hey guys

me and 3 others are booked to head to morzine for a week in july!! amazing!!! anyway i quite fancy heading to chatel for a day or two is it possible to get there biking (taking 1 lift to another lift ect…..? ) and get back easy enough? are these lifts all covered by the one pass?

any other advice would be great!

Yes you can, but there’s a bit of pedalling involved and will take a bit of time so plan your day to allow for differing lift times etc.

Yep, have a look at the Summer Lift Maps HERE

All you have to do is take the Super Morzine lifts to the top and then ride along the ridge towards Avoriaz and turn left into the valley (Les Lindarets) and get the Chaux Fleurie lift up the other side of the valley and your at the top of the Chatel bike park. We’ve done it and the only thing I would say is make sure you give yourself enough time to get to the top of the Lindarets lift before it closes for the night as it’ll take you hours to get back if your too late!!

That ^ plus if you think the weather might be turning bad, start heading back to the ‘zine right now!

not that much pedalling, take the super morzine lift to the top (2 lifts) head right on the fire road for 1.5/2 miles, descend into Avoriaz then lift up to top of Chatel. The Chatel lifts are by far the busiest. End of day if you miss the lifts descend back into Avoriaz then take the road back to Morzine thru the goat village, all downhill and quite good fun with all the switch backs over taking cars

cheers for all advice!

@JEangledow – how long does it take to get there via the lift network and what sort of time do lifts close? is it worth it? looks amazing!

thanks

is it all well sign posted or is there local map’s? or an app? 🙂

thanks again guys i can’t stop watching morzine and chatel videos on youtube main reason i wanna go is that pipe gap jump, the northshore and fluid? that looks fun!!!

quite good fun with all the switch backs over taking cars

And If a car should overtake you, then just cut the corner ( across the grass ) at the next hairpin, & re-pass said car! 😀

Yup. We did Chatel to Les Get and back in a day. As above you need to be aware of lift times and weather. We got caught out with high winds on a trek out via Super Chatel-Morgin-Aiguille des Champeys-Lindarets. The Champeys lift was closed when we arrived due to high winds. We set of cycling around the roadway only to see the lift start. We headed back down the mountain to the lift office. On we got but the guy warned us he may have to stop the lift if the wind speed rises again, which it did 3 times! It was also very, very cold! It was worth the effort for the ridge line singletrack 😆

I’m not sure how long it takes as we had a bit of a play on the trails in the Les Lindarets Valley on the way and the way back, I can’t remember when the lifts close, but they have pretty big signs telling you. We tend to get out fairly early so are usually finished and in the bar before the lifts close, but we’ve seen a few people who’ve staggered into a bar quite late having missed the last lift and pushed back up the hill from Chatel!!

When you going, we’ll be there between the 12th and 21st July, it’ll be my 3rd time and I can hardly bloody wait 🙂

19th – 26th of july. can’t wait! we have a villa (going with 1 person i know and 2 i have never met lol long story!) most of my mates said they wanted to go this year then they started dropping like flys….. so i got an offer to join another group and jumped at it!

A few photos

cazum – Member
is it all well sign posted or is there local map’s? or an app?

We bought a proper map at the Morgin lift when the guy warned us the next lift may be stopped due to the high winds. He was very helpful showing us how to get around it. Lift guys can advise on forward problems.
There will probably be some Passport Du Soliel maps going about in shops, we got ours free in our chalet. We were advised to get the walkers map which has more info on it to help us on our XC travels away from the bike park.

My fav photo;

P1000083 by john_henry_mtb, on Flickr

am heading there on my home built giant reign x2 170/170 …. am thinking i may upgrade my brakes…. i have formula rx atm…. but with most of this pointing downhill was thinking a upgrade may be in order… anyone go any thoughts? am 17 1/2 stone lol but am fit as a fiddle!

definitely worth the trip to morgins too

Heres a gpx of a good route from Chatel – Morzine – Chatel. You’d only need to go as far as the bike park, not actually to Chatel. I’ll warn you that the singletrack from Chatel to Morzine is very steep+tech in places 🙂
http://www.adrive.com/public/3JcuRk/Chatel-Morzine-Chatel_Singletrack.gpx
Oh and as Kimbers says, Morgins, if you like your DHing – very good!

