I’m the guy that wrote the book. Thanks so much for buying copies and supporting it; Chamonix is not the most straightforward place to ride a mountain bike, and the objective of the Bike Book is partly to dispel a few myths, but mostly to inform about the sick, sick trails available here.
Though there are some OK DH tracks here with berms, northshore & jumps, IMO what Chamonix does best is the freeride-type natural terrain that’s mostly ridden on a dual-chainring, 4.5″-7″ travel, slackish trail bike. And by natural terrain I mean singletrack walkers’ paths. The book tries to express the most creative ways to link up the walkers’ paths to get best use of vertical, to access the best features & most importantly to build good flow.
Of course, walkers’ paths means walkers, hence the bike restrictions in peak months. I’ve tried to find loopholes and snide shortcuts to produce some legit routes in July & August.
There are some notable exceptions, like the Holy Trail & Sick Track, which are both in nature reserves and not legal to mountain bike, although I don’t think anyone’s ever received a ticket for doing so.
Well, thanks again for buying the book. Makes doing it feel worthwhile. We’ve sold a pile to CHX locals already, and a couple of people are even using it as a checklist for their summer, ticking off rides as they do them! There are 34 mountain bike routes & 7 road bike routes in there. If anyone has questions a few people on here have bought the book already so I’m sure myself, the Sluff designers or existing customers will be more than capable to answer.