& one of us is almost 50!

So, we’re making the pilgrimage to Morzine, we’ve all been around a bit…e.g. most British trail centres, Chamonix, Finale Italy and the usual haunts you associate with the “tick the locations list in Europe”. Predominately free riders mostly but tempted on the trip of mostly the downhill experience.

6 day trip, end of June, do we need a guide? Lift pass for the duration of the trip? Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks 🙂

I was their for the first time two years ago when I was 41 def get the pass I found by the third day my body was aching all over(I did take a 4 inch xc bike) but only done downhill make sure u go over to les gets all the trails I found where easily marked I found the whole experience awesome if u need any more info just email me

You can get by without a guide – we have every year we went. The Portes du Soleil map shows the main trails, and the lifts that are open. Having said that, we went off piste exploring a few times and ended up on some dismal trails!

Definitely get a lift pass for the duration of the trip, it allows access to such a huge area, you can cover serious ground with it.

We’ve had good days by taking a car across to Chatel/Super Chatel and Morgins and riding there, rather than spending a few hours lifting and riding to there.

Other advice – take mud tyres. And waterproofs. It’s quite common for it to rain every day for a week, and if you want to do any riding in this case you’ll want the tyres.

Hi,you can get a 6 day pass at the lift station in Morzine on your first days riding,it works out cheaper than getting day passes.
You won’t need a guide just pick up a trail map at the lift,there’s loads of way marked VTT trails (xc but mainly down with lifts to gain height) and loads of DH from green to black grades,plenty to keep you busy for a week.
Don’t get trapped into staying on the Plenney side,go explore Pra la joux,Chatel,Morgins and Champerry loads of great riding,and ask people for any cheeky trails there are loads and you never see anyone on em. Enjoy it all, it’s ace.

Were of a similar age and heading back for the forth time this August. You don’t need a guide the marked trails are great. We tend to mix it up a bit. One day doing an epic like the PPDS route, another day playing on Les Gets, Another day around the Super Morzine/Swiss side. We tend to just get day passes as we don’t ride every day. Usually do a big walk one day, rafting another. There’s quite a few other activities, depends how bike obsessed you are.

At the end of june your options might be more limited depending on dates, after the 25th of June you get most of the lifts by the look of it. Expect that weekend to be hugely busy with the Passportes du soleil (PPDS) but will be fairly quiet after that.

If you’re staying in morzine there are loads of great off piste trails, they’re better than the official ones in the main if you can find them.

Certainly get a lift pass for the whole time and explore as much of the area as you can, get across to morgins, chatel, pre la joux etc for a bigger range of riding.

I have to say I’ve never really got it when people drive round to Pre La Joux. If you’re going to drive anywhere you should drive to Les Linderettes and just get one lift to the top of the park. An hour saved in the car. simples – but you still may as well ride there, it’s not much more time (if any – once you consider packing bikes, unloading etc) and it’s riding rather than driving. Morgins I could maybe understand as the ride back is a bit of a chore – but it only takes 45-50mins to get there from Morzine if you’re not hanging about.

As for guiding – depends really – if you solely want to ride bikepark stuff then fine, no need – but if you want to explore a bit then to avoid wasting time on the dismal trails Millitant is talking about then it’s worth while – and as a group of you it won’t cost much at all.

The other thing a guide can do is a bit of tuition. We can all ride a bike obviously, but unless you’re a long lost Atherton we can all improve with a bit of coaching. Not to be dismissed!

Lift pass – definitely – 6 days is €87