My bike was my old ’05 Kona Dawg Primo with a set of 150 Sektors and some new Hayes Prime brakes from Merlin with 200mm front/180 rear. Took a few sets of pads and changed before 1/2 worn to help with fade.

The descent down through goat village and Lac Montriond is pretty cool. Especially if you are by the lake late afternoon time, sit and have an ice cream and watch lovely French ladies having a dip after work…

Super Morzine->Avoriaz->Lindarets->Chatel Bike Park. Then you can go over to Chatel town at a push

There is a bike bus to & from Chatel ot a track runs from the r/h side of the lift area car park. Couple of expensive bike shops and plenty of cafés/bars etc.

Easy there and back in a day on a bike you can pedal, hard work on a big rig if you want enough time to play.

thanks for all the advice!

i would say my bike is the only one going out of the 4 thats not a DH rig so hard pedaling could be required by some!

sounds pretty easy to get to the bike park and back! (weather and time’s depending) will defo be up for this just hoping i can convince the guys!, but since they are DH’s it may be an easy sell 🙂

I take my DH bike to chatel most days via the supermorzine route. A little climb, or push, wakes you up..

A little climb, or push, wakes you up..

..but if that fails blasting down the road from Avoriaz to Morzine certainly wakes you up (and tightens the sphincter a little)!!

Is it signposted? No , NOt really . As you come out of the Super Morzine Cabin/ Bubble take the next chair down and right .
Top of that chair turn right down the hill ona grey gravel road. This road forks , take the left fork and continue straight for around 1 mile. As you approach some trees bear right and down a fast double track that pops you out on a road opposite a restaurant.

There is a junction on this road , straight on is Avoriaz. You need to take the left turn for around 10m or so. There is a gully that might be marked PDS route . Bomb down this its wide and fun and fast in places . This will take you round to to top RHS of Linderets. The first chair lift will drop you toward Mogrim / Champery WC DH track ( not for the girls ) , or follow the double track down hill to the ‘center ‘ then its 1 lift up and over to Chatel.

The first time we did it we weren’t sure where we were going, but there were plenty of other people about who knew where to go and were nice enough to let us follow then/ point us in the right direction 🙂

thanks singletrack mind! that should help

still 5 months away and i can’t stop watching youtube vid’s haha

Dont forget the road gap 😉

Make sure you have good insurance. The helicopter ride to Thonon is expensive.

The smell of the goat village, is something I wasn’t expecting

You can avoid the goat village by taking the ramp on the left just before, and it’s off-road all the way to the lake. V rocky but not technical.

@flap jack

looking at dogtag-max extreme £65 for 10days….

anyone recommend others i should look at?

I’ve been fortunate enough not to know if my Direct Line annual policy will actually cough up. 13 alpine visits and nothing worse than broken ribs. I’ve hurt myself worse at home (Woburn).
A mate got helicoptered off the passportes, insurance is part of the entry so he didn’t find out if his would have either.

I’m sure some on here will (unfortunately) have more experience than me on this.

You can avoid the goat village by taking the ramp on the left just before, and it’s off-road all the way to the lake. V rocky but not technical.

We stayed in Ardents last year. I saw some bloke bin it coming through there while I was wandering around the day I arrived. More embarrassing than painful so quite funny. At one point in the car I struggled to keep up with the bikes on the road; could be quite fun on a DH bike down there 😉

A mate got helicoptered off the passportes, insurance is part of the entry so he didn’t find out if his would have either.

There was a bloke with a broken collar bone by 8am on the Friday last year. I wanted to ask him how the hell he did it so quickly (and get back to the bottom of the lifts by 8am) but he looked fairly miserable without me adding to it. That trail between Chatel park and Chatel seemed to get a few people too, we saw a woman space-blanketed and there was someone on here who needed airlifting out from the same trail (unless that was your mate).