why La grave so bad, have heard good things about it? from pics I have seen looks like pretty sweet typical alps singletrack?
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DH Biking Morzine
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Posted 9 months ago #
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Did you hear it from Solomanda by any chance?
On his recommendation, we went last year on the final day of our 10 day trip, at the time of the Megavalanche (so the start of July).
The lift system is one of those where there are three sets of four or five small bubble cars lashed together rather than individual ones every 30 foot. Of these three sets, only one of them has any bike storage and this is in the form of a kind of box lashed to the back of the trailing bubble, and can take four bikes (we named it the Action Bucket). So, if there are five of you or others in the queue in front of you, you've got a loooong (45 minute?) wait until you are all at the top of the mountain.
Above the treeline it's not too bad although very picky and with loose rock everywhere. I don't mind loose rock but it's like the bloody moon up there. When you get past the moon, there are a few signposted VTT options but from what we could see, they all meet up later on down the hill. All of them looked like they had been made by some bloke just wandering down the hill dragging a rake behind him and on the way, he'd walked over anthills, tussocks, etc. Bugger all flow.
About 3/4 of the way down the mountain, the 'singletrack' finishes and you are on a wide fireroad that drops all the way to the valley floor. You then cross over the river and have a sharp climb back up to the town and a couple of minutes spin to get back to waiting 45 minutes for the lift until you are all at the top of the hill again.
The only bit of singletrack we found started off as promising but then got really picky after about a minute. It may have been okay on a smaller bike but on a DH bike, it was just too slow and picky to be worth bothering with. At that point, we all had a hissy fit, decided that La Grave was a truck full of shit and wished we'd gone to Les 2 Alpes for the day instead (we were staying in Alpe D'Hu).
Solomanda (bless him) will probably be on here defending it when he gets back from Whistler and telling you that it's awesome but a few weeks after we'd been, he took his mate there. His mate also thought it was shit.
Oh, one final thing. There's nowhere to eat in the town, or not that we could find. There was a cafe run by some hunchbacked hag but she didn't want to know when we went in there. In the end, we all got an ice lolly on the way back to Alpe D'Huez. I had the French version of a Twister, in case you were wondering.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Wow thanks for the info!
Spent a week there in the winter and can confirm its properly inbred - you should go across the road to Le Chazelet, thats makes La grave look like NYC...
Skiing was amazing as no pistes...in summer suspect more setup for mountaineering etc.
Posted 8 months ago # -
btw, morzine is still cheap if you compare it to any of the canadian resorts. Whistler, sun peaks, silverstar etc are all £20-25/day for lift passes, compared to £10-15 for the alps
Posted 8 months ago # -
Don't know why Hora's saying it's expensive really as when we were there, he had a grand total of five small glasses of red, red wine and a couple of lemonades. We ate at JM's place most evenings (can't remember what it's called, but it's the pizza/burger bar on the opposite side of the road from Torico) and for the amount you get, that's cheap.
He did buy a gay art-deco poster of some weird looking 1920's telecabines for some odd reason; maybe that was expensive? But even if it was, who else would go to the Alps to buy that?
Posted 8 months ago # -
If you like your stunt ramps and mile long lift queues, then Pre La Joux (Chatel) near Morzine is your place.
Top lift is being replaced for next season, should ease the congestion a bit.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Top lift is being replaced for next season, should ease the congestion a bit.
Thank f*ck for that, i've been stuck in way too many thunderstorms rattling up that old 2 man rustbucket fearing for my life. That lift is soul destroyingly slow.
It's almost matched by the soul destroyingly crap trail that was put in back down to the Linderettes bowl last year.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Oh yeah, what a waste of a hillside that atrocity is. Not often you consider taking the fireroad rather than a 'DH' trail.
Talking of Lindarets, I see they've built a bike path alongside Ruttsfield / GR5 / Goat Track / Whatever you want to call it. Does anybody actually ride that rather than the parallel walkers path? If so, oh dear.
Posted 8 months ago # -
It's almost matched by the soul destroyingly crap trail that was put in back down to the Linderettes bowl last year
? the Toboggan run
Posted 8 months ago # -
Have you given it a little name? It starts at the end of the GR5 (where it meets the trail from the Mosettes lift) and has a tiny hip jump type thing and twenty five thousand braking bumps between (and in) each of the badly constructed berms.
