Four years of mountain gazing finally pays off with some of the best descending in all of Europe! The drive between Chamonix and Geneva can get very boring even though there are many different mountains and valley's to look at.  Le Mole above the town of Bonneville has been on my ski touring list for a long time but some how things came together this past week and me and Tom got up there on our mountain bikes.  Mid week in April, during a long spell of calm, sunny weather brought more than just two British mountain bikers out to the Chablais. Probably 200 walkers up and down the mountain. We set off very slowly from lac du Mole knowing we had 1400 metres to climb.  We started on quiet village roads chatting about nothing in particular as we slowly gained height.  We arrived at the beginning of the off-road just as sweat began to gather on our foreheads.  All the walkers were starting from here, but we still managed to overtake many as...

Get a van and a group of bikers together, take it in turns to drive, eat lots of bread and cheese and ride more... It's not always about the trails, it's about the whole day as complete package. Friends new and old for the beginning of the season, a small selection of classic Chamonix trails to descend, a van to use as an uplift vehicle, plenty of food to eat, sunny weather and lame banter. First two laps were down from the lower Merlet carpark to the bottom of Copeau.  A descent not ridden so much under pedal power due to it's "short" nature compared to the Merlet to les Gaillands descent.  So why not rip down it twice thanks to van power! Some of the lower corners were so fresh and loamy you could really gamble with high speeds and drifting. Mael eyeing up the tech steps Merlet laps back to les Bossons due to tree felling.  Fast and fun as ever.  Is the right turn variant 2/3 of the way down better?  It's a hard decisio...

More trail hunting, Chablais, Haute Savoie, France I think it was last winter when DIRT Mag (RIP){recurring theme} printed two articles on the state of Morzine and the northern French Alps.  Many of the pictures where from Chamonix, but remained unamed in the captions in what I can only think was a ploy to keep the location's secret.  For me, it was easy to spot, a Cham local, the Le Tour trails have been mentioned on this blog many times and will continue to be written about.   There was one other photo in these articles that caught my eye. It was of a very specific looking modern metal cross somewhere in the pre-alps before Morzine with a stunning looking ridgeline coming off it. Thus the hunt began, first online.  It didn't take long thanks to google and camptocamp.org to find the location of this cross.  Today the hunt continued out in the mountains, after talking about it all last summer. Finally it's been ridden! The cross with the...

Guide book exploration in the Val d'Aosta, Italy I have several very good ski guide books including the now out of print Anselme Baud "book of death" that can reach €500 on eBay.  However, up until recently I hadn't owned any mountain bike related books. This changed when DIRT Mag (R.I.P) mentioned a Val d'Aosta guide book. The best thing about spring is being able to take part in your favourite winter and summer sports.  So on my first day off, straight after the most recent storm to hit Cham we were up in the first bin of the Aiguille du Midi to ski the Cosmiques Couloir.  I could have turned home satisfied after my first turn which kicked snow up well over my head. But it was rude not to carry on searching... Accessing the couloir The next day after reports of muddy Chamonix trails it was time to go to the "sunny side of Mont Blanc" in search of dry trails.  I flicked through my new book and found one suitable just 20 minutes from the...

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 ...

Some people hadn't packed their bikes away yet and had been doing a mix of skiing and biking.  I had sold my bikes so instead had been studying for my next IML tests and doing a bit of walking in the autumnal weather that had returned to the northern Alps. It was with news that Courmayeur was unable to open is ski pistes, and that the ever Swiss resort of Verbier was even offering reduced price passes as their ski area was so poor that several people were talking about more biking.  I was kindly lent a Mega, 26 inch, but it was superb to be heading out. Green style! Five of us actually quite comfortably got our bikes into the back of the Bluebird minibus and headed down to Servoz for several laps of leafy goodness.   Load the van and repeat!  We even managed to befriend a dog and take her for a lap in the minibus.  She eventually ran off when she had a chance to escape from Mr G. Stabby T getting low Andy Me! Me! Hum...