty of spring is that you can mix winter sports and summer ones. About 10 minutes from Martigny you'll find a tiny lift that can hold up to 10 people whilst your bikes are suspended underneath.   I had two journeys up when it was only me.   The maximum number of people that were in a cabin today was 5. A school girl returning to her village high above the valley, an old farmer boy coming to do maintenance on his 'alpage' fields & some other old dears.  It's a strange place.  Very Swiss.  The yellow Poste bus has a priority parking space right next to the li...

2015 really starts here This winter has not been the greatest.  We've had some great days, but in general the snow coverage has been poor and as temperature's increase it soon disappear's.  And that is just what happened and how we ended up riding on Sunday the 8th of March 2015 at the Saleve.  The earliest start to an alpine biking season I've experienced after a long mild period melted lots of low lying snow. The Saleve lift was open for one last day before it shut for the end of it's 'winter' schedule.  I wanted to check out some trails on the Petit Saleve and pedal a little. Despite the late night shift me and Tom were up and away early to make the most of the day with our 'enduro' bikes. The new CUBE was finished up on Saturday afternoon between work shifts and ready to roll.  I'd been keeping an eye on the Saleve mountains for a while.  Petit Saleve had been snow clear for atlas 3 weeks however the very top of the main ...