Weathers pants – Time for Summer Alps trip planning

Goes something like this:

La Varda – The renown track at les Arcs that goes on and on and on from 2550m to about 1000m over a long distance.

Grand Sassiere – thought to be the highest rideable peak in the whole of the alps. We can use the cars to drive us to the car park at about 2000m and hike a bike to its peak at 3747m. Then finish with an amazing ride we did last year on the opposite side of the valley from Tignes and Val D’Isere which is all on walkers trails. It will be a good 50+km descent day and over 3km of vertical height loss, so early start!

Pila/Aosta – The legendary 2km vertical descent to Aosta, starts on a mad ridge, and finishes on a mad descent to Aosta, everyone loves it. The run from Pila itself to Aosta is 12km alone!

Death Ridge (Top bit)

Aosta run (bottom half)

La Thuile – New on the scene this one but great fun for xc bikes – We had a ball there last time. Think Alpine Trail Centre that is as natural as natural can be.

K2 Trail

Les Arcs – Black 8 Race the Funicular challenge – Pretty washed out trail but fast and fun

And the good old Red 7 to get warmed up on

To name but a few!

Cant wait!!!!!! (taken from an email i sent if you might be wondering why the descriptions)

Aaaaaand, the descent off the Zitteu Ridge in La Rosiere – my favourite!

Ah is that what you can ride back to Bourg? No one was up for a 6pm explore after a day at La Thuile last year, seemed a shame to all drive home

Yes, hop off the lift from Seez and follow the road around to the west at the same elevation – at the sharp corner hop through the gap in the wall and drop down the ridge, then go left and down through the trees – absolutely fabulous.

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After this bit you descend through pine forests all the way back to Seez, then a five minute whoop down the tarmac switchbacks to Bourg (if you haven’t gone up the Escudets lift for another go!).

By the way – there is a free bike bus from Bourg to Seez – you don’t have to drive or stop off on your way home from Tignes.

I’m sure I will be flamed for suggesting but but I