No I don't want to go to Morzine/Les Gets/Port d'Soliel .. (again)
Looking for somewhere good for mountain biking for a week in the alps with 120/130mm FS bikes, so good trails/AM stuff but with plenty of uplifts
This sort of stuff:
[img] http://sn111w.snt111.mail.live.com/att/GetAttachment.aspx?tnail=0&messageId=abc0179a-4267-433b-9598-9c37f3d364cd&Aux=44|0|8CB812D39D72880| [/img]
with a bit of this sort of stuff, presumably needed to get below the treeline ..
[img] http://sn111w.snt111.mail.live.com/att/GetAttachment.aspx?tnail=0&messageId=11bfcee1-257d-4aeb-bdac-768d47b17b0c&Aux=44|0|8CB812F52CEFEB0| [/img]
[i]Wow! Didn't think I could picture link from my email ..
Unless I'm the only one who can actually view that?[/i]
Ideally we wouldn't have to have an all inclusive week with guiding in big groups of others due to cost and wanting to be free of that.
Hiring an individual guide (for 3) would be pricey even for just a day
Ideally we'd like a chalet/other accomadation whose staff can show us exaclty whats where (with the aid of maps obviously - which aren't exaclty OS 1:25k standard?) and we go and do it ourselves at our own leisure
- Ischgl came up whilst trying to a bit of background on any alpine resort as possibly fitting the bill. Looks a bit pricey though (from that book by rowan 'sorrell')
- Courchevel was reccomended by a friend for lots of lifts and lots of good quality (but not DH course) riding
- I'm set to do a backcountry week with trailaddiction, so the lift accessed stuff I imagine I won't be touching a lot of, not that I'd mind going twice .. Its on the pricey side though and perhaps not what the others would be after
There must be loads in the Les Arcs, La Plagne, La Rosiere area but is there anywhere that offers the accomadation without the expense of fully guided riding? But with staff that point out the non track stuff?
Any reccomdations?
Where else?
I don't really know where to start looking (elsewhere) resorts wise trying to decifer which resorts are pretty much DH only, generally a bit rubbish or short on trails or how to pick and not another!
Accomadation
Any particular chalets/etc .. that you can reccomend that may be suitable?
Any thoughts/ideas/recomendations?
Care to share your experiences?
courcheval, la tania, meribel is a huge area and is very good indeed.
been twice and loved it.
not many places where you can descend from 3000m to 500m in the alps.
ton - you got any more details about Courchevel, off there at start of July.
James - check out Pleisure in Courchevel, very reasonable prices compared to companies in larger resorts.
Les Arc/La Plagne - stay in Bourg St, Maurice. You can ride to the valley floor and back to Bourg from anywhere on the mountain. Long long verticals! 1.5hrs in one case.
or
St Gervais/Megeve/chamonix/Valorcine - a huge choice of riding, enough for a couple of weeks. Megeve down to St Gervais produced one of the best descents I have ever experienced in the 10 years I have been going to the Alps. It takes in a big variety of terrains which gives you a chance to deploy different skills and a sense that you are covering a lot of ground - definitely very interesting! It's a top to the bottom route, again, over and hour and a half in duration. We were virtually the only ones on the mountain that day in July which made it feel like more of an adventure - awesome!
There must be dozens of routes like this. We never use a guide, but go exploring with the use of a 1:25k French OS style mini folding map.
Portes du Soleil when we went there was so busy we had to wait 50 mins to just get on the first chair lift! I would never go back there because it is just way too crowded and frankly, there are many other great places which are much much quieter. We strongly prefer independant trips for this reason.
"courcheval, la tania, meribel"
Looks good, I've found the signposted routes and lifts maps. How easy is it to find the non signposted stuff as there isn't loads on that?
Thanks for the replys so far, they all look good, can anybody else help reccomend other resorts and particular places to stay?
"go exploring with the use of a 1:25k French OS style mini folding map"
Anybody got any reccomendation on the best place to get buy one? Who are they made by?
Samoens Valley? Lots of shuttle options and also chair lift at Sixt and Cable car to top of Flaine at 2500m, and bike back to 800m