Trails in Les Arcs – compared to Morzine??

Trying to persuade my g/f that we should enter (or apply to enter) the Enduro2 race next year in Les Arcs in July, but wondered how the trails compare to Morzine/Les Get/Chatel etc. for difficulty?

Anyone ridden both areas and can compare? We’ve done Morzine a few times now so are fairly well acquainted.

Ta, R

Very different. Very little man made stuff in LA.

Lot of natural stuff, a lot of exposed trails, more slower speed tech than flat out DH.

Les arcs is great, I prefer the riding to Morzine (but Morzine has more going for it as a holiday destination IMO). However you need to be guided to get the best out of Les Arcs, personally I would recomend a guided week there before jumping into racing in the area.

Hob Nob, can you tell us any more about the lifts there? You’ve made the trails sound interesting and as I’ve done Morzine four years in a row I feel it’s time for a change. I’ve no interest in racing the enduro though.

Hob Nob, can you tell us any more about the lifts there? You’ve made the trails sound interesting and as I’ve done Morzine four years in a row I feel it’s time for a change. I’ve no interest in racing the enduro though.

We went with Trail Addiction a few years ago, as it’s mostly ‘off piste’.

I would need to look at a map to re-acquaint myself with the area, but the odd train from the bottom of the valley takes you up to the normal lift zone & there was a handful of lifts in Arc 1800/2000 area you can use in the summer.

The trails were great though IMO. I’d go back – there was plenty to ride there. It is a total ghost town compared to Morzine though.

We went there for our first ever Alps trip last summer. We couldnt afford to go guided, but with a bit of research on Strava etc, we managed to make a great week of the signed stuff and the off-piste stuff. Depends if you like doing that type of research or not though, as know it would be some peoples worst nightmare. The riding is really good and the lifts well connected. And you can drive over to La Thuile as well which is also excellent.

It is a total ghost town compared to Morzine though.

I’d stay in Borg and its easy to get the train up to the lifts and all included in the ticket price.

There’s a reasonable amount of park/waymarked stuff too but nobody really talks about it because it’s only decent, and the offpiste is better. I reckon Les Arcs’ real strength is as a base rather than just riding there- you’re within a sensible drive of Pila, La Thuile, Tignes and Val D’isere, and all sorts of other less simple stuff like the beaufortain and sainte foy.

TBH, I’ve always been guided there- I’ve done some riding around solo but all based on what I’ve learned from guides. I think it’s the sort of area that guiding’s good value- basically lets you squeeze more out of every minute. But ymmv.

ahsat – Member

I’d stay in Borg

Residence is futile!

Went to Les Arcs this summer instead of Morzine for the first time.

I liked the way-marked stuff, I prefer fast and flowy over slow and technical, and it’s worth saying we had the worse weather in years (so I’m told) it’s usually much more sunny and dry than Morzine.

There are Enduro runs and DH runs, DH runs are pretty straight forward and fast, Enduro I found harder but as above they’re less to my taste.

We had a great guide to show us the off-piste stuff but I really didn’t like it – I was doing okay till missed a OTB fall into a sea of rocks by the skin of my teeth and lost my bottle, plus arms held together with plating and good intentions mean lots of braking and feeding the front over rocks and roots hurts me. Most of my mates enjoyed it though.

Unlike Morzine you can’t really ride the same trail twice on the bounce, you need to map a bit of a loop out to get back to the lift. More fun for it I think.

We’ve been debating if we’d go again next summer, I think if the weather had been better this year it would be an easier sell, but we spent a week soaked, wearing as much winter kit as we could find, it was -2 and snow bound at the top and maybe 15c and pouring with rain at the bottom.

Off the bike it’s no Morzine, towns are dead, Borg isn’t much of a tourist town and even though the resort villages are close to Borg as the crow flies it’s a 90 round trip in the Car / Van.

Chalk and cheese. In comparison to Les Arcs, Morzine/Les Gets doesn’t have any actual mountains. Imdon’t recall too many (any ?) places in Morzine where if you fell you’d die 😯

As an aside I think the bext Enduro 2 is in Davos (Switzerland) based on fb posts from TA.

IMO the way to do LA is on a guided hokiday. Aside from local knowledge (most trails aren’t marked as such) they will probabiy have some van uplifts too. Note local knowledge saves you going down something way above your ability and/or deadly. Guide will also stop and warn you of certain features (like ffs don’t fall to the right here or probably best to get off and walk this bit)

FYI I suffer from vertigo so have an active imagination as to how I might fall to my death

I’ve done both at la , my first time in 2012 we rode marked stuff , was ok but got boring , sept we did a week with bike village , great bunch , was a little too much climbing for my fitness level but the trails were great , 4.5 hours of solid single track descents !!!

I effing love the trails around les arcs, Bourg st Maurice is where to stay, I like the town, it is nothing special but loads of outdoor stuff in the area, and a nice pool. Less rouristy than morzine. There are great man made bike trails and the non mtb specific trails which is what most go for. If you want more man made go up to tignes, 40mins drive, which has my fave man made stuff anywhere. Funicular to Les arcs from Bourg takes 10 mins

I think the variety of riding round Les Arcs is better than Morzine as others have said; more off piste options with the bike park options too, and free (or at least to be free) lifts up at Tignes which has got some excellent man made stuff.

Definitely look at stopping in Bourg as others have said, dead easy getting the funicular up in the morning.

Sorry, double post. Opinion still stands though…!

Can’t comment on Morzine vs Les Arcs really but can comment on Enduro 2 as I’ve done it the last few years.

This year they are running 2 one in LA and another in Davos, with Davos billed as the easier one according to the website. They have also moved the LA one back a week so you would be able to ride for a few days before the race.

It uses a mix of waymarked blues/reds which weren’t technically difficult as well as a range of old walkers paths which ranged from smooth swoopy singletrack to rock infested wet mess. It’s all rideable by a competent rider, I think the bit you’d need to decide on would be whether you were genuinely racing it or whether it was an event to enjoy together.

^^ top info thanks

Thanks all, sounds like Les Arcs is a place I’d like to visit sometime, with a guide. Will let the g/f know.

Morzine/PDS gets shot down too much for being too man made/ bike park

There’s an unbelievable wealth of natural stuff there, and it’s not hard to find.

Timely post just popped up on Facebook

Timely post just popped up on Facebook

Of which 90% is the Pleney off piste, which is so far removed from your average PDS rider, they can’t even make it down the ‘squid stopper’ at the trail head.

If people are comparing the gravity biased trail riding of LA to that, they are going to be in for one hell of a shock.