Posted 8 months ago # -
i think that trail is largely responsible for my decision to never go back to the portes du soleil.
such a pointlessly rubbish waste of height.
but not, however, unique in it's rubbishness*. no, the biggest problem with that trail is that you need to ride down it if you want to get from Chatel to Morzine.
either that, or the gravel road. which is an even more soul-destroying way to use 300 vertical metres.
(*there are loads of trails just as bad - almost all of them in fact - but 'the toboggan run' is a linking trail, you have to ride it)
Posted 8 months ago # -
Theres a wee sign on it!
Funnily on that GR5 before that point and looking around the landscape it reminded me abit of the Lakes.
Posted 8 months ago # -
No idea what it's called, goes under the new (well, new last year) Chaux Fleurie lift that went from the Linderettes bowl up to the top of the Pre La Joux/Chatel bike park.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Am Looking at a weeks DH biking in Morzine next year, am a virgin to the alps and DH biking but i'm dead up for getting into it.
WhiteRoom do an Alpine First Timers Week which might be of interest.. I'm off there in just over a couple of weeks, can't wait, same as, Alpine Virgin!
Posted 8 months ago # -
ahwiles - Member
no, the biggest problem with that trail is that you need to ride down it if you want to get from Chatel to Morzine.either that, or the gravel road. which is an even more soul-destroying way to use 300 vertical metres.
There is a trail called Gas Gas (named after the trials bikes, obviously) that drops down from Mosettes to Lindarets although I have to admit I've never ridden it for some reason so can't tell you how to get to the start of it (although I imagine that you cut off the Panoramic route). Supposed to be fantastic, although the last time I heard of anyone (I know) riding it was years ago so it may be gone now.
Posted 8 months ago # -
I've ridden a trail from Mossettes down to Linderets that was little more than a goat trail. As you go up the Mossettes lift near the top you can see a small lake in the higher bowl. It starts folloing the walkers path along there. You get to it peeling off the fire road to Morgins almost as you come out of the lift station.
Its flat for a fair while as you follow the ridge along towards the top of the PLJ bike park area, then it drops down the side of the hill.
It wasn't much fun on a DH bike, as it was too tight and slow. Made a change from buzzing people down Puncture Alley though
Posted 8 months ago # -
i think i've
riddencarried my bike down that.some of it's quite nice.
but you can't get from the panoramique to mosettes without going down to lindaretts, and riding up the valley for a few km...
(or going up to avoriaz, and then back down but staying as high and right as the 'vtt interdit' signs will let you)
(and it's a mountain path, so no doubt it'll also have a 'vtt interdit' sign at the top)
Posted 8 months ago # -
Yeah, I'm talking out of my arse. It's not Mosettes lift (that's the one to Les Crosets, isn't it) but the one at Lindarets, where the zip wire is.
Posted 8 months ago # -
Funnily enough, last year we tried to find another old favourite from the Lindarets lift, Satan's Chute, which finishes above the luge run at the bottom of Pre La Joux. We remembered that you rode round the panoramic and cut off onto a VTT Interdit footpath to a cafe, then along the road for a hundred yards onto a fireroad, but from that point on, we completely forgot which turn off it was.
The outcome of this was that we lowered down the steepest scree face ever, followed by a terrifying slide down a rubble filled gulley that looked like it may cause an avalanche and kill us at any second, and culminating in me having the biggest radge ever. Shame, as Satan's Chute is a cracking trail, as seen below with 12 riding it back when he weighed 91 stone
Posted 8 months ago # -
erm... this trail also links from the top of Pre La Joux to Linderettes... you lot are missing out
MTB Portes du Soleil July 2011 (35) by Carl and Sian, on FlickrPosted 8 months ago # -
1) Chatel is in France, not on the Swiss side and it's by far the best place to stay
2) Lift passes are currently €21 per day
3) Get a guide if you want to find the good trails, Lloyd Grace from Professional Transfers or Mick from Holy Grail Mountain Biking are two of the best. They know all the secret trails!Posted 8 months ago # -
how viable would Chatel be on a hardtail? Or would i be missing all the fun?
Posted 8 months ago # -
You'll get battered to hell by all the braking bumps and after a couple of days, end up hiring a full suspension bike.
A mate took his Yeti DJ out a few years ago. Day one, he was flying. Day two, well off the pace. Day three onwards, he hired a V10 at great cost.
Unless you are planning on doing mainly XC, I wouldn't even consider it.
Posted 8 months ago #
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