Anyone done this in previous years?
last two - love it!
pretty muddy this time round though.
definetly worth going off piste and finding tracks off the beaten track IMHO.
Are there lengthy queues at each lift or do the other riders string out by say mid-way?
Done last 2 as well.. Very well organised..
Morzine and Les Gets get busy, you need to be up early to be first in the queues, after that its not too bad.
How technical (i.e vertical) does it get? Ive been over to Switzerland before via Linderettes passed the Swiss DH etc.
We did it for the first time this year. It was a flippin great day out. The big queue was at Super Morzine, but if we'd got our act together we'd have missed that. One of us had a start ticket from Les Gets, the rest Morzine, and we had a comedic interlude missing each other waiting at the top of Pleney. Had we hit the Super Morzine lift as early as planned, we'd have had no queues all day.
There's only one or two bits that you'd call technical in terms of roots, off camber etc etc. And there's a bit of north shore stuff around Chatel but there are chicken runs for the more challenging bits. The vast majority is just super swoopy. You see loads of people dressed like stormtroopers, but this is complete overkill. It's best thought of as a very big cross country ride with very little climbing due to lifts.
We clocked it at 91km, which sounds a lot, but most of the time you're wizzing downhill. It's like going on the wild mouse at Blackpool, holding a pneumatic drill, all day.
Fantastic views, great buzz. Would defo do it again.
Some pics and stuff here:
[url] http://twistedwheels.myfreeforum.org/Twisted_Wheels_Crusaders_capture_the_Alps_for_Manchester_about853.html [/url]
[url] http://twistedwheels.myfreeforum.org/Passporte_du_soleil_Part_2_about858.html [/url]
Hi Hora
PPDS is a great day out. It's not particularly technical, certainly nothing harder than you would find at any UK trail centre and an average rider could happily get round on a hard tail, but it is simply fantastic fun.
140mm-150mm trail bikes are the best choice if you have one. I've done it on a DH bike as well as a trail bike and think that overall I was as quick down hill on the trail bike as I was the DH bike. There are no steep section anywhere on the trail, but there is a fair amount of pedaling.
The queues are never too bad but like people say the bottle necks are around the registration zones and the main hubs of Morzine/Les Gets.
There is usually an optional loop around Torgon from Chatel which in past years has been very dull although there is supposed to be some excellent single track in that region.
It will take you all day as well - best to start early as that way you can always explore some of the other tracks in the area.
It'll be on the OrangeFive with whatever forks happened to be on that that time 😀
Thank you for the link snowslave, will have a good read through..
I've done it and enjoyed it.
I've also done a long weekend in Morzine without the event and enjoyed it more.
Personally I wouldn't bother again with the organised event. There's better riding in the area than that used by the PPDS and the queues, while not as bad as some people will make out, [b]are[/b] notably longer than at any other time.
I'm not anti the event by any means but want to give a bit of balance.
I've also done a long weekend in Morzine without the event and enjoyed it more.
Organised or self arranged?
I'm planning on fitting this in to a two week family hol in the Alps! So long as I can get an entry and accomodation for the hol that is. Sounds great fun.
Organised or self arranged?
Semi-organised.
We arranged our own flights.
endlessride picked us up at GVA, provided B&B accomodation, two days guiding (before the Morzine guiding kerfuffle), and dropped us back at the airport.
We self-guided a couple of days and sorted out our own food in the evenings.
The best trails on the whole route was the bit down to Torgon and the optional orange route down to Champery. Wicked tight woodsy singletrack. I thought they were some of the best trails I did in the Passportes region. Did any body else do the optional bit down to Champery?
We did it on Sunday and there was nearly no mud. just beautiful weather. We missed out the Le Ges bit as we had done it all week. I was a bit disappointed with the marked trails though. Apart from being long they were not that technically interesting apart from in a few bits. If I went again I would be heading out of the Morzine valley and exploring.