Chamonix Activity Report: 9th June 2008
The summer is officially underway! La Flégère, the area above Les Praz, opened on Saturday morning. The line of people waiting was an eclectic mix; two skiers, a snowboarder, a gaggle of mountain bikers and a couple of hikers. Name any other resort in the world who could boast an opening to so many different sorts of sports enthusiasts! If the weather had been better there would have been parapente fliers there too. As it turned out, it was more like Cumbria than Chamonix, with light drizzle beneath a low cloudbase of thick white fog. By 15.00, the lifties had taken 100 bikes up, with another 50 walkers making the journey.
"It was certainly interesting", one of the intrepid skiers told Chamonet. "We scoped our line from the lift, following the snowfields that were left down from L'Index to the midstation. We had to take our skis off once or twice, then walk two minutes back to the lift". Efforts for more substantial snowsports were thwarted by the authorities removing the compact snow on the pistes with a bulldozer a few days before opening.
I took a run on my mountain bike down the 'Floria' track; the singletrack was slippery from the rain, and the normally easy-riding roots and rocks became treacherous off-camber traps, leaving little margin for error. After a lap or two, I headed down the 'Sick Track' route to Argentiere, outside of the saturated pine forest, looking for some terrain that had been dried out a little by the wind. The traverse section of the track was fine, but the way down to valley level was fairly intense and slidey. Furthermore, a lot of stones had fallen down onto the track over the winter, which will need time to clear. In short, that ride was not an experience I'd care to repeat again in a hurry!
There had been rumours flying around town about Flégère closing for biking due to the infux of other mountain users who would have normally headed to Planpraz. That's fortunately not true at this point; However, we spoke to a few lifties at Les Praz, who hinted at possibly restricting bikes to twelve per cable car in order to leave room for parapenters, hikers and dogs. It's a beautiful place we've all got up there, and the fairer a way to share it is found, the better it will be.
Yesterday afternoon we headed down to Servoz to visit the Gorges de la Diosaz. I'm constantly surprised at the amount of Cham locals who've heard about this place but never made the short trip to check them out. It's worth the journey and 4.50€ admission - a wooden path hanging from the side of a deep, narrow canyon, following a beautiful series of waterfalls. It feels out of place up here - like something from South America or New Zealand. Go check it out!
Thankfully the weather looks like it's looking up...I saw the sun set over Brevent this evening for the first time in three weeks! I'm off up to Flégère again tomorrow, for a hike up to Lac Blanc with my brother-in-law. It was excellent to have visitors over from England...refills of bisto granules, Sainsbury's sausages, butcher's bacon, Sun Pat peanut butter and all other stuff the English Shop in Rue des Moulins haven't been able to provide.
Meanwhile, I'm off to bed - I'd forgotten how much of a workout downhill mountain biking is. As I write this, my body sits broken in my apartment as my bike sits broken in the workshop in Zero G. Goodnight!
