Gents

To my delight we’re off to the Alps for a few days in early July and have accomodation etc sorted. Does anyone have some guide recommendations please? Looking at chairlift assisted ‘free riding’ rather than ‘death defying 40 ft gap jumps,’ on the basis that we’re all over 40 and generally a bit hopeless. I suspect we’ll wind up with a split group of boozers v riders and there’as 8 of us.

Many thanks

Paul

Don’t know of any guides to recommend, but every time we’ve been out there we’ve just followed our noses and been fine… And I’m not the type to do huge jumps by any means 😀

Just get the map and follow the trails. There are loads of them, from singletrack through to DH/power ranger stuff. I’m there at the same time too 😉

Couple of years ago we used Lionel Synergie VTT who I can highly reccomend

I wouldn’t bother – use your sense of direction, most of the stuff you will find anyway, if you’re struggling, get down to Bar Robinson around 4pm & get talking to people, i’m sure most wouldn’t mind showing you the way round for a couple of beers.

Thanks fellas – the intention with the guide was just to get the most out of the riding in what’s a relatively short period of time.

If I’m using chairlifts I don’t want to be map & compassing as I get quite enough of that the rest of the time.

+1 for Lionel from Synergie VTT, used him last year in morzine took us on some cracking stuff that we would never have found.

get the decent pseudo OS map from the tourism office, think its costs a couple of euros, and get riding. It is better than the ski resort style trail maps, has all the stuff in the PDS on one map, and combined with the excellent way marking you could do the Passeport loop with no previous knowledge.

Been out there 9 times, didnt use or need a guide the first time and have never felt the need for one since.

I’d recommend following the Passeport route on one of your first days, you see all the PdeS region so can get a feel for where you want to revisit.

Most of the sneaky/cheeky/unofficial/unsigned trails are well known, I’m sure permanent guides have a few hidden gems but theres weeks worth of terrific riding out there and you’ll only scratch the surface on your first trip.

Jo from Ride ability:

Home

I would say you are not going to find the good bits by following your nose. First search on the web for GPX stuff, the VTT book and we got Jo to guide us as well. Samoens side is great.

Morize in the summer time….

sigh

🙄

Highly recommend Jo from RideAbility

Rachel

Another vote for Jo. I can see why some say you don’t need a guide but depends on what you want from the trip. We ended up in champery with Jo after loads of good xc style descents. Suited our group fine but he will tailor it to your needs anyway. We were all +40 and know our limits! It was a very full, long and memorable days riding.
Once you get your bearings then you can explore a bit.

Heard very things about Jo, also odds on there’s a brit with local knowledge in the chalet where you’re staying either running it or acting as chalet monkey… they seem to know everything.

ygm paul

Thanks Ladies & Gents –

Mr Gasket – YHM too.

Yours in a state of pre 42nd birthday excitement

Paul