Stopping of in Chamonix for a few days week after next on our way down to Annecy. Planning on getting a 2 day family pass for all the lifts, so on one day we can take the cable car to the top of the Aiguille du Midi then walk from the mid station across to the Glace du Mer, and get the train back down. Then the next day we will leave Mum and Millie in the shops and the café’s and me and the lads will get the bikes out.
Can anyone recommend which trails would be best for us (Fin is 15 and Tom is 12), we want to limit the uphill riding !! and let the lifts take the strain, but we don’t want to end up on a full on world cup style downhill trail with huge jumps, massive drop offs and rock gardens !! conversely we don’t just want to be tear-arsing down wide forest roads.
We are all on decent enough full suspension bikes and as a guide to our ability we are all just about comfortable (if we take it easy) with the downhill bits on the red at Llandegla and Whinlatter.
Your help and advice as ever is greatly appreciated

Thanks

Phil

Just got back from a week’s riding in Chamonix …

Chamonix is hard work – the trails are big and pack a lot of riding in to them with very little respite, you aren’t doing a short technical section then a 100 metres to recover before the next tricky bit, you might have a kilometre or more of technical ground in one go.

Some of the trails are closed to MTBs for July and August so worth asking locally – there’s a map you can grab. There are valley trails like Le Petit Balcon that aren’t as full-on as the main trails, they still have technical sections though – perhaps closer to what you are after.

There are a couple of “bike parks”, one at the bottom end of the valley at Les Houches, the other at the top end at Le Tour. I didn’t do the Les Houches one though others in the group did and thought it was hard work for the given grade. The area at Le Tour has a blue and a red run in the upper half and a green and a red in the lower half so not a lot though there’s about 800 metres of descent packed in to a run from top to bottom. Both these areas use the ski lifts for access. There is also a maze of nice singletrack in the woods between Les Bois and Les Tines.

If the above sounds a bit negative, it isn’t meant to be, I like Chamonix having climbed and skied there for years but it’s not a gentle introduction to alpine MTB.

Stock answer: http://www.thechamonixbikebook.com/

Available cheaper if you shop around…

Chamonix is mostly natural, that I have ridden, so no need to worry about huge man made jumps. You will be in the season of the ‘walker’s ban’ so you do need to pick your trails carefully…

Lognan -> Le Lavancher would fit the bill. Get the train to Argentiere, lift up to Lognan, lovely singletrack descent to Le Lavancher. Not technical (compared to some of the other trails), and just a lovely trail.

You’ll need proper directions, I think it’s in the bike book posted above.

ive got an unread copy of the chamonix bike book for £10 posted if you would like it

I can’t help you on the MTB trails, but if you’re planning to walk the Grand Balcon to the Mer de Glace don’t forget to keep looking back as the better views are behind you. It’s a fantastic route and it’s worth doing the climb up to Signal on the way but are you taking your Mum on that walk?
The terrain in places looks like this:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/vHCxGM]Cham2[/url] by Beanum, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/6QDhx8]DSC_3889m[/url] by Beanum, on Flickr

> I can’t help you on the MTB trails, but if you’re planning to walk the Grand Balcon to the Mer de Glace don’t forget to keep looking back as the better views are behind you.

I prefer the other direction. You also get to do the second half of the midi cabine downhill. It’s a good ride when going over the edge, stand at the front.

Aigulle du Midi > Mer du Glace > back to Chamonix in 28 degrees heat and cloudless skies in early October is one of my favourite memories from the Alps. Detour up to Lac Bleu and watch out for Chamois in the forests on the way back down.

Yes I would go Mer de Glace to the midi direction too. One of my late father’s favourite walks. Took him on his 70th to do the balcon on both sides and one last trip up to the Midi.

The thing is, in the midi direction it is more generally uphill and I think the last gondola down is earlier than the last train down at the other end so timing is more important. This is more of a problem if you’ve walked up from Montenvers…

Beanum, That view looks awesome. The path looks quite tricky in places, but I’m sure if we take it steady we will be ok. We have allowed about 4-5 hours for it so with plenty of breaks and a good lunch stop we should be fine. The 3 kids (8, 12 and 15) are all either scouts or cubs and used to day hikes in the hills, so figured the ‘cheat’ cable car up to the start of the walk at 2317m would mean we can concentrate all our effort on the trek across(downhill) to the Mer de Glace at 1913m.
The mum I talked about is the wife so we will be fine (I wouldn’t get my mum in the Cable car let alone get her to walk on that path!)
Thanks foe all the info

Phil

Your boys will be fine as long as you don’t rush the young’un. And I wouldn’t let them go out of sight off the trail downhill side, there are drops in places. But the trail is fine, not exposed.

The biggest climb (starting at Montenvers) is the beginning, the top is a magic slabby area, great for a break, with the views opening up.

The biggest hold up will be groups coming the other way.

There is a snack/ice cream bar at the Midi mid-station.

You could also walk down from there but that may be a bit much for an 8 year old.

The 8 year old would be fine on the walk down, its my knees that wouldn’t be !!