Forum menu
Got back from a 4 day trip to Les Arcs and am still buzzing! Can't believe how much fun hurling yourself down the side of a jeffing great mountain can be! Landed saturday morning and were staying in 1950 in a mate's mega apartment overlooking the square. Got out at around 2pm and rode down to the Black 8 run to start things off gently! It was like Aston Hill versus CwmCarn but 20 minutes long and truly amazing.
We then came back up and did the Cachette downhill race course followed by Black 8 three more times and then caught the last bus back up to 1950.
Sadly woke the next day to find rain of biblical proportions that just didn't stop all day and despite several attempts, we wrote it off as unrideable. Ended up making some ramps in the underground carpark with some friends and being 14 for the afternoon which was all good fun!
We had booked a guide for the Monday from www.coolbus.co.uk and the plan was to get an uplift into La Thuile on the Italian border, session the singletrack there for the morning and then have a horrible climb over the top and ride back down into Bourg to get the last funicular up at 1930. We awoke at 7am to find it was snowing, but a quick call to Coolbus confirmed it was localised so we were out at 0830 to ride the Black 8 (but slower in the wet!) down into Bourg for the pickup.
45 minutes later the sun was shining and we parked in Col de petit St Bernard and set off down what was the wildest mountain side I have ever seen. The guide had competed in the mega last week and did OK in the final so was a fantastic person to try and keep pace with over some properly off-piste trails with a mixture of singletrack, rock gardens and then down through a stunning Italian village before getting a chairlift backup and coming down some incredibly steep and twisty singletrack. 3 different runs later we stopped for lunch before getting the chairlift backup and doing a horrible 400 vertical metre climb on the granny ring which must have taken 45 minutes or so. Was well worth it though as the descent from there was even better than before with ultra narrow, ultra twisty, ultra steep singletrack through the trees.
A TDF stylee road descent followed for about 10 minutes and then even more epic singletrack down towards Bourg. Half way down the group split and those who were tiring or had had some offs (including one OTB onto a road that split a full face lid!) rode back to Bourg along the roads to get an earlier funicular. The remaining few were told by the guide that what was ahead made the previous singletrack look like a motorway and off we went, basically traversing a mountainside forest through a completely virgin route , making our own switchbacks, sliding on the pine cones and generally having a ball!
A 100m road climb followed, and then the guide's personal favourite training run down into Bourg. We were all pretty tired by this point but I decided I might as well give it my all and managed to complete the circa 5 minute descent about 10 seconds slower than the guide.
All in all we covered about 100k, mostly gravity assisted and it was without doubt the most tiring day I have ever had but one that will stay with me forever - truly epic!
The next morning only four of us had the energy to get back out for a few final runs before lunchtime, so we started off on Black 8 before getting the cachette and telearcs lifts right to the top and sessioning the other side a few times.
Thankfully I managed to break my crashing streak and didn't come off once and despite some fairly big offs within the group, no one got injured. The course I did with Jedi last week certainly gave me more confidence and I found that I quickly tuned in to opening the taps and flowing nicely down.
Roll on next year I say!
Have just uploaded a pretty bouncy chest cam video of one of the guided descents - check out the very lucky Graham about 3.30 through who could have gone a long way down the mountainside had he not hit some soft trees!
[url=
Clickedy Click[/url]
Excuse the annoying clicking sound - time to take the silicon to the GoPro mount I think!
Cool innit! 8)
Glad you had a good one.
Likewise, glad you enjoyed it! We certainly did. Already planning next year.
Finding it hard to get back into work mode today - hours lost watching GoPro vids!
glad you enjoyed our pre alpine session dude 🙂
Looks good, what settings do you run the GoPro on?
enjoyed that vid - thanks!
The GoPro is a 960HD and I use it on full resolution (960, 30fps) but upside down, so I can angle it upwards on the chest mount. I always think it wobbles too much but it's smooth on the road and those trails were VERY bumpy, so probably as good as it's going to get. I think the 1080 version run at 60fps would be much better on the slow-mo stuff, but editing 960/30 is hard enough on a MacBook pro so 1080/60 must need a Kray Supercomputer!
Will try and get a couple more vids uploaded later.
Jedi - didn't stop waxing lyrcial to my riding buddies about your course and spent an afternoon as a half baked instructor, doing some drop offs in the car park ('heels down!'). Think some of them will be attending courses soon!
Looks awesome. Amazing dismount by the falling rider too.
The same guy had another even more amazing 'got away with it' that I caught the tail end of - basically we were coming to the end of a trail dropping down to the road and he went offline, dropped/rolled/slid maybe 20ft down a VERY steep rocky bank and managed to walk away with only bruised forearms! His motto when skiing was always 'Go big, or go home' so I was pleased to see he has the same approach to biking!!
Yep as a ski instructor who lived in Canada I have to agree "go big or go home"
I liked the way you just leapt to your feet over his bike!
Sounds like you had a wicked time. I've just been out there too and loved it. We also did the Petit St Bernard descent to Bourg (guided by White Room though).
Have put some images on Pinkbike, this is La Varda/Sketchy Dismount (delete according to which guide you are speaking to)...
[img] 
[/img]
[url= http://chakaping.pinkbike.com/album/Alps-2011-Les-Arcs/ ]More here[/url], not sorted very well yet.
