Enduro du Beaufortain

Slop fest in one of the quietest corners of the Rhone Alps

With no guiding work in Beaufort this summer a plan was made for the some of the previous years guides to meet up for an early season blast on some of favourite trails.

For the Beaufortain Enduro the lift in Areches was open for the whole weekend and there were two bus uplift options to help gain some height to the downhill stages (not timed).

June had been a pretty poor month for weather with storms rolling in and out and only a few dry days. I decided to put a bigger tyre on the front of my bike to try and gain some more grip in the impending mud of the Beaufortain forests. It did help a little, but really it was a slip and slide approach to riding for the whole weekend. For those of us that knew the lines it made life a little easier, but sometimes due to wet roots you couldn't get to where you wanted to and you had hope you could slow down and make the next corner. Everyone was still grinning, and despite there being 300 riders, it never felt busy anywhere.

Our last trail on the Sunday was a new triple black rated trail that was new to us all. We were excited to check it out. The top was freshly cut and like a pump track, the bottom, well the bottom was so steep it took several hours to get down with body's strewn all over the place. In the dry the mega steep roll-ins would be ok as you could get grip for the exit's, on this day it was surfing and knowing when to get off the bike. Great fun still.

Everything was really well organised for the whole weekend with a constant flow of uplift buses, plenty of snacks at the lunch stop and a nice evening meal and dj set on Saturday night. I would highly recommend the event!

Luckily the sun came out for course marking and marshalling at the enduro2 mountain bike race:

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