Anyone been to Crans Montana?

Hey

I am trying to plan a biking holiday for a few mates, and was looking at going to Crans Montana. We can get free accommodation there! We will just be riding dh, and was wondering if it is any good before I go and book the flights!

Cheers

It good for a day or two if you just plan on riding there, otherwise there isn’t much. Verbier is only an hour or so away though for a lot more (and better) riding.

Both are eye wateringly expensive.

Spent an afternoon there. The main DH run is excellent.

Was told the other run wasn’t so good, so didn’t ride that as time was limited.

How long you thinking of going for though? If you’d have transport then Verbier is not far away, if you were stuck in Crans Montana then a couple of days might suffice.

We had a day there with Bike Verbier, DH runs are good but the best run was from the town back down to the valley bottom.

My mate wants to take his car, and by the sound of that its a good idea!

I have been for a couple of days. There is some nice more XC orientated trails in the hills around (you need a good map or help from a guide) to find, but the actual trails at CM itself are quite limited. Only a Red and a Black from what I recall. The Black was nice and steep and techie with a little woodwork and a few different lines to session. The Red was big bermy bends, very fast n loose.

I would only think you would have a day or 2 in the CM bike park and quite honestly we found the resort a little soulless. The lift/bike park area def feels a bit ‘out on a limb’.

If you have aforementioned map there are some great looking trails around there, but you would need good climbing legs or a shuttle to make them work.

You are only about an hour from Verbier though, so that gives you another option.

Anyone know anything about the Kona bike park supposably at the bottom in CM?

There’s a fair bit of northshore sort of stuff at the bottom, it’s probably that.

As above, much much better for trail riding than DH stuff. The natural trails around the valley are some of the best I’ve ridden, but you’ll need either a guide or be happy with a map. And, also an uplift if you’re on DH bikes.

The Kona bike park just refers to the north shore type stuff and the jump lines. Its well kept up, but not extensive.

From what I’ve heard, there’s a really good DH track in Martigny, which is just down the road.

One of our group had a bad crash off that shore into the car park

The hills [around Crans] are alive with the sound of musicsingletrail

We went and it rained in biblical fashion so i personally drank coffee all day. The coffee shop had toilets that cleaned teh seat when you flushed it, so er, yeah, cheap coffee, not!

We hot footed it to Pila to get some sun.

Id just avoid Switzerland, its just too expensive to be able to enjoy yourself, £20 pizzas and £6 coffees soon get tiring.

I used to live in Crans Montana. Some people have already mentioned about the DH stuff. But it certainly depends what kind of riding you like to do. Personally I like single track and actually riding up hill (not just taking a lift up) so for that its great. As mentioned you will need a good map and they are available and well marked. Try and respect walkers is my advice.

If you have free accommodation its cool. CM is a more upper class ski resort normally, so its not all that busy in the summer. There is a golf tournament which can fill it up a bit, but it is not cheap in general. However, you can always go to a supermarket and buy food and beers and have to odd beer out if you want to be cheap.

That area is famous for the sun. nearly always sunny. There is place not so far away called laukerbad which has thermal baths which is also cool to do for a rest day to rest those aching muscles.

It all depends what you want. If you want crowded bars full of english people at the end of the day. Its not the place to come.

bland,
£20 pizzas and £6 coffees, been to Crans lots of times and have never paid even half that.

And to get into Leukerbad baths for free all you need to do is run up to the top cable car station in under 70 mins. Get your cards stamped at the leisure centre to start, and at the cable car station at the top. You get a free lift down too. Saves you about £30 and gets you fit.

Oh hang on it says your downhillers – no chance then!