I am just back from a long trip to Europe and thought it might be useful to put together a few notes on the areas/parks I visited. Hopefully it will come in handy for anyone planning a trip to the Alps or Pyranees, as I visited a lot of the lesser known resorts as well as the big ones. The pictures are a bit rubbish but I hope it gives an idea of what to expect.

Alps

Val d’Allos

Excellent little station, friendly locals, beautiful scenery. The tracks are pretty natural and feel more like mountain singletrack than downhill pistes. 2 lifts, 8 tracks and 1000m of vertical.

042 by ianvincent, on Flickr

Some brilliant descents from the col d’allos back into the village as well as some nice XC riding down the valley towards Castillane.

049 by ianvincent, on Flickr

Montgenevre

Again a very friendly station in a beauiful location. Most riding is off the first lift, although there is a trail that drops down through pastures from the top lift station. 6 tracks, 2 wood parks and about 600m of vertical.

025 by ianvincent, on Flickr

037 by ianvincent, on Flickr

Some good trails down to Briancon through the forests and Serre Chevalier is close (Bikepark, BMX track, dirt jumps)

Deux Alpes

Probably the best bikepark in France. Loads of tracks with a potential xxxm of vertical. 24 tracks from easy but super fun to hard and technical. Lots of berms and jumps.

007 by ianvincent, on Flickr

002 by ianvincent, on Flickr

Villard de Lens

Small park in the Vercours, 25 minutes from Grenoble. 8 tracks, less sculpted than Deux Alpes. Pretty beaten up and rocky at the top, steeper and rooty towards the bottom. Worth a stop off on the way to or from Deux Alpes/Alpe d’Huez

Tigne/Val d’Isaire

Free Lifts! The best tracks come down from the top of the cable car into Tignes, but there is plenty of other good stuff, (blues on the other side of the valley and a 10km red that drops down to Val d’Isere). The Val Rouge track at Val d’Isere is pretty rubbish though.

002 by ianvincent, on Flickr

Felix tignes by ianvincent, on Flickr

The enduro stuff is also worth a go, particularly the combination of Wonderboisse and Forest Bump.

Les Arcs

The bikepark is pretty rubbish apart from the Cachette. Best stuff seemed to be dropping down to Seez on walking paths.

St Foy

The marked trails are OK but the uplift is a joke.

La Cluzas

Beautiful village with a two tracks, each off different lifts. Not worth a trip on its own but the black is pretty good.

Grand Bonard

The worst bike park ever, Two lifts up and a combination of road and fire road back down.

Porte du Soleil

A lot better than I expected, but the weather was much worse than further south. The Passporte was a letdown; the riding was pretty boring apart from the descent into Torgon. Battered trails, queues for lifts and poor weather so don’t think I will be going again.

Orcieres

A fairly small park in beautiful a beautiful location, good weather and some excellent trails especially the 12km black enduro trail (thousand switchbacks) and the 8km red.

orcieres by ianvincent, on Flickr

013 by ianvincent, on Flickr

2 lifts, 5 downhill runs, 4 enduro runs, woodpark towards the bottom and an airbag.

Superdevoluy/La Joue du Loup

A very small park about an hour from Orcieres. Less vertical than many of the southern parks, 5 runs but only 3 which are worthwhile. Not really worth a trip on its own but good for a day if near Gap. Free air bag and friendly staff.

019 by ianvincent, on Flickr

Pyranees

In general the weather is much better than the alps.

Les Angles

Small park with 4 downhill runs. All runs are good, but hard for their grading. Expensive lift pass but fast uplift.

011 by ianvincent, on Flickr

Loads of marked trails in the area and the possibility of some big mountain rides in the hills behind the resort. Excellent riding in the Tet Valley close by but hard work without some sort of uplift.

035 by ianvincent, on Flickr

Vallnord

The best park in the pyranees. Potential for lots of vertical, but the majority of the runs down are pretty short. The top lift is only open every day in July and August which is a shame as the tracks from the top are excellent. The runs down to Massana are long and great fun.

007 by ianvincent, on Flickr

006 by ianvincent, on Flickr

3 lifts, 14 pistes, Friendly bike patrols, great vibe, wood park and 4 cross track, loads of secret trails in the lower woods.

Grandvalira

The park is split into two, with a series of easier but fun trails on the open hill side off the top lift and steeper wooded trails from the lower one. It’s less busy than Vallnord so the trails are in generally less cut up.

013 by ianvincent, on Flickr

2 lifts, 13 pistes, wood park. About 40 minutes from Vallnord, definitely worth a day or two as a change.

Cauterets

Amazing scenery but the park is only really worth a visit if you are near by. 2 lifts, a cable car from the town and a very slow chair lift (30 minutes) to the top. First third has some good, natural feeling riding. Middle is basically cutting corners off a fire road and the drop into town is on wide forest tracks. Loads of potential, as there is lots of height to play with, but in reality all a bit average.

001 by ianvincent, on Flickr

012 by ianvincent, on Flickr

Saint Lary

10 tracks off the top lift, some really good. Trails are a combination of sculpted jumpy trails and more natural singletrack type stuff. There are also a load of excellent secret trails in the woods back down to the town from the ski station. Ask the bike patrol (they are super friendly) and they will probably show you them.

019 by ianvincent, on Flickr

Luchon

The bike park is gone and the marked trails from the top of the cable car are pretty rubbish until at least half way down the hill side. Apparently a load of good secret trails, some of them pretty obvious, but local knowledge would be necessary to get the most out of the area.

Ax les Thermes

2 lifts, with the majority of the riding off the top lift. Tracks are pretty long, natural and flowy off the top lift and there are loads of unmarked variations if you keep your eyes open. Definitely worth a stopover if going to Andorra.

