This weekend saw the much anticipated opening of the majority of the Chamonix Valley lifts, so I spent the weekend checking out the condition of some of the mountain biking trails to see how much snow is still hanging around and what's rideable.
Since we had snow falling throughout most of May the likelihood of being able to ride lots of the upper trails was pretty slim, and a look through the webcams confirmed that. Saturday morning we headed up to the mid Station of Brevent at 2,000m and were met with a wall of snow on the mountain side at the back of the lift station. A look over towards La Flegere showed that some of the trails are starting to clear, but there are still massive patches of snow to clamber over, so with that in mind we headed down under the lift and onto the main downhill run instead.
I'd forgotten how rocky and loose the top section is and how long it goes on for (my enduro and my arms were taking a battering) then this is followed by a few large patches of snow to get around or slide down (thankfully my new freeride shorts are waterproof!). Add to that lots of avalanche debris that needs clearing, and you can image we were riding for a bit, jumping off, back on the bikes again then off a few seconds later.. not much fun.
The bottom section in the trees was great though, nice dry roots and flowy sections to get a bit of pace on. That done I headed up to Le Tour in the car. You can only take your bikes to the mid station at the moment as the Autannes chair is just open for hikers, again due to too much snow on the mountain bike trails.
The downhill track under the gondola is officially closed, but the lifty I spoke to said it was rideable, they just haven't got down it yet to shape it (hopefully this wil be done this week.. but no guarantees!). Fast flowing runoff water from the snow melt has washed away lots of the soil at the top, exposing lots of rocks and cutting ruts through the middle of the track.. boo! Again there are a couple of snowy patches on the top part, but once you get about half way down it starts getting a bit nicer. Some of the lower section along side the river is a bit rutted and washed out too, so I'd probably say stay clear of this for another week, or at least until the boys and their diggers/spades have been down there!
On Sunday we headed to Les Houches (which definitely isn't suffering from too much snow being a bit lower and more sun-exposed) and had a play around on the top of the new downhill track. It's not even half finished at this stage and there are tons of roots poking out all over the place once you get past the slatey top section. The corners that have been built already are wide and flowy and there's a few fun rollers too.. I can't wait for it to be properly finished... you'll have to wait until mid-July at least to get the full experience!
In the afternoon we headed up and over to St Gervais (get hold of a copy of the Chamonix Bike book for a choice of routes). The view from the top looking over to Les Contamines never fails to impress on a sunny day, and boy it was a hot sunny day! The route we took is a long descent (with a few small pushes uphill) that takes you into the trees and all the way down to the road that leads into St Gervais. The trail's great, really rooty and pretty fast in places and definitely one for a full suspension bike as you get bucked around a fair bit on the lumpier sections - don't do what I did and start off with your rear suspension locked out... :-s
Once we got to St Gervais we went to take the pipeline trail down to the thermal baths, but the trail was taped off. There's a diversion sign which takes you off to the right instead, on a slightly longer route with tight switchbacks through the trees, eventually dropping you out a little further up from the bridge over the river at the bottom.. the cool air coming off the glacial water was great & I could have quite easily jumped in!
So we pootled off to get a drink and the last tram back (15:10 at the moment) although after three attempts to get up the hill by the entrance to the thermal baths, Jeanne the tram threw a wobbly, blew a pump and we all had to get off. With the trains back to Chamonix not running until 29th June, we were scratching our heads as to how we were going to get back home... thankfully Marie the tram came to the rescue, and although she was a bit more rickety and with less space for bikes than Jeanne, we finally got back up to the Col de Vosa to head home.
Les Grands Montets & Vallorcine lifts will open in 2 weekends time on the 29th June and you can find out more information on the Tramway du Mont Blanc on the Compagnie du Mont Blanc website.
Thanks to Maloja UK for the bike clothing and Tom Humpage for photos.
