Going for PDS and staying for a week.
Post PDS what are the absolute must do trails in the area?
We will be based in Chatel and like a bit of singletrack but also dont mind a bit of full on DH

Chatel is much better than Les Gets and Morzine for sure. There’s loads of trails for all skill levels and they get maintained better.

Pretty easy to find as well

Is Branson doing MTBing as well now?!!

I misread the title as “must do alps virgin”. But i agree, chattel is best but if your not a big rig man id say explore over towards the swiss runs too. I failed to reach them when i stayed in morzine as it rained all week pretty much.

Id research where the singletrack is as we missed out on it. Ended up riding DH on a 140mm FS all week and ended up snapping it!

Also, make sure you get your ass out of bed to make the most of all day passes. The lifts close at 5pm and it no effort to get anywhere. Another thing. I have some dual ply minions for sale in good nick (£20+pp) which i bought to go. They where awsome all week at low pressures.

Must do for strack / dh-lite, imo – the ‘ridge ride’ from near chatel side of top of col du cou back towards chatel (the main / central ridge line, with dent du midi on your right), start from the mossettes top and climb to near the top of col du cou, do a left and follow it. As a single trail that you can session off a lift – ‘run of the mill’ on the super morzine lift side. Both well known but we went back to do them more than once, really good riding on a 140mm kind of bike.

2 others in the chatel area are pretty much the best single cheeky/techy xc trails I’ve ridden, trickier to find but there’s loads of good stuff between the mossettes lift and chatel.

We are doing tha PPdS on the Sunday from chatel and then staying the week.

Where are you staying?

Thanks guys, sounds great.
danj got a minion dual front sticky, HR rear but mates might need, i’ll check are they 2.5?
gsp arriving Wed doing the PDS on Friday.
We are camping L’Oustelet or something I think

Is it worth hiring a guide for a day or two or just exploring?

Is it worth hiring a guide for a day or two

If they show you some of the good stuff and a few of you split a day’s guiding, probably yes, but not sure on the rate. Try Phil and Guy at FlowMTB / Torico bike shop in Morzine.

Same camp site as us then 😎

There’s a free bus takes you from the centre of chatel 12km down the road to the chatel bike park. We figured that the PPdS take you around all of the main portes du soliel area so we are just going to explore all the different areas on the PPdS route, focus on an area each day, or stick to a few we really like.

Keep an eye out for four lads in a 61plate camper. Neon yellow five, white five, white santacruz nomad and a trek something 😛 you can give us tips of good routes you’ve learned in the days before we get there 😉

Morgins downhill runs were really enjoyable when I was there a few years ago.

Nice one gsp will do
We are in a Nissan X trail towing Giant Reign X0, Santacruz VP Free and Specialized S Works something

Lets have a beer!

Danj Any news on those Minions?
Seems like you’re in Cardiff too so could be an easy transaction?

Check out the Panoranic trail towards Chatel from the Lindarets side (can’t remember any lift names, sorry!). It’s green graded, but it’s ace fun, especially on a trail bike.

Hello! Just seen this too! Years ago when I last visited chatel , the. Run to morgins from the super chapel gondola was great fun and didn’t see a soul! Worth the small climb up! We will also be there for the week of/after the passportes du soleil. Not staying in the campsite.. but if you wanted to go riding/ go drinking. Let me know! If you see a gaggle of 2nd hand biking gear riding a grey santa cruz bullet..kona stinky …cannondale rize .. giant trance.. and a trek remedy .. that would be us!

texas – nice one will check out the run to Morgins and the Panoramic trail (green there is not really green right flyingmonkeycorps?)

Maybe we should have a STW meet up in Chatel one night?

It’s not like green here, nah. Think Spooky Wood on steroids and you’ll not be far wrong – linky:

Panoramic is a great trail! There are a few good vids of it on you tube. There is also a good trail that I haven’t done which goes down all the way to the bottom of the swiss valley floor. Apparently its amazing… but you need to get the train back!

God damn I wish I was going this year 🙁

I really like the old super chatel course under the Chatel Gondola.

You can take the fire road off this about 1/2 to 2/3rd of the way down to take you about halfway to Morgins.
The Morgins DH trails were gret last year, but the section form Morgins to Crosets is Stunning (Stunning looking, the riding is OK) you can then either take the Lift from Crosets to the top of Mosettes and descend into Lindarets or back to Morgins, they’re both long, fast, epic runs.

YOu’ll need about 3 different trail maps though. THE PDS route will give you a good idea of the area which is a great help.

Chamonix > Col De Balme > Trient > Vallorice > Col De Balme > Chamonix (via either of the Balcons)

La Varda at Les Arcs

601, Skull etc at Lake Garda

Mega, from 3500m down to Allemond

….so much to choose from. Have fun!

If you can get to Verbier, there’s loads – The Ultimate, Jackass, Magic Roundabout, Vertigo, New Vertigo, Nut House, nearby Dorenaz etc etc. Or better still, all the out-of-the-way stuff Bike Verbier know – but you’ll need to book a week with them to find and reach it (worth every penny though).

*cough* ^^^^^ classified ^^^^^^ *cough*

Point is though, there’s plenty away from the usual trail centres

flyingmonkeycorps we have had a friend drop out so there is a spare ticket from Chatel on the Friday 29th on offer?

Panoramic looks lush

FROGLEEK – Tyres…yes 2.7 and a 2.5″ you can have the pair for £20 if you pick them up. May be useful as spare even if you dont need them.

The original ad is: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/flat-shoes-bladder-camelback-dual-ply-minions-colin-mcreas-focus-rally-car

if you want them then PM me on danjthomas1 at hotmail dot com.

Dan YGM

Frogleek I would love to, but I’m doing more holidays with the girlfriend this summer after abandoning her to stay in Morzine last summer!

Hoping for some time in Spain some time next year though…

I’ve heard about the Col de Cou trail a few times. Can someone please help me by explaining exactly how you get to that trail from the top of the Les Mossettes chair lift?

It looks awesome.

My vote for best trails I’ve ridden in PDS are:

Black DH run from Les Mossettes to Les Crosets
Super Morzine chair lift back to Morzine coming out near Montriond

Read this thread for Col du Cou

There are some good trails in Morgins

We hired a guide for a day, Euro 260 but split 6 ways, very useful to see some trails we’d never have found and a few coaching tips.

Chatel is much better than Les Gets and Morzine for sure.

+1

Chatel bike park is much better that the marked trails at Les Gets and Morzine, Less people and braking bumps.

But my fav bit was Morgins, just over the hill from chatel and we say about 4 peolpe there all day! Not that many trails but there great: http://www.bikeparkmorgins.com/?page_id=15

Also the trail down from avoriaz are ace. 🙂
http://www.portesdusoleil.com/images/upload/portfolio_img/portes_du_soleil_vtt_2012_v5_hd.pdf

Getting bloody excited now!

Thanks for all the amazing info STW

We’re also staying at L’Oustelet, doing PPdS on Sun. First time in Chatel, hopefully catch up with some of you over there.