I thought you might like to see a few clips taken from a flip camera from our 3dayer with Trail Addiction

You Tube

If you feel like a trip to the alps, beginner or superhardcore gnarltasticfreerider then don't hesitate going with those guys; they deliver in spades. Great fun at your pace.

God it sounds like I work for them! (I paid in full!)

Nice video, looked like nice riding too….

Stone them, stone them, they did skids!!! 🙂

should be there with them (again) on sat.. WAHHOOOOOOO!!

oh was ash there.. on his single speed dialled alpine?

if your watching the video the first bit is the DH course (on the lift)..
second is black 8

is the second clip on Black 8?

man i wish i was going back this year 🙁

what was the weather / trails like? was told there was a bit of rain recently

Week on saturday for me and the boys!!

and to think I thought I might be over dressed!!!

did you do lavarda?

best.trail.ever.

keith, you'll be just fine, shame i won't be able to LOL @ neil and marky (apart from puttin gmy phone into arabic 👿 ), watch roger he will just mince along anyway and blaim his saddle or seatpost as usual!! push john off though please… 😉

lavarda is good as are the lakes, as is grange hill (only one foot down all the way, pat was gutted i didn't get all the way to be the bottom, was on the last hairpain/boulder bit)

think i cleaned grange hill the second time down

more through bloody mindedness than skill though

love/hate the start of grange hill!! (the angle of the ground and the narrowness) there is a BADDDD photo of me there, it's a group photo, some of mr Whathaveisaidnow friends appear to have their willies out over the shoulder of me and another fella!!

(i think Whathaveisaidnow is keith, sorry if it is not)

I think we did the best hits over three days and pretty much nailed everything very fast. There is a clip in there (the steep rock drop thing) that is totally off piste; we climbed a waterfall to access it.

It rained at night, which was a good thing as it subdued the dust a bit.

I have some helmet and bikecam footage from the mega coming up soon that is pretty tasty.

*looks for a DV firewire cable

trailaddiction are great, ben is a top guy, his expression when i told him i only had one functioning eye was great!!

love the story of ben and the group who were really slow, he was trying to speed them up (ben is the DH guy and gets the fastest bikers) they got bored of being behind and getting lost, so they zip tied a cow bell to his saddle.. he left it there and rode the 3 days with it, ringing, still couldn't stop getting lost..

ash, nice fella, pat funny as ****! sharp as a razor, good food too and chalet.. (the posh one)

Rode that a few weeks ago. And yeah the film (as usual) doesn't show how steep it is. Fun little trail though.

Plus the wild strawberry's on the side of that trail are awesome. 8)

Looks good. Who's out there guiding? Didn't recognise the guy in the full face – or is that Andy?

Nice little clip.

Recognise a lot of the trails.

Correct Fozzy!

oooh bin yow?

That photo sounds horrific, and what with everyone called Bert or Tone, it's knowing who to bleddin blame?

If you want a good guide and base in that area try The White Room. Steveo and Iona have a great set up.

At the top

Hop over the stream

Moody

Milo on his front wheel – He actually recovered from this!

Smoking into a corner

JonEdwards Didn't recognise the guy in the full face – or is that Andy?

nope andy is working in Afan's bike shop! we saw him last week (he lives at the bottom of whites trail on the oppersite side, recently moved there), when we went he kept falling off.. should have seen the state of him by the end of the week, he truely was black and blue!!

Some of the best trails ever. Really need to get out there again next year.

Whathaveisaidnow
Correct Fozzy!
oooh bin yow?
That photo sounds horrific, and what with everyone called Bert or Tone, it's knowing who to bleddin blame?

yup bert n tone had winkies out!!! to be fair we had to zoom in soooo much to see bert's!! thought it was his little finger.
neil and mark are big kid's i was crying with laughter in the resturant.. pepper in eyes, passing the glass jar around…

(i'm jon's bro)

Alistair was guiding us; he is pretty fast, we tended to kinda… um… 'pass the other groups at speed' if you know what I mean.

Ash took us down Lavarda on the first full day, which was interesting.

