It's kind of returned to summer here in Chamonix the past few days and looks like the weather is going to hold out for a while so the shorts are back out! Although I haven't been brave enough to jump back in the lakes yet, everyone seems to be enjoying the fine weather partaking in whatever activity suits them. A lot of people have been enjoying the quieter trails and activities on the mountain, with the lovely autumnal colours all around the valley.
So this is the last week possible for some downhill mountain biking or generally getting the lifts up to have a wander around, except of course the Aiguille du Midi and Montenvers which offer some great wandering trails but not so great for mountain biking (bikes aren't allowed on either the cable car or the train). The Les Houches gondola, Bellevue, will close this Sunday evening, so many bikers who remain in the valley have been getting their last runs in there the past week.
On Monday we decided to get our last couple of runs in at Les Houches like a lot of the others in the valley. We met for coffee at La Terrasse which was starting to buzz with activity as it was a nice sunny day and it's a great place to sit and enjoy the views of Mont Blanc. After a coffee we got on our bikes and headed down the easy road to the Bellevue lift in Les Houches, you could of course take the train which runs throughout the year to Les Houches, Taconnaz or Vaugdangne and follow the signs to the lift station. Once at the station we headed up with the other bikers eager to get on the trails on this beautiful last week of riding!
We exited the lift and went straight over to the bike park which is still open, and has jumps and other things to play on for every level of rider. It's sign posted by level of difficulty like ski pistes from green to black, so we took the nice easy blue trails, sometimes edging on to the red ones and not always on purpose!
After the park the trails are all very well signposted giving you the option to take the easier or more difficult routes down. We started off with the easier routes which were still pretty hard going with narrower trails and tighter turns than I'm used to! After feeling like we had properly warmed up we got back on the lift ready for another go! This time we took the trails at slightly higher speeds and edged on to the more difficult routes while having a go at some of the many features available on the way down, especially the wooden North Shore structures winding their way through the trees which have some very steep drops either side and are pretty scary in some cases! We had another few goes at the same trails before heading over to the Prarion side of Les Houches and hitting some of the jumps which ended up fracturing the frame of a friends bike, spelling the end of his day and a very expensive repair job!
I decided to finish the day off with a ride over towards the Prarion side but took a left at the train station of the tramway du Mont Blanc and headed towards Saint Gervais. You can get to Saint Gervais via the bike trails higher up on the Prarion side (which are a bit better) but the lift on that side was closed, so I took the lower route down which starts as a bike/hiking trail and turns into a road on the way down. It has some amazing views out of the Chamonix valley and along towards the Vallée de l'Arve! It was fairly easy to follow the road down and signs toward Saint Gervais and then Le Fayet, where I picked up the signs to the train station to get an easier ride back up the hill. Once back, I headed to Chambre Neuf just opposite the train station for a glass or two of cold beer. A great day and a great way to end it in this lovely bar were many others had the same idea!
Don't forget to keep an eye on our What's On Calendar for a full list of events taking place over the summer months.
