Les Arcs single track……….. the hard to find stuff where and how?

So if I can sneak a few days away, on a very tight budget, without staying with trail addiction / white room etc.
How difficult would it be to find the nice less well known and way marked single track.
Before anyone says just spend the cash and go guided…. this is proper shoe string stuff so its bike /camp site low budget stuff.
Anyone got routes gpx files etc???

Strava heat maps?

Had a look now sure how I would use that to plot a route?

Buy a topography map and explore, I found so many incredible trails like that.

Get on Strava in the evening and use the segment explorer feature, mark on maps, go enjoy.

You can just ride along any of the roads and take any little path that takes your fancy, pop out at the bottom of the valley and find your way back to the funicular.

My highlights:

La Varda is a hike from the top of TransArc 2 and you can find it on Strava fairly easily. I’d take someone with if you ride it, it’s not particularly difficult (there are much more technical in the valley) but it’s very exposed. Watch out for walkers too.

Likewise, at the other end of the resort, on the north facing slope, is Double Header, it’s also on Strava. You can hop over to it from Cachette and once you find the entrance (through a little meadow) it’s easy enough to follow. Remember, skids are for kids!

There is so much to ride, there are no bad trails!

I’m not entirely sure i’d describe La Varda as “not particularly difficult”…..

(if you can ride from the top to the bottom without putting a foot down, or walking a few bits, then you are either DannyMac or that Akrigg fella 😉 )

andeh – Member
Buy a topography map and explore, I found so many incredible trails like that.
There is so much to ride, there are no bad trails!

I found some really crappy ones too that involved a lot of riding in the wrong direction and carrying also some really short good bits that unless you can pick out the next bit don’t really link up to anything.

There were some maps around with some stuff marked on it, if it’s getting frustrating pop over the col to La Thuile for some easy to follow quality trails.

tick for later in the summer 😉

YGM – easily enough for a few days riding.

maxtorque – Member

I’m not entirely sure i’d describe La Varda as “not particularly difficult”…..

(if you can ride from the top to the bottom without putting a foot down, or walking a few bits, then you are either DannyMac or that Akrigg fella )

It is difficult but it’s not that difficult, I reckon I could get it clean with a couple more runs at it (first time we stopped to have a look at some stuff, i did a couple of dabs, missed a corner after a big rocky steppy thing, had a tiny crash and a big crash on an easy bit, oh and broke my foot a little bit but that’s hardly worth mentioning 😉 ) Piece of piss 🙄

Watching this thread with interest as we have just booked the Tunnel for 15 days unguided riding around Les Arcs, La Thuile, Pila etc.

Find a map, look for red squiggly lines, the tighter and more squiggles the better the trail. I am only going from what guides and other people have said, I go guided.

You won’t need a detailed map for Pila or La Thuile.

You won’t need a detailed map for Pila or La Thuile.

Yes this does look reasonably easy to get around from what I have read in the new Vertebrate book. I am particularly excited by La Thuile – sounds like our type of riding! Have dropped Trail Addiction an email to see if they can do us one days guiding.

Northwind
It is difficult but it’s not that difficult, I reckon I could get it clean with a couple more runs at it (first time we stopped to have a look at some stuff, i did a couple of dabs, missed a corner after a big rocky steppy thing, had a tiny crash and a big crash on an easy bit, oh and broke my foot a little bit but that’s hardly worth mentioning ) Piece of piss

^^^ lol To be fair, i did last year in the pouring rain, and that certainly focused the mind, especially when i unexpectedly got a rock jammed in the rear wheel, locking it solid which meant i had to do a couple of the switch backs “arse out drifto” stylee……

Maybe I just got lucky, I found that if I popped out on a road or track I just had to ride along for a couple of hundred yards, or so, until I found another trail pointing down. Did pop out in a fat, angry Frenchman’s garden once though, which he didn’t seem too pleased about.

Thanks for the info so far. Feel free to post a few pics up 🙂

Tim at TA sent me the link to this video last night to inspire riding in Les Arcs. Just got super excited.

https://vimeo.com/110169448

Video linky thing wouldnt work!

Nice video. I recognise a few trails including Mont Jovet, La Varda and some I can’t remember the names of. 😉

La Varda is a good trail, but I wouldn’t do it first time without a guide or someone that knows the trail. It is a trail to build up to as the exposure can be quite daunting to some.

ahsat – you need to remove the s from https

Ah, thanks! I tried that, but I dont think I had the www bit in!

http://www.singletrack.fr/sentiers/sentiers-massifs.php?massif=15

They use different names for the tracks we do though. For example… La Varda =

http://www.singletrack.fr/sentiers/Chalets-des-Loyes,1198.html

If you look at top right corner there is a download gpx arrow. Plenty more in the area to try too. Happy hunting

The free trail map from the lift station isn’t bad, make sure you do Black 8 from Arc 1600 to Bourg. Trail Map

map
This also has some useful off piste

@r3rd – thanks for that link, I emailed bits of that to some of the posters here but couldn’t remember where I’d got it. Now saved. 🙂

@welshfarmer – great link 🙂 Amusing name for this part of La Varda “zone sympathetique” = nice/kind

Fantastically useful – thank you all very much

Checks in..

Really useful links, thanks everyone. I’m off there (goat shed) at the beginning of August, assuming that my broken leg is fixed.

If anyone has any more GPX files that would be great (email in profile)! I’ve also got an IGN map and a highlighter ready packed..

Does anyone know what the riding is like over in La Plagne around the la roche, fornelet and montalbert lifts. I’ve never ventured that far over but as they are open every summer there must be something tasty.