Off to Morzine for a long weekend in July with my boy. First time for us so looking for recommendations on the best trails, or general areas of trails to ride. We will be buying a PDS lift pass and don’t want any XC, just downhill.
He’s 8, but a very competent 8 year old, rides all reds and some black at BPW, good at jumps etc, and on a decent full sus, so nothing too extreme, but certainly not starter trails. Basically looking for fun trails with jumps, berms etc etc!
Thanks

The blues on the Pleney are fine for kids. Nothing steep. I’m sure there’s a green on the Pleney side but I’ve never ridden it, and I think it’s almost purely fire road.

On the Les Gets side there’s a lovely green down the Chavannes side. Also a nice green on the Mont Chery side. Some nice blues under the Nauchets lift.

Mellower stuff under the Zore lift too.

Unless you’re driving then it’s probably too big a haul over towards Lindarets, Chatel and the Swiss stuff for an 8 year old

Sounds like he’ll be fine on pretty much all the marked trails. Start on the Blues and build up. The reds are pretty similar to the blues. Its a bit of jump to the blacks but if he’s nailing the reds then it should be fine, if the reds are enough then stick with that. There’s nothing too technical, but it can get steep and the colours don’t match UK ratings. Les Gets is probably the place to start. Have a few runs there then either move across the valley to Mont Chery or try the runs under the the Plenney. All similar but different. Actually quite similar to BPW but much bigger. If you are feeling adventurous then head over the Chatel Bike Park. Even more of that style riding but a bit more jumpier and only a tiny bit of pedalling to get there. On the way the runs under the Super Morzine are fun too. A weekend won’t feel like enough, you’ll/he’ll love it 🙂

Just follow me….. 😉

Thanks for the answers guys, very helpful! Cheers

As above. Plus from what you say I think he can ride the Dans le Gaz black on Les Gets/Mont Chery and the longer “enduro red” round the back. I would say he can ride all Stoner’s routes from Mont Chery to Morzine and the Lac Joux Plan – Samoens route too (needs a taxi back maye not time its its just a longe w/e). I would say one of these “enduto” / off piste rides would be good to give him a flavour of non-bike park. I would not call them XC, they are more similar to what you’d get on a guided holiday

The blues is Chatel are great fun (I find red ride humble a bit of a waste of time)

EDIT: from what you say he’ll love the Les Gets 4x track (you mighf have to hold him back) and the skills area too.

See this thread STW thread

Wonderful trip by the way, good for you

Thanks for this, I’m sure he will be fine on all of these suggestions, the question is,…will I! 🙂
I will print the suggestions off to take in my pocket !!

Cheers,

MArk

Our eldest did the main Chavannes red as a 9 year old last year – absolutely fine. He did bits of it the year before too, including the 4X bit.
Les écureuils is the green off the Chavannes and it’s not challenging but it is lovely.

Watch conditions though. Some of the trails just get muddy in the wet, but some get like oiled teflon (particularly were rocky bits) and it’s not always the higher graded trails that do that.

Brillaint, thanks, been watching lots of youtube vids for research on the above!

I think he will be fine on most things ive seen – here he is hitting some lines at BPW recently!

Wow… puts most of the forum to shame !

If that’s typical Mark, he’s going to have no problems at all.

Only thing to note, and it’s hard to tell from videos, but those trails looked fairly smooth. There are lots of braking bumps in PdS, which can make it a little trickier on small wheels.

Even so, I wouldn’t have any concerns.

Yeah, those trails are the flowy trails at BPW, but he can ride rougher stuff competently.
I agree that the braking bumps are harder for smaller wheels, but it usually seems that the lighter weight and low centre of gravity are very helpful in staying up! The number of times I’ve thought he was a goner only for him to ‘save’ it!
You might have spotted his save at the very end of the video – he landed on his front wheel after the jump bucked him, but managed to stay on!
Thanks again guys.

‘posted twice’!

Awesome video!

Just shown it to my 4 year old who announced “I want to be like that one day. ”

Back and had the most amazing time! Weather was scorchio mostly and trails were amazing but rough! We rode loads…supermorzine, pleney, lesgets, lindaretts, chatel etc!! Here’s some footage…

Wow, your lad is a class rider.

Nice ! Alao remind me not to be on the hill at the same time as Issac, he’s far too good 🙂

Saw you and the young chap on the pleney mainline the other day and the Wee man was smashing it. We were all well impressed.

Cheers all! Boardinbob, what a great place to ride. Was it the pleney black you saw us on? He ride it all very well, except the steep long chute, but at the very last exit to the forest road he went down over the roots!! No harm done though. Not really a black grade but a fun trail.

Yeah on the black. His chain was coming off but he was riding everything. Future champ there

That’s us!! His chain kept coming off all weekend. Need a tensioner and narrow wide ring! Otherwise his little norco handled everything better than my trek slash!!