Mike – how about a CF return next year, I'd be up for that again but no cheese for Elliot this time

2 weeks tomorrow then its 8 days of skidding on the Arc

woot !

8)

ohh Alistair, i'm going with the GF this year so i'm not going balls out (looking forward to a more considered line choice than flat out riding) plus end of the week she'll be kicking ass i think… so would consider black/white 8 and maybe the venhicular challenge too 😀

Ah – didn't meet Ali last year, and Ben had wrecked all his bikes by the time we were out there so didn't ride with him either.

Did you do Poundstretcher?

Lavarda first day.. wow none of TA routes are hard but it is a mind job the first day trying to get yourself into the "forget about the left hand side drop" thoughts…

that whole area has so much fast singletrack, the venhicular challange was left until the thursday, completed to quiet a few "not again this trip" comments from my brother and I….

did lavarda again at the end of week 2, it was actually harder the second time as despite being a lot more skilled and stronger/fitter from 2 weeks solid alpage i think knowing what was coming made it harder!

not suprised ben had trashed his gear.. he had a new bullet i think and it was 2 week old and already getting running repairs..

Poundstretcher nope.. will ask about that one…

we did "no brakes"… some of the tightest switchback's i've done ever (black 8's are nothing compaired to those buggers) you have to stop, weight on the front and lift the rear over and around..

and not suprisingly we had no brakes at the bottom.. 😀

i thought no brakes was the trail parallel to the road on the way down to the fenicular/bourg which you had to try and do without using your brakes. I think i know the one you mean, there's one particular switchback whic Ash hadn't managed to ride yet when we were out there (made worse by the fact that melissa HAD ridden it i think)

mrmichaelwright – Member
Mike – how about a CF return next year, I'd be up for that again but no cheese for Elliot this time

Sounds like a plan. I've been harbouring this idea of doing a joint TA/Dialled Bikes hardtail week in Les Arcs, but I need a kick up the arse to make it happen. I'll mention it to Ash once he gets this season out of the way and maybe we can plan something.

p.s. I hated La Varda. If I want to concentrate that much, I'll sit an exam! 😉

consider this a kick up the arse 🙂

was always told no brakes was so called as you had no brakes by the bottom, there is NO WAY you could ride the one i am on about without braking.

ash was trying to do the stone switchback again when we were there… nutter…

i clipped a pedal on Lavarda BIG rock on the right (bar height and 2m + big) drop to the left, i clipped it as i pedal'd out of a corner, launched me in the air.. balls and TT moment was painful but better than a trip down the left LOL then i had ash say "we've only lost one person down there in 5 years!" hahahahahahahah GIT 😈

i think ash dropped that one in on the REALLY exposed switchback/step/death bit after the wet off camber rock. certainly tightens up the reactions*

*sphincter

OK MW, I'll try to be a bit more pro-active about making it happen next year. Gives me an excuse to treat myself to a nice new Kwaka green Alpine.

Back country day on a hardtail would rock. Not too sure about Arc 2000 though!

I only had one real off when my brain switched off on one of the switchbacky trails back to the chalet where, as one of our crew said, my brain got tired and I slipped off an easy corner and pitched over the bars. I managed to stop myself falling a fair way down some nasty rocks by grabbing a passing sapling.

As far as trail names go.. I have no idea.. Alistair just pointed and we rode I think I remember him saying that no-brakes was called that as it had sections where you needed to be off the brakes to clear some stuff.

er, i'm off to Les arcs in a couple of weeks, i'm skint and can't afford guiding, any suggestions?

"use lift X, head left/right for XXXm, look for a XXXXX, follow your nose, can't go wrong, etc." would be good…

(looking for techy singletrack rather than full-speed Dh tracks)

?

mrmichaelwright – Member

i think ash dropped that one in on the REALLY exposed switchback/step/death bit after the wet off camber rock. certainly tightens up the reactions*

*sphincter
thats the one… i struggled to walk it…

grannies garden… she waved at us… made my day that did!

ahwiles you can get a map with the trails on..