[Closed] The Alps, Summer 2014 - Where are you going and why?

Trans Savoie.

Short of him adding a drinks trolley, hard to see how that journey could be improved!

Assuming its a 2 seater bench in the front, expect epic levels of uncomfortableness unless you're a midget,

And hope to god there isn't 3 of you in there.

Although in not exactly looking forward to the drive down this year in a car, it's not filling me with dread from doing it in a T5, like the last 4 years.

12 hours across the UK and France is not a pleasant in a van.

White Room booked! 😀

White room for me. Driving over with Mrs Marin, mate flying over,then a weeks climbing in Italy. White room mainly due to posts on here.

White Room = justifiably awesome and amazeballs week of riding 😉

Bike Verbier booked again.
Amazing trails that I love, and new ones thrown in.

Going to the area around Alpe d'Huez for a week. In a minibus from the Isle of Wight.

Am basically among a number of guinea pigs for a couple of mates who have set up a company doing supported bike tours. They're arranging accommodation and hiring guides for an all-in price.

Fingers crossed. 😐

Unsure of where to go, intially thinking about Les Gets/Morzine but now thinking more Les Arcs as we prefer out on the mountrain riding with bike park/marked trails to complement this. Does this sound like the right move to the Alps hardcore?

Can anyone supply any trail maps in the back country around Les Arcs?

Might be a bit late, but in answer to Billy - Val d allos is closed for restructuring this year.

Wanted to go to TWR again this year,had an amazing week last year but theres only one space left(two of us) on the only week i can do. O well back to the drawing board unless Stevo can quickly Knock up an Anexe and extend the dining table:D

Unsure of where to go, intially thinking about Les Gets/Morzine but now thinking more Les Arcs as we prefer out on the mountrain riding with bike park/marked trails to complement this. Does this sound like the right move to the Alps hardcore?
Can anyone supply any trail maps in the back country around Les Arcs?

I've ridden the BC stuff at Les Arcs twice: guided. I returned solo and tried to find some of the trails again: it was tough. Buy yourself some IGN 1:25000 maps and try and figure out the trails. Unless you're an experienced orienteer it'll be fragmented riding, unless you enjoy that sort of adventure.

At Alpe d'huez, Vall d'allos & Font Romeau (Pyrenees) I got VTT maps from the tourist office and then mapped the routes using memory map (I bought IGN 1:25k mapping) & loaded onto a garmin etrex. With a paper map & gps it's possible to ride unguided trails, just needs a bit of research.

Off to the Megavalanche for me again this year, with a stop for an afternoon of riding in Annecy on the way. Really looking forward to it again.

Re Les Arcs trails, you can find some info here on old threads. You can access the IGN maps online via a search for geoportal.goiv.fr or similar. In my opinion the best way is to take a guided holiday, when you add up all the benefits (often inc van uplifts) they are good value.

jambalaya - Member
In my opinion the best way is to take a guided holiday, when you add up all the benefits (often inc van uplifts) they are good value.

Jambalaya is spot on. After 2 guided trips with TA in Les Arcs and BBB in Whistler, we had a semi-guided holiday in Chatel last year which was a bit crap as the guiding wasn't up to par. We're returning to TA for Dest. X. If you've only got a week you don't want to spend half your time trying to find the good stuff (and without local knowledge you'll never find the 'secret' trails).

Don't forget Tignes-Val d'Isere if you like the area. 5 FREE lifts linking the 2 resorts and some pretty good trail and 'off-piste' riding (and I'm no expert!).
Val's not the ghost town you expect during July-August and there's some pretty good accommodation to be had.
PM me if anyone's around. I'm there and welcome riding buddies.

Has anyone ever though of going to the Alps to do any proper riding, ie not just going up lifts for a week? You could even enjoy the mountains and be on your own for a bit, have some adventure.

.............just a thought.....

C

So what is 'proper riding' - in your opinion?

If you want to go somewhere for a week and cram in as much descending as you can, you go to the alps and use the lifts. That's the point of it to most of us contributing to this thread.

just a thought.

Better leave the thinking to those more capable in future, it's not your strong point.

Has anyone ever though of going to the Alps to do any proper riding, ie not just going up lifts for a week?

To be honest in a place like this I think you would struggle without them!

Torihada, jambalaya and mixmaster, thanks for the info. Would normally go guided with TA or TWR but we are travelling Tuesday to Tuesday and they all offer a Saturday to Saturday service. Still we will hire a guide for 1-2 days and use him for the more secret trails. Just wondering what the other more well known trails there are? Also quite fancy a day in Tignes so thats another day gone.

ChrisE - quality troll comment. People go to the Alps to experience things we can't in the UK.

Livigno for the dreilander tour plus a 2/3 days of lift assisted\park riding.

[img] [/img]

Has anyone ever though of going to the Alps to do any proper riding, ie not just going up lifts for a week?

Do you mean bike park ski lifts? Or being driven up as far as you can go and then riding all day in 'backcountry' as White Room do. Option two is what I do. Sometimes the lift is thrown in to get us to where we need to go. But I don't do just the ski lifts and parks for a week, nowt wrong with that, just not my thing. Want to do and see all this:

[img] [/img]

cblair246 - Member

Just wondering what the other more well known trails there are? Also quite fancy a day in Tignes so thats another day gone.

