An Alps descent in a weekend. Can it be done?

Without taking any time off in a typical working week, could you get an alpine descent in and be back in time for Monday morning? How?

I live in Sheffield.

Stoner’s post has inspired the question

I believe there was once an STW article on that very subject. Was a few years ago!

Rachel

I’m sure you could – and that people have – but it’d be a lot of hassle for not so much riding.

Should be easy, not sure it would be worth it though – post work flight to Geneva Friday evening, transfer to chosen Alpine resort. Ride Saturday all-day, check-out Sunday, ride till your transfer back to Geneva Sunday evening – work for the morning.

Be a lot of work and money for what would amount to a day and a half riding – it will all depend on flight availability from your most local airport to Geneva – I can fly from my local airport but it’s very expensive and usually means a short stop over in Amsterdam, but it’s an hour to Bristol airport and they’ve got EasyJet and direct flights to Geneva. Leeds/Bradford is an EasyJet airport I think.

I suppose you could drive, 18 hours from Sheffield, plus the usual M6/M5 hellish traffic south on a Friday afternoon, I don’t think it would be worth it.

leaving sheffield, you can be on the midnight ferry from Dover to Calais, you have an hour on board to snatch some sleep. you’ll ‘land’ in France at 2am.

it’s then an approx’ 10 drive to Morzine. keep fuel and coffee stops to a minimum and you’ll arrive in Morzine at 1ish local time.

you can be on a chairlift at 2pm, you’ll feel like death, but you’ll have a few hours Alpine riding.

Alternatively, Lac Blanc is a bit closer? But is that ‘The Alps’? enough?

Wot PJ said.

Im lucky I can get to Bristol airport in an hour, can fly off peak, and have a place in morzine.

Wasn’t there a video of a Barclays bike being taken to the alps and back in 24hrs by car?

ahwiles – Member

leaving sheffield, you can be on the midnight ferry from Dover to Calais, you have an hour on board to snatch some sleep. you’ll ‘land’ in France at 2am.

it’s then an approx’ 10 drive to Morzine. keep fuel and coffee stops to a minimum and you’ll arrive in Morzine at 1ish local time.

you can be on a chairlift at 2pm, you’ll feel like death, but you’ll have a few hours Alpine riding.

Alternatively, Lac Blanc is a bit closer?

I think if I tried that I’ve be off into the undergrowth on the first bend, and suspect I’d lay down for a sleep too.

I’ve done it for skiing a number of times. Very doable, but far more pleasant to take at least an extra day. Even flying out first thing Friday rather than Friday night makes a huge difference.

and have a place in morzine

Does this place accommodate paying guests in the summer?

You can from Leeds (fly from Manchester). I nearly did, but couldn’t justify the cost.

There’s little enough room in Cupboard del Stoner while I’m here all summer with the Stonerettes. You could sleep in the stairwell 🙂

Easily possible. As above better to take an extra day off as you’ll get a lot more riding in. Try to find smaller airports as it speeds things up at both ends. Also lots of options beyond Geneva to get good flight times. Some other options, while not all Alpine are just as good, Innsbruuk, Milan (Malpensa and Bergamo), Toulouse or Barcelona for the Pyrenees

Got to agree with the above, it’s worth taking as much time as you can get hold of – the problem with the Alps is where it is and it doesn’t matter if you fly or drive it’s a faf, driving takes a day and costs £200 each way even if you’re careful, flying with bikes is no picnic.

I love the Alps, it feels like a home from home to me and I’d happily live in France near there (I don’t like snow so I wouldn’t live there full-time) but I wouldn’t bother going if I couldn’t take any time off for it, it’s just not worth it – I’d go for a weekend in North Wales, although Scotland is probably closer for OP or get a weekend pass for BPW.

Easy to do if renting a bike or you are efficient at packing and building your own bike assumjng you have a decent flight bag. My first two Alps trips where 3 and 4 day weekends. A 2 day weekend is definitely a push I’d say. I think it’s harder to do biking than skiing, @Stoner has the best setup with a place where you can keep your bike and gear. For 2 or 3 day you have to fly really, for a 4 day weekend you can drive assuming you don’t live too far from the coast.

Would Spain be a better bet? Sadly I don’t think the budget airlines fly to Granada any more, but when they did it was 30 minute transfer to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. You might find one of the outfits near Malaga would work for a weekend.

Veuling fly from Leeds and Manchester, they’re a Spanish low-cost outfit. Have no direct experience of them, but they’re pretty cheap.

The Spanish MTB centres seem more year-round too, but they rely on buses rather than lifts if you don’t want to climb and they can’t compete with the summer prices in Morzine, you can stay in Morzine for pennies if you don’t care too much about the digs.

As several of the above – perfectly doable, but questionable VFM.

I’ve flown out for a ski trip on a Friday night, met up with handy expat friend in Zurich and off to the hills, back to the airport for Sunday evening flight out (just!). In principle you can do the same biking but I’ve only ever done if for long weekends (frequently), much nicer to sneak an extra day or 2 into the equation.

I think more than that, my first day in the Alps is generally a bit hard work, as many times as I’ve been, I’m always a bit shocked just how steep and just how long it is there.

I think more than that, my first day in the Alps is generally a bit hard work, as many times as I’ve been, I’m always a bit shocked just how steep and just how long it is there.

+1

Always takes me a little time to get my head around just being there.

Friday evening Eurostar to Paris. French sleeper to Bourg Saint Maurice. Ride all day Saturday & Sunday. Sunday night sleeper back to Paris. Early morning Eurostar back to central London for 9 (ish).

Only works if you live/work in that London, of course.

doable if you can get flights from which ever airport you’re near after work on a friday and back late on the sunday. But IMO not worth it for just saturday and sunday .

I have done it several times for 4 days, take friday and monday off work. fly out early friday morning, back late monday night, 4 nearly full days biking.

Also works for southern spain (have done a couple of long weekends with switchbacks in bubion), majorca, and am off to portugal this wednesday evening for 4 days riding.