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Does anyone know of any MTB parks in the French Alps that are open through September. Ill be there this year from the 8th Sept and am keen to ride France before riding the Swiss MTB parks which close in Oct.
I'm looking for lift operated MTB parks with bike hire etc.
Any help will be much appreciated.
Cheers.
~$5
(Australia)
Some of Les Arcs maybe, what do you mean by bike parks? Jumpy dh stuff? If you want more natural try white room guided/shuttles that way. Where in France you coming from? Met a bloke who said his bike park in Andorra was quite awesome.
Yeah, anything lift assisted. DH Jumpy would be great, even XC with some climbing if that's all I can find. Most of what I've found so far is lifts are closed by the end of Aug-1st week in Sept. eg. Morzine. Chatel and the list goes on.
Thanks
Yep try white room, uplift by Van and amazing trails
THIS:[url= http://www.pinkbike.com/news/evo-bike-park-the-french-equivalent-of-coast-gravity-park.html ]EVO bike park Dignes[/url]
is due to open Aprilish...
We were out ther in early September last year and really struggled to find places open. Les Gets and a bagel closed after the first week of September, and nowhere else in France seemed to be open. Tignes, Les Arcs, Alpes D'Huez, Les 2 Alpes, Morzine (and most of PDS), Samoens and La Thuile were all closed. Verbier in Switzerland was open (not far from Morgins in PDS) but not a lot there(official tracks anyway), was really expensive and was bloody freezing. Livigno in Italy has a really long season and lots of great tracks for all skill levels, I'd consider going there if I went out again that late, long trails, decent weather, cheaper than Switzerland and everyone was friendly and helpful.
Finale Laguire is open, but it's all uplifted rather than ski lifts (and seemed geared to groups of 4+ rather than just myself and the GF. I think there's some lifts open around the Lame Garda area as well, but we headed home before exploring them as the weather took a turn for the worse last year.
Tom KP
Chamonix is open till mid-Sep but its not really a "bike park". It's also an hours drive from Verbier so good for a two resort trip, we did exactly this this summer. Note you should check schedules (google is your friend) as some resorts like Verbier don't run the lifts during the week towards the end of the season. As above a number of guiding companies run holidays into September and have the use of vans and know how to utilise the bus schedules. What you will find is most French resorts have stopped the ski uplifts in September. Swiss so run longer and tye mountain railways can run pretty much year round
EDIT: just to follow up from post above there is tons of riding in Verbeir most of it is not in the bike park, its natural trail/enduro riding. The bike park trails are pretty full on imho (ok so I am a 50+ year old mincer) and would be decidedly tricky if it got a bit wet.
You could gamble with Morzine / Les Getrs - in the last couple of years they've extended the season because the weather has stay 'suimmerish' longer - I seem to recall the winter was so late coiming this year they openned Les Gets Bike Park at Xmas.
You could add [url= http://www.chamonixbikeblog.com/tag/la-saleve/ ]La Saleve[/url] to the list, open all year, but only really enough riding for 2 days. Combine it with Chamonix though and there's plenty. Mind Chamonix lifts start closing at the start of September and there's only uplift at Les Houches by the end of September. Les Houches could keep you going for a few days for sure, but only if you want to ride natural trails, the built stuff is fairly limited.
Thanks to the late arrival of winter this year, at xmas time you could ride the lifts at Les Gets, Verbier and Pila, 3 countries, 3 days....
+1 for White Room. Stevo and his gang are spot on.
Thankyou all for your feedback.
You have given me some good ideas.
I've got wife and kids with me and am also dependent on rental bikes so I've got more googling to do. (I like the whiteroom idea, but it might be a hard sell to the wife)
I'll definitely swing past EVO gravity park for a ride (I love the one in Sechelt, BC) and a drive over to Livigno might really help me get my fix.
Thanks again
~$5
http://www.whiteroomchalet.com/sumprices.htm
They have some spaces but your probably best to speak to Stevo direct
Great riding, wish I could plan for enough ahead to get back up there for a weeks riding!
Does it have to be the alps? Vallnord in the Pyrenees is usually open in September.
OP if you want to rent bikes make sure you arrange well in advance, there is a danger the rental shops return/sell their bikes at start of Sep.