Planning a trip back to Les Arcs in July and want to explore further afield this time. What are the other must-do venues nearby, which are no more than an hour’s drive?

La Thuile
St Foye
Petit Col du St Bernard
Back country round the Roasriy

Drive down to La Thule

Worth a day in Pila

La Thuile and Pila for sure.

Pila, absolutely. Bit more of a drive but the descent from the top of the gondola down is just stunning, best single trail I’ve ever ridden, you could spend a day just bombing that no bother (the other stuff is variable, there’s some really nice woodsy stuff but the bikepark stuff was a bit pale in comparison)

La Thuile is my favourite place to ride I think. Arguably it’s all the same after a while- roots and dust, dust and roots- but that’s OK when it’s so damn fine.

St Foye riding is great but I’ve been there a few times and I still couldn’t navigate it without a guide. Not even convinced I could catch the uplift bus! YMMV though.

North wind.

Does that trail at Pila have a name or is it ready to find.

Of to Les Arcs again this summer and keen to explore. Google maps sat 1hr to La Thuile and about 2hrs to Pila. Sound about right?

Cheers

Tignes is good fun. And the lift passes are free. The main runs aren’t that technical but there was about 2 braking bumps last year, no queues, and they have some fun “Enduro” trails. And there’s the chance for long 10km line 1km drop trails full of berms and small jumps (all rollable)

I agree with everything Northwind said. The trail down the the valley in Pila is just known as the freeride trail I think. Next time I go I won’t even bother with the stuff up the top (full of braking bumps) – I’ll just spend all day on the Freeride! 2 hrs from Les Arcs.

La Thuile is stunning. The singletrack is superb. Some great steep, rooty, dusty sections through gorgeous sun-filled forests. Probably my favourite place ever (apart from Granny’s Garden in Les Arcs). 1hr from Les Arcs.

Tignes is ok. It’s all man-made and bermy. Good that it’s free. I’ve not done Wonderboisse though which is apparently really good. Top tip – don’t break any bones. The lifties won’t let you get the chair down so you have to walk off the mountain. Trails are well maintained (I’ve seen guys out with spades every time I’ve been there).

I’ve heard Les Saisies has some MTB trails – anyone been?

paul123 not sure of the Pila trail name, but its extremely easy to find. Get the gondola up from Aosta, get off at Pila, and take the trail down from around the back of the Gondola station:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAsKiO-55ZY[/video]

Dont miss out of the DH trails above. Some reds/blues and blacks all really good fun.
Yes about 2 hrs from Bourg SM.

The trail in the video looks great. That’ll be on the list for July.

Several tunes long – nice.

That pila-aosta vid captures one of the main things about that trail… “Which way will we go?” “Well they’re both good” “Yeah but what about that bit with the amazing skatepark berms?” “Yeah we should do that” “Which one do we do down then” “I can’t remember!” Group of 10 at the start and by the bottom you have 10 groups of one and all of you say you were on the best version of the trail.

Nobody has mentioned La Rosiere yet. Whilst I’m not a huge fan of the official trails up above the village, the black marked trail off the Ecudets lift (Dream Forest) is really good, and the green dots/switchbacks trail off the Zitteux Ridge is one of my all time favourites (but even though I must have ridden it 30 times I still can’t ride the rocky section at the top :lol:)

A couple of years ago there was a free bike bus from Bourg up to the bottom of the Ecudets lift, but it wasn’t running last year. It’s an easy drive from Bourg though.

Is that the rocky one straight off the road that’s not remotely a bike trail ? One dab last time, I was gutted 😆 I really like some of the riding up there but I’m kind of filing it under “hard to get the best out of” which makes it a harder sell than say la thuile

Yep that’s the one!