Off to chamonix next week not been for a few years, what’s best to go and ride some ideas please.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/alps-experts-best-2-all-day-trails-in-chamonix

Definitely some bike-ban cheekiness going on there!

Le Tours at one end of the valley and Les Houches at the other end are easily accessible.
Then you have the Mont Blanc tour which will be a good time too

Go into Zero-G and buy the bike book. I would advise getting a few IGN maps too as its quite possible to get lost.

We did Les Houches blue and then back up for Hughes Way and down into Pipeline (we got lost at start of Hughes Way – its straight on where path curves left to top of chairlifts, also sharp left tuen off grassy 4x track by hidden little chalet is easy to miss. Also road Brevent and Le Tour, Tirent via the Cross. That was 3 days worth during the ban. Note Train has a 2 hr break early afternoon so check timetable. We also used the car to get around a bit.

Other top tip is Les Chables / Verbier is an hour away via recent TdF climb Col de Forclaz / Martigny. Bike park plus enduro rides – maps / kmz files online

Happily it looks like the Brévent and Flegere lifts are open to bikes this summer after all…

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/a-little-bad-news-if-youre-off-to-chamonix#post-7786808

…but the bike ban is in place, so pick your trails carefully.

http://www.thechamonixbikebook.com/news/july-august-whats-rideable/

Ah yes, should probably have re-re-updated that thread, sorry antennae! Bikes are not allowed on the Brevent or Flegere lifts during the bike ban months of July and August as there are now no bike ban legal trails from the top, hence we canny go up and play. Le Tour/Vallorcine, Grand Montets & Les Houches are all good, and us locals now get free use of St Gervais, Les Contamines, Megeve and Combloux, so it’s not all bad.

Basically anything at Le Tour, EXCEPT posettes, is fine, and the same at Les Houches, as long as you apply the usual chamonix rules of don’t dress like a stormtrooper and tear through groups of walkers. Posettes is a local sticking point and it makes life a lot easier for the local guys who do a great job at trying to keep access for bikes through the valley in the face of some very hostile locals if folks could not ride it during the bike ban, and certainly not in the middle of the day when it’s really busy with guided groups of walkers.

I’m in Chamonix at the moment and sadly Brevent and Flegere are definitely closed to bikes this summer, hopefully just until the end of August but maybe even worse than that. If you’re going to ride banned footpaths from the other lifts organise it so you’re hitting them midweek either first thing or at the end of the day.

So Grum you are saying NO and antenne is saying YES to Brevent / Flegere ?

Antennae’s referenced my original post where I broke the bad news that Brevent was closed to bikes, then updated it to say that thanks to some negotiation, it was open again. Then the Marie (local council) changed the rules for the bike ban to exclude the previously permitted routes from Brevent and Flegere, so the lifts became off limits again. Hence, they are 100% off limits to bikes until the end of August.
Unless someone changes their mind again.
I’ve been trying to put up semi regular updates ofwhat’s open, what’s not, what’s riding well and what’s changed at the chamonixbikeblog instagram account. It’s not been as regular as intended as I’m trying not to use too many photos of a set of handlebars and some singletrack.

agentdagnamit – Member
Definitely some bike-ban cheekiness going on there!

All of us were Chamonix first-timers, so it was genuine ignorance if we ended up riding any banned trails!

When we were there they were happily letting us take bikes on the Brevent lift so we assumed it was all good.

Also have to say, any walkers we did encounter were more than polite and seemed happy to share the trails (having said that, most were from the US or Australia and just seemed amazed we were actually willing to ride the paths we were “you’re really going to ride a bike down this?!?”). Who actually enforces the bans and how?