One of the most famous trails at Les Arcs is La Varda. A beautiful ride, great technical descending, which will take 2 - 3 hrs. But its exposed in places and isolated, so something you'd not want to ride alone. If you're happy riding something like the Rangers Path, Snowdon you'd like it:

Can anyone recommend an uplift service around les arcs/bourg st maurice? We are camping in June so don't need an all-in holiday, but would really like to find a guide/uplift service before we go. Any thoughts?

La Varda is awesome. I shall be there again in August.

La Varda is indeed ace and has a pub at the end of the trail!

Can anyone recommend an uplift service around les arcs/bourg st maurice? We are camping in June so don't need an all-in holiday, but would really like to find a guide/uplift service before we go. Any thoughts?

I don't know of any guides in the LA area, but I do know that much of the best riding is not accessible by road, so if you go in June when the lifts are shut, you may be limited. Hopefully somebody will be able to say something to the contrary!

ChrisE - Member
Has anyone ever though of going to the Alps to do any proper riding, ie not just going up lifts for a week? You could even enjoy the mountains and be on your own for a bit, have some adventure.

Uh huh, take it you've not been there then. Big steep mountains that take a couple of hours to get up, or hop on a lift or van to gain the height to allow you to use that time to access the good trails and ride. I've met 2 other groups in the 2 weeks we were out, it's hardly overcrowded.

So who's off to White Room when? I'm off 19th July.

mrhoppy, you'll find that Chris has spent more time riding big mountains than most people that frequent this forum.

my local trails are the Bavarian Alps. around here there are not many lifts that will take a bike so almost every ride involves upwards of 1700hm of climbing.

i'll use the lifts if i'm elsewhere/somewhere new in order to see more, but they are an expensive and lazy option, IMO.

can uderstand the buzz of a bike park, but find that the wow-factor of the landscape you are in is diminished when all you have to do to cover 2000m is buy a ticket.

Well his description is at odds with the riding that most of the companies are offering. It's not just riding bike park, it's about using uplift to access the riding and avoiding 1000m of winch up the road, it allows you to access more remote places.

If you go to somewhere without lifts then you ride up but why would you not use them if they're there.

To be fair it does sound like ChrisE has no clue, but perhaps he does and is just hiding it or something. If you're anti-lift, do you also insist on riding from the UK to France because planes make it too easy?

For me the entire point of an alpine holiday is the uplift network- it's not about "riding park" because none of the holidays I've done have been like that, it's all about the ride multiplier- you can do far more descending in a day with a lift than without, and you can't do that in many places or with a fraction of the variety in the UK.

I can ride up a mountain at home, but if you take every uplifted trail in the UK and combine them together you still end up with less riding than at, say, La Thuile which in itself is a small resort.

I did a week in the Pyrenees riding both up and down, I didn't gain any more "appreciation for the mountains", but I did achieve less quality riding in a week than I did with White Rooms in a day. And as for it being lazy, uplifts wear me out far more than normal riding does.

Hmmmm. This makes me rather tempted to just break out the credit card and book in with white room again, despite what I said earlier...

i'll use the lifts if i'm elsewhere/somewhere new in order to see more, but they are an expensive and lazy option, IMO.

Depends on what you want out of your holiday, I guess.

Personally, I go to cram in as much descending as possible (and I'd say less than 5% is "park") and there's no way I'd be able to do 45,000 feet of descending in my fortnight if I had to pedal up as well.

What are the weather conditions like early July in Sainte Foy? We are going with The White Room, and I was wondering what others have experienced temperature wise at that time of year. I'm guessing it'll be t-shirt weather at all times.......

Grupper205 - Member
What are the weather conditions like early July in Sainte Foy? We are going with The White Room, and I was wondering what others have experienced temperature wise at that time of year. I'm guessing it'll be t-shirt weather at all times.......

T shirts at all times in the Alps? In the Alps I've had snow in August, torrential summer rainstorms, 34 degrees plus cloudless days, killer hail stone storms, dense cold fog. Expect every type of weather in the Alps & always carry a waterproof.

^^^^+1

Last year it rained every evening for two weeks, and some trails in both Les Arcs and La Plagne had lots of snow on them.

Grupper205 - we'd expect to ride in short-sleeves and shorts every day in June, then to chill out in garden in the sunshine in the evenings in June (and throughout our whole summer season!). But, as above, anything can happen!

I've seen it snow in every month of the year, but generally the weather in the Tarentaise in the summer is excellent - and noticeably better than in the Morzine area, for example (due to the Mont Blanc and Bauges rain-shadows).

Northwind - Member

Hmmmm. This makes me rather tempted to just break out the credit card and book in with white room again, despite what I said earlier...

I will never have any money 😆 White Rooms it is then. I said last year, that I wouldn't- it'd be either no alps, or a different alps. But I can't think of a better way to spend a week, so sod it.

Bike village. 3rd time with them.
Everything I want in bike holiday.

Bregenzerwald, Liechtenstein, somewhere in that area (so could be Austria, German or Switzerland too).
Because it's in that bit of the Alps east of Morzine that most people forgot about.
On a hardtail, using those turny pedally things to ride up the hill, even if it is "doing it all wrong" and "wasting an Alps trip".

Also Poland and Czech, but that's not Alps.

Morzine PdS with the husband and kids. Because husband and I have no sense of direction and the kids hate pedalling uphill (must be those Dutch genes).

Anyone else in morzine with kids. 2-9 august?

Simone

Off to trail addiction, fourth time with them. It was awesome

Just managed to sort an unexpected 10 days in Les Arcs in August. DIY but know my way round.