‘morning,

I’ll be working in Chamonix for July, August and half of September, just looked at the price of a Summer season pass, 350E, which seems like a lot to me, with work and my own laziness I’ll probably only ride 3 or 4 days a week, I like downhill and will be planning to use the lifts whenever I go out, so is it worth biting the bullet and getting a season pass?

its cheaper than buying day passes and it means you wont have to restrict your riding; you can just go whenever you want. Your employer might be able to get it a bit cheaper.

Still far better value than uplift days (and thats not a slur on the guys that run them). Does sound quite pricey though; im sure my porte du soleil one was only 150 or 200 euros in 07, in fact i seem to remember a season only been 50 euros more expensive than the 13 day option. Are you looking at prices on a proper site or through a broker?

Will you have a car and able to travel? There are lots of other places nearby, take a look at getting season passes for a few places within an hours drive. That is a hell of alot of money for a season, most places only charge E80-100 for a season.

I can’t comment on the value but a mate of mine who lives out there on the weekends has one and thinks that even for just the weekends, it’s good value.

I’ve done days out there and the riding is imense, so different to anything you get in Morzine and Les Gets. The ride down from La Flegere is biblically good and takes in the region of 15minutes. You descend something like 800m in one hit. Most of the riding is on rocky paths so you need dual ply tyres as a minimum and DH weight tubes if you’re heavy-fast-gung ho. I haven’t done any riding off the other mountains but my mate swears by the riding there. Brevant is another top location and then you have the world cup level DH track at Vallorcines.

You’re a lucky bugger to get to spend the summer there. It’s a fabulous place.

Thanks for the advice guys, looking into a workers pass at the moment, fingers crossed.. So Keep my 06 heckler with pikes and DH Minnions or beg my mate to sell me his SX trail and put the 66sl’s from my old bike on it?

helo 👿 guy

eh?

helo guy

BUT! And it’s a very big BUT, MTBing is only allowed on 12 sections of trail in the Chamonix valley during July and August. I don’t dispute that there’s some truly excellent riding, but 99% of it is illegal during the busy summer months.

I would avoid it personally, as by biking you’re not just bending the rules, you’re breaking a law.

Yeah, it’s a stupid law, but the Mayor of Chamonix has decided that his bread will be buttered by walkers, not MTBers, and he doesn’t want MTBers there while it’s busy.

Really, only 12 sections of trail! Blimey, will investigate..

Here is the map.

http://world.chamonix.com/PDF/planVTTEn.pdf

We spent a day in chamonix in 2006 (drove over from morzine) and it was 9 euros on the brevant lift for one trip. We traversed all day so got most of a days riding out of it but it would get pricey doing repeat runs all season

i live there and i wouldnt bother with season pass its too expensive and when the trails are closed to bikers its better off to buy a weekly vtt pass

Sorry – I don’t know where “my” comment came from – either I’ve been hacked or (more likely) my lad has been messing about on my PC

It’s Chamonix. It’s not called Little Britain for no reason. Of Course it’s expensive. House proces comparable to London and Paris.

this thread has been hi-jacked!

i was aware that chamonix had in effect ‘banned’ mountain bikes during July and August, but i’m still curious, as the riding over there must be epic.

will i get shot for riding on the mountain trails in september? i’m thinking about spending a week there…
(most of the big lifts seem open)

September should be fine (and the riding will be awesome).

There are some great trails. Would be good to have someone to show you around as all the best trails are not marked. I spent a few days there in September a couple of summers back and found some good trails but always felt like I was missing the best ones. At the time Brevent, Flegere and Les Houches were open. The midi even to the mid station is always closed to bikes. Le tour and Vallorcine were closed in September.

With les houches down the road and pila through the tunnel i would not bother with the season ticket, but i would get out there for the middle of june and ride all the trails that are closed to bikers from july to august, if you cant do that then you should lose your way,accidently of course, most of the walkers you may come across will move out of your way whilst cheering you on, unless they are english of course, then they will say ” you shouldnt be on this mountain enjoying the view and having a great time get off and walk” its true it happens to me, lots. You will have lots of places to ride, get some local knowledge from zero g or legends, the vert bar does evening uplifts to merlot, which is nice.
Have a great season