Late summer biking…
Still photos by Jacquie Cutler www.jcutlerphotography.co.uk
With the lifts over in Les Gets and Morzine shut it means all the trails are really quiet, so I can stand at the top of the Gap jump at the top of the Nauchetts lift for as long as I want before deciding if it’s too big or not! Even with the Morzine lifts shut there is a huge amount of riding still to be had with the Champery cable car open until the middle of October!!
Mountain Spaces
Catered, Self Catered and Adventure Holidays
The French Alps
It has been HOT!!
…and hot and dry equals amazing trail riding. With only a few weeks of the full network of summer lifts being open we made the most of the weather and headed out for a couple of full days riding. The trails round Les Gets and Morzine had noticeably had some maintainance work caried out on them making some of the connecting routes even quicker, the less ridden and hidden trails were super dry and smoothed out.
Sunlight catching the dust dropping down under the Super Morzine
A blur through the trees, possibly due to unbelievable bike speed but could also be slow shutter speed in the woods on the little point and shoot camera, I know which one Jamie thinks it is!
Dictionary definition of single track, see this photo,
There aren’t all that many places in the world you can ride trails like this, Alpine riding at it’s absolute best.
Sliding through the steep stuff!
The good news is the Champery cable car is open to well into October and being a fair bit fitter after a summer of riding, getting to the top on pedal power alone should be doddle, or not!
Col de Coux
About a week or so ago I rode a route with Jamie from All Mountain Rental from Morzine up to Avoriaz, down to the Mossettes lift, down into Champery, up to the col de Coux and then down some of the most technical single track I’ve ever ridden in the Valley de la Manche.
The last part from the col back to Morzine was really spectacular. I didn’t have the soul stealer with me so it seemed like the ideal place to go back to for a walk to take a bit more time to take the scenery in and take some pictures.
We drove up the valley and parked up past the Nyon cable car so we could walk the route I’d ridden down. We stumbled on the wooded section which, on a bike, is on a par with the old Super Morzine run under the Super Morzine bubble. Super steep technical root garden down big muddy chutes. Look for this sign on the way down.
From the wooded section we carried on up the road to the refuge at the Lac de Mine D’Or
From the Lac it’s a short climb up a fire road to the start of the single track running up the valley, there’s a couple of different routes to the top, we chose to walk up the exposed grassy slope to get the most of the views.
From the col itself you can make out the single track running up from Switzerland and Champery, the route we came from by bike.
Sat right on the border. One leg in Switzerland one leg in France, mon dieu!
On the way back down we chose to follow part of the GR5 route that runs from Belgium to Nice, the alpine part of the route is something we’d really like to do from start to finish.
Final river crossing at the bottom before we re-joined the path back to the refuge at the Lac.
Definately one of the better walks we’ve been on, lots to see, varied terrain and gaining the climbing split into sections rather than one big slog.
+ excellent walk, awesome views
- quite busy in parts
= One of the best half day walks we’ve been on 9/10
Mountain Spaces
Catered, Self Catered and Adventure Holidays
The French Alps
