The best of 3 countries, including the best trail of the year

Major and minor hits around the greater Mont Blanc region of Aosta Italy, Valais Switzerland and Savoie France. Tomorrow I head to the souther French Alps, and then onto Finale Ligure.

Swiss flow

I spent a few days ticking off classic trails in using the le Tour lifts before they closed. It's good to see tyre tracks on the descent into le Buet. And I even tried a descent I had previously not done above Chatelard. It was very Swiss, fun and fast. How do the Valaisan's cut such good footpaths?

Barage d'Emosson behind

Aosta delivered with more good's high up near the Beccca France. It took us about 5 hours to climb nearly 2000m. Luckily there was a refuge near the top for a drink break. The descent was worth every minute of suffering with views over the Grand Paradiso Parc, high singletrack lead into almost never ending larch needle covered singletrack that begged you to go fast and then gripped you round every tight corner. We of course finished with delicious pizza, despite getting ripped off for drinks in Courmayeur.

Grippy needles?

BEST TRAIL OF THE YEAR?

I don't actually have any photo's of what are possibly my two favourite trails of the year, but let me tell you; Somewhere in the beech and spruce tree's above Pussy(!)/Moutiers lays untouched footpaths with a magic carpet surface of fallen leaves, that are slowly getting shaped into perfect berms and fast straights. Sessoning down these trails with fast riders was such a blast, bwaaaaaap! trailAddiction Ali, Lapierre mechanic Fred, chømage Max and Scottish Nash, thank you!

Not in the woods, but heading to them from the back of Val Morel

Winter then tried to stop us in Switzerland but Cross Road Cycles' Mael kept us going, and it was well worth the cold winds for spectacular views and nice singletrack from the Col du Grand Saint Bernard down to Osierers.

STUNNING CONTRASTS!

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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 ...

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