I also had a sesh with Jedi beforehand, and my cornering has got way better...
[img] 
[/img]
Chakaping - we bumped into a White Room group at the very top of one of the chairs on Monday - was that you!?
high5 hughjayteens and cha****ng 🙂
hugh - no, we came back last thurs
jedi - high5!
Shall be riding la varda tomorrow 😉
This week ive hardly ridden the same trail twice and ridden no crap !
Today we did double header in the pissing wet last thing
This has been a week of excellent riding - 70k and 5500 descent everyday and one snapped bike !(not mine)
To anyone who is out Bourg, Les arcs way.
What is the weather like? planning to head off there on Mon for 2 days on my way back to a "holiday2 in the UK..
We have had a lot of people who drove south to ride with us this week because of really bad weather in the alps..
Weather is mixxed dont expect scorchio - trails still awesome though - we are about 15k from bourg
think we will go with the White Room next year,or stay in Chamonix.
hughjayteens - that was me you bumped into! You were with Brian, right?
Hi Stace!
Good to hear it Blower, give us a shout nearer the time! 😉
Stevo - yes we were with Brian - stopped to fix a puncture I think when you went past. Very lucky man riding there every day!
Fantastic video. Really makes me want to go there.
Now tell me what is that knocking noise?
I have the same problem and it only happens with the chest mount. When I mount the cam on the bike it doesn't happen. I always assumed it was the chest mount banging on my heart rate monitor strap.
Having looked online, I think it is play between the GoPro bracket and the chest mount. I fitted the little rubber bumper thing they supplied and it was slightly better, but I am tempted just to glue it in place as I don't plan using the camera anywhere else and it drives me mad!
I am tempted just to glue it in place as I don't plan using the camera anywhere else and it drives me mad!
Thanks!
I guess you mean the little bracket that you click into the chest plate. The only other use for that bracket is for the stick on mounts. I don't trust them anyhow. I might try the same or some silicon as per the post above. It destroys the clip!!
i'm off to chamonix for the week 7th agust. cant wait 🙂
I liked the vid, almost made my ears pop!
The thing with gopros is the plastic housing picks up and amplifies all sorts of minor knocking. Your chest mount is very shaky though, did you have it loose?
The chest mount was very tight - almost too tight! Not sure if it's because I had armour on and the chest plate isn't that flat a surface?
Nice write up 🙂 been a few mtb holiday threads recently, can't wait to go on mine, getting well excited for it!
Manzine again for me this year on saturday.
les arcs or chamonix the contentder for next year.
will do Stevomcd 🙂
Here's another vid uploaded!
Wow - photos look amazing.
Haven't had much riding yet this summer but had one awesome day last week in Les Arcs - went from top of the Cachette back down to Bourg - awesome trail and they've obviously done some work on it since last year.
Nasher: Weather out here is pretty mixed at the moment - sunshine and showers. Have a great week.
Does anyone know the name of the trail from Vallandry starts by the bar that finishes in Landry? Has a fairly steep rolling start?
Dutchies !
Btw la varda and grange hill were epic - riding and scenary !
Double header was fun in wet 🙂
Cachette. Dh track wa pish - red ten was flowing but it might as well been glentress !
ultralight xc wheels on a steel hardtail with a 2.2 comp 16 - no punctures and only one rim ding 🙂
We didn't make it to Grange Hill due to the lost day but it's on the list for our next trip. Another of our party has a place in Chamonix which is meant to be quite different to Les Arcs - more slower technical stuff and more riding between sections. Love snowboarding in Morzine but have heard it gets v busy during bike season?
Hi Chakaping. Did that La Varda decent with Stevo in week 2. Awesome, looking forward to it again next year and riding a bit more of it. Link to the first exposed bit here.[url=
Here[/url]. Some more stuff there too and more to edit and post.
Haha, I barely registered the exposure at the time. Looks a lot more severe in that vid than I remember it.
I think I must have got quite good at not looking over the side.
[img] https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VtlV0uTqHTg/Ti0uZtaTrfI/AAAAAAAAHF4/YykWww7cxAM/s512/IMG_0274.JP G" target="_blank">
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VtlV0uTqHTg/Ti0uZtaTrfI/AAAAAAAAHF4/YykWww7cxAM/s512/IMG_0274.JP G"/> [/img]
la varda by barry and wayne
Great vid hughjayteens 8) ,the forest looked amazing,you dont want to fall off or go offline in there 😯
Nice tumble your mate took 😆 thankfully he was ok and you caught it on film.
Do more 😀
That's a cool section that bit, this we us a few years ago.
[img] 
[/img]
the second corner is so washed out now compared to that - you have to go up on the front wheel to get round it ! it looks so wide there - they have also stuck in steel spikes to try and hold the path up - that what you will land on if it all goes wrong !
trail rat - that corner hasn't changed a bit in years. The spikes have been there for years too. No need to lift the back wheel, it rolls round no problem.
Well our guide said it had washed out alot since last season .... And it certainly looked nowt like that photo on friday
You can still ride it - just no like the lad in the photo is
Bring it on! Got a week with Stevo/Iona in The White Room in a few weeks time.
I shall be bugging Stevo to do La Varda again...i need to clean the above switchback this year.