Chamonix Activity Report: 5th August 2012

For three years now the Compagnie du Mont Blanc, aware of the ever increasing demand from mountain bikers, have made great efforts and significant improvements on the sites in the valley to offer mountain bikers more tracks to practice their favourite sport.

The Balme area is particularly suited to this sport, so this year we have focused our efforts on the creation of a new track off the Autannes chairlift.

Here is up to date information on mountain bike trails and areas in the valley:

Le Tour / Balme

3 tracks:

• Piste de l’Ours Black track : from the top of the Vallorcine gondola down to Vallorcine.
• Piste Océane Blue track : from the top of the Charamillon gondola back down to Le Tour. (Currently closed due to bad track conditions, a shaper will be called in next week)
• Piste des Marmottes Green track : a new track from the top of the Autannes chairlift down to Charamillon (open now)

*Bike patrol is on site from June to mid September

Flégère

1 track not currently maintained but with open access:

• Red track : which descends down to Le Praz.

The Compagnie du Mont Blanc has invested more than € 80,000 in recent years on the creation of mountain bike trails but it is clear that despite the massive investment, our company is not able to offer a suitable mountain bike area on this site. The decision has been made ​​to waive any further investment on this site for mountain biking and focus our work on sites of Balme and Les Houches.

Les Houches

• No specific mountain bike tracks but a number of mountain bike trails are accessible.

Brévent

• No specific mountain bike tracks but a number of mountain bike trails are accessible.

The work ahead is substantial, the Compagnie du Mont Blanc in partnership with the LH-SG (Prarion - Bellevue / Les Houches - St-Gervais) are currently working on the new plans for 2013.
Rest assured that the Compagnie du Mont Blanc and the LH-SG are investing in the Balme and Les Houches sites to make the two sites dedicated to both amateur and professional mountain bikers.

We hope, via this announcement, to prove that the Compagnie du Mont Blanc and the LH-SG Les Houches Saint Gervais, consider mountain biking as an activity with a future in the valley and that the two lift companies are currently working together on the development and preparation for 2013.

The Compagnie du Mont Blanc's operational team, will continue to communicate information on ongoing projects for 2013.

If you have any thoughts on how mountain biking in the valley can be maintained and developed, please contact Compagnie du Mont Blanc directly with any ideas or suggestions.