I am looking for advice on the Alps as a destination for a week’s trip this summer. I would be interested to hear from anyone who can make comparisons with the rides I have done recently.
Switchbacks- Sierra Nevada – loved the day long epic rides and appreciated the uplifts. But found lots of the trails badly eroded. IMO riding not as good as Italy.
Riviera Bikes – loved the routes, they obviously put a lot of effort into them. The best flowing single track I have ridden, plus some full-on steep rocky and technical descents. But, we spent more time going up in the vans than we did down on the trails, so it didn’t have the feeling of adventure that the Sierra Nevada had.
I was thinking the Alps might be the best of both worlds- ski-lifts to take us up and epic rides once we were there. I am looking for all mountain rather than DH, any suggestions? Can anyone recommend a good guide?
Same question +1, I've tried 100% uplifted hollidays (12-15x 3-5min runs left me feeling a bit short changed by the day) and lift assisted days out where the van does about half the work (which still left a lot of/too much climbing). But quite fancy something between the two, no unneccecary climbing, but quite happy to put in 200-300m of climbing for each run if the reward is a propperly good back country decent over 1000m (preferably a lot more) not accessible from the chairlifts/van.
Agree pretty much with your descriptions, Ade at Rivierra will do some mountain days if you like we did a couple of 'descents' that took 2 or 3 hours to get down and were my favourite days riding there, he also does a Fort Tour high in the mountains on the French/Italian border. Si at freeride will take you up into the mountains for half day 'descents'. I am looking at Trail Addiction at the mo, they look good as well.
Trouble is if your uplifting in will always, pretty much, spend more time getting up than you will down.
Been with
ciclo - spain
riviera/molini freeride
bike verbier
les arcs
chamonix
all over BC
Bike Verbier sound like exactly what you need. a bump in the morning up a lift or van then the rest of the day up in the mountains. awesome......
the perfect mix
Same with chamonix, which I love but you really can only do this DIY - style...and need to love exploring etc - but very rewarding once you have been a few times and know the good stuff.
I was thinking the Alps might be the best of both worlds- ski-lifts to take us up and epic rides once we were there. I am looking for all mountain rather than DH, any suggestions? Can anyone recommend a good guide?
Having guided in southern Spain, and the Austrian and French Alps (and ridden with Riviera), I'd happily recommend the Alps. However, I'd personally stay away from the Brits abroad and fast, open trails of Morzine and look at something like Chamonix (although there are access issues there) or Verbier (uber-tech, off beaten track riding). Otherwise Kitzbuhel in Austria is less 'gnarr' but has some good stuff and is proper Heidi country - a friend runs Mountain Edge (www.mountainedge.co.uk) and has lived there since 2003, so knows the area well. The Ehrenbach (sp?) is a great little trail should you make it out there.
Beaten to it by freeridenick. 🙂
I think Les Arcs has a lot to offer, but also Germany has some mint looking stuff that is being overlooked, and I dont know much about, but want to try getting across to the German alps for some riding soon, just to see whats there.
I wouldnt fancy Chamonix because of access issues and a lot of walkers.
+1 bike vernier
There is thar Slovenian company ???
Switchbacks- Sierra Nevada – loved the day long epic rides and appreciated the uplifts. But found lots of the trails badly eroded. IMO riding not as good as Italy.Riviera Bikes – loved the routes, they obviously put a lot of effort into them. The best flowing single track I have ridden, plus some full-on steep rocky and technical descents. But, we spent more time going up in the vans than we did down on the trails, so it didn’t have the feeling of adventure that the Sierra Nevada had.
Done both and totally agree with you. Did the Alps to beach ride with Riveria (5 hours 'mostly' down) which was of more of an epic.
Still looking at going back to Riviera in September again.
I have been with Ciclo for the Sierra Nevada - fantastic if you want techinal wil rocks and switchbacks. Go to Morzine nearly every year - there is so much out there in the Portes du Soleil and new trails are being added each year - but they need to sort out those breaking bumps - if you are going by car - the Grand Massif is not far away and that's a huge area aswell with up-lift!!
the trailaddiction backcountry weeks sound perfect for you, take a look at them. i really enjoyed the two ive been on.
a friend runs Mountain Edge
Is he called Rob? Rode with him a few years back. Personally I think Sierra Nevada knocks Kitzbuhel into a cocked hat. I was in Kitz on a family holiday so only rode 3 days and it never felt like "big country" even though it was fun.
+1 for TrailAddiction back country week!
Only did one day of back country when we were there, as the weather was appalling (snow up at the top lift stations in July) but it had a similar feel to Rivierabike.
You can do a mix of ski-lifts and van uplifts with TA. When I went the Backcountry week was centred around two main days, HEIDI, big, long descent from mountain top to valley floor taking all day and a day of van uplifts to more remote and less used trails.
The other days, dh or xc/am were on offer, making use of the funicular/ bus and ski lifts.
Ace.
Freeride spain has a more xc feel to it than Switchbacks but still big descents.
I've been to the Alps with Bike Verbier, Sierra Nevada with Freeride Spain and Sierra Cycling, and I've also done a couple of days guided bike hire round about Kitzbuhel.
I'd highly recommend Bike Verbier as being the closest to what you're after. The climbing is a mixture of the ski lift system and getting up there off your own steam. They didn't really use the van that much.
I did three days of guided mountain bike in Kitzbuhel/St Johann with a couple of different companies and it was pretty hit and miss. Seemed to depend who else showed up on the day and you could get put in a mixed ability group with a very low common denominator and end up riding around on tarmacked cycle paths that you could have found yourself for a lot of the day. On a big bouncy Bionicon as well, which added insult to injury. Might be better if you were in a pre-determined group of roughly your own ability though.
Bike village (Les Arcs) do exactly what you require and Sam and Lyndsey are very good hosts. Thoroughly recommended!
Thanks for all the ideas.
Cheers
Otherwise Kitzbuhel in Austria is less 'gnarr' but has some good stuff and is proper Heidi country
😉