What would you ride? Nothing too extreme!

Le Tour, top of the valley, or the low level loop from Chx up to Argentiere and back. Start opposite the ski de fond chalet. If you mean now, anything at any altitude will still have snow on I’d think.

grand montets cable car up to mid station then turn right and go back down the Goat Trail

Full Montets

ibis mojo hd

Animal Park. Or follow the valley up to Argentiere as suggested for an XC ride.

Today: If I’d never done it before then the Merlet animal park trail (was riding grand yesterday evening with no one about) though I’ll probably go ride the cascade du dard and plan lower trails later instead.

Summer outside the bike ban. Every lift in the valley….

Ooh, Holy Trail or Sick Trail are my faves, but for easy-going/high return trails it would have to be Le Tour down to Vallorcine.

Do make time to visit the outdoor pool. For maximum refreshment leap straight in without testing the water.

Le Tour is absolutely outstanding IMO.

Thanks all. Looks great, this will be July.

Where is the outdoor pool?

And what is mojo ibis hd?

Bike ban July. Go in June.

Does that include the trails mentioned above? Goat trail looks ace.

I will be there anyway for a ride starting in July, but have a couple of days to pass beforehand…

Outdoor pool down in Passy I believe.

IIRC, you’re limited to the ‘bike trails; July and August, so Holy Trail, Animal Park etc become out-of-bounds, as do the Petit and Grand Balcons. Still plenty to do though, and there’s a load of waymarked trails on the Vallorcine side into Switzerland.

All could have changed. Last there in 2010.

There’s an outdoor swimming lake in Passy, but Chamonix town also has an outdoor pool. You’re in France mind, so speedos are obligatory. This is not a joke!

Early July is not too busy, August is when there’s no point riding most trails due to the number of other folk, but Holy trail and Merlet are both out. Goat trail (new name on me, but it’s the only trail I can think of from the mid station that get ridden often, heads to the village of Lavancher and runs parallel with the Pas du Chevre so I guess that could be the name origin?) is an official trail from the Grand Montets mid station, so is allowed, but the lift company is replacing one of the chairs in that part of the mountain, so the trail might be closed. Petite balcons sud & nord are both marked trails so you can ride them too.

Good news is that the trails from Le Tour back to Trient & Chatelard (NOT aig du Posettes) and from Les Houches are not included in the Chamonix bike ban, so are all good.

Interesting (and great) news about the Petit Balcons no longer in the ban.

We had to abort a TMB ride last year so ended up with a day to kill in Les Houches with HTs, XC helmets and no armour.

We got the train up to Argentiere then rode up to Le Tour. We spent the morning shuttlign up and down the couple of lifts there, had lunch and then got the lift/rode up to the Col Posettes. From there we rode back down and then used the petit balcons to get back to Les Houches as if we’d completed the TMB.

A fine day’s riding.

If you pop into the tourist info when you arrive you can pick up the paper copy of this map: http://www.chamonix.com/pdf/plan-vtt-2013-fr.pdf
(there might even be a 2014 update by then, but I doubt it, and grab the older 2011 map too if it’s there as it has trails not on the 2013)which will give you way way way more than enough legal trails lift accessed, train accessed or pedal accessed to keep you busy for a day or 3.

Chamonix fans will be pleased to hear that the trains are now running as far as Montroc and are supposed to be open to Vallorcine soon (although they were supposed to be running to Vallorcine a year ago, so don’t hold your breath…) If you don’t get a “Carte d’Hote” from your accommodation then the tourist info sells them for 2euro, they give you free travel on the trains and buses in the valley.

Finally, local plugging…. For more info check out Tom & Angus’ Bike book http://www.thechamonixbikebook.com/ and the chamonix bike blog http://www.chamonixbikeblog.com/ for trail ideas….

Thanks chaps, book ordered!

The pool in Chamonix town.

Does anyone know if it’s possible to ride down from the top of Grand Montets? So continue up in the next lift from the start of the Goat Trail? Might still be snow up there in July I guess… I once skied done the glacier behind this peak and back to Argentiere, which was one of the best days out I’ve had !

Les Houches would be my easy day out, and its not all that easy either

Does anyone know if it’s possible to ride down from the top of Grand Montets? So continue up in the next lift from the start of the Goat Trail? Might still be snow up there in July I guess… I once skied done the glacier behind this peak and back to Argentiere, which was one of the best days out I’ve had !

Grands Montets has glaciers on both aspects so I doubt you can ride it. Great place to ski though – you skied down onto the Argentiere glacier.

FYI I rode the petit balcon, thought it was a bit of a waste of time and I managed to dislocate my finger and put a big dent in my shin trying to make the trail more interesting (ie going too fast for my ability and attempting to find anything and everything to leap off of). Its basically an XC ride. The lesson I learnt from this is that your knee/shin pads won’t help you if they are in your backpack as you where “too hot” to wear them.

As above I’d say Le Tour as first choice.

100% with Jambalaya, the petite balcons are a nice xc spin, but they’re nothing on some of the other trails.

The Vallee Blanche got repeated this winter on bikes (suddenly a fat bike makes sense….) but from the Italian side as the French lift company doesn’t let VTT on the Midi or the top section of the Grand Montets lift. So you could ride from the top, but you’d have to get up under your own power, and it’d be a fairly rubbish ride down as the trails after the glacier (assuming you survive that….) are very rocky and not much fun. I keep trying to find good trails up Grand Montets, but there’s really not that much that’s good on a bike up there alas.