The two runs down to the town are more technical and pretty damaged as they can be ridden in winter.

8 tracks, a wood park, a freestyle area (rubbish) and a free campsite on the road up to the top lift. Prone to fog though so they quite often close the lift.

La Molina

Spanish resort about an hour from Andorra and 30 minutes from Les Angles. Like a mini Vallnord with a good vibe and lots of non bike activities. Runs are pretty beaten up, as there has been very little maintenance, but still good. Good for a day or two.

059 by ianvincent, on Flickr

050 by ianvincent, on Flickr

1 lift, 5 runs, a wood park and dirt jumps. There are also some long runs down through the forest to the village of Alp in the lower valley, long ride back though!.

Superb. 🙂

Awesome.

How long did that trip take?

How long did that trip take?

I went over mid may and started riding the parks from mid June. Got back 2 days ago to a 25 degree drop in temperature and torrential rain 🙁 .

Wow, you’ve outdone my 6 week trip earlier this year!

I could add Valloire to that report:

“Mix of trails off a double lift, most badly damaged by the recent storms. Cheap passes and decent town for a couple of days. Spectacular drive in over the Galibier”

Bit harsh on Les Arcs, but agree that the off-piste riding is far better. Having said that, Black 8 is a classic, and the Red down to Bourg isnt pretty good too. 2 words, “La” and “Varda”

Excellent Ianv.
We’ve just done a similar trip although we didn’t move about quite so much as you seemingly. We spent 3 weeks out there but also got in a bit of lady-spotting in St Tropez and Monaco. 8)

Vallnord was classic. We went in the week and the top lifts as you say were not open. It took a little working out to not always end up on the midway lift but once we did we really enjoyed it.
I loved the steep and dusty nature of some of the tracks, a bit like riding in deep mud, but totally dry. Never experienced such dust before.

La molina in Spain we loved. Spent a couple of days there. Really good tracks. Again, dusty as hell in places and a lot of fun. Some fun ladderdrops etc too. Its a shame about the short flat bit in the middle to get around the lake but its no biggie.

Les Angles was fun, but I had many, many mechanicals and didn’t get the best from there. The tracks were mental for the grading and had some stunning views.

La Clusaz we thought was great for a more chilled out last day for us. Two tracks as you say and we pretty much stuck to the black. Its the only track i’ve ever ridden where you have to ride across a rickety ropebridge! Brilliant fun trying not to splat against the rope-sides.

Les Deux Alpes was just awesome. A huuuuuuuuuuge environment.

The highlight for us was the run down to Venosc. Just brilliant dusty, swoopy, switchbacks for ages. So much fun to hammer down.

LDA

Good to hear about other roadtrippers out there.
Our list went like this with a little bit of touristy stuff inbetween.

Vallnord-Andorra
Les Angles-France
La Molina-Spain
Prato Nevoso-Italy(didn’t seem to exist any more)
Sauze D’oulx-Italy
Les Deux Alpes-France
Alpe D’huez-France
La Clusaz-France

Sauze D’oulx

Amazing trip.
🙂

No Chamonix?!

No Chamonix?!

In our case, we were slightly put off Chamonix with tales of longer lift queues, perhaps needing a guide to get the best and ‘lots of hikers’…
Not sure how true that is.

Never queued for a lift in Chamonix, or anywhere other than Sauze D’Oulx and Morzine. Route finding is a bit trickier though, but you would have had the opportunity to avoid the July/August bike ban.

Our route was:

Ferry from Portsmouth to Bilboa
Bilboa to Andorra for a few days with Singletrack Safari
Andorra to Spain to climb Aneto (very slushy snow/ice conditions)
Few days along the beach resorts in the south of France, got some cheaky riding in around Six Fours Les Plagues
Molina with Rivierabikes – so many stupidly good trails there its unreal
Lake Garda for a week (601, Tremalzo trails etc – worth the long drive)
Allemont to ride the Mega course and other stuff in Alps D’Huez
Ecrins National park for some more climbing and a rest from the bikes
Valloire for a bit of a chill
Les Arcs (Doubleheader, La Varda etc)
Chamonix / Les Houches
Home to the mud and rain

…happy memories typing that lot out

6 weeks, 3,500 miles in our Mazda Bongo, no serious injuries or mechanicals (just one broken Joplin and 3 flats)

6 weeks, 3,500 miles in our Mazda Bongo, no serious injuries or mechanicals (just one broken Joplin and 3 flats)

Bongo for me as well although I hate to think how many miles I did. Machanicals car = one blown out tyre on the autoroute, one damaged oil filter. bikes = 2 written off rear wheels, a new set of brakes that subsequently got trashed, broken dereilleur, 4 replacement tyres, massive dint on the top tube of my stinky, two broken shock bolts, new headset, damaged brakes on my sons bike. Not to mention, 1 suspected broken ankle for my son on the first day he was riding with me.

Thanks for the info guys super useful. @ianv, are those your kids ? if so what a cool way to spend a summer

La Clusaz is on my list to do, been there in the winter and the resort has great restaurants (one of my priorities !), I’ve got the IGN maps to try and look at routes down to the valley to connect with bus links back to resort (Trail Adduction use this very effectively in Destination-X but it is clearly a but hit and miss if you try and organise yourself but that’s half the fun).

Chamonix, I think you can do self guided, just buy the Chamonix Bike Book and IGN maps, you do need to spend some time doing research but the place is in my view at a different level than most other resorts in a number of ways. I spent a day there and despite knowing the resort from the winter it’s a different and perhaps even more spectacular place in the summer.

Thanks for the info guys super useful. @ianv, are those your kids ?

The lad in the yellow TLD top is my son, he had a pretty good time I think, apart from the early trip to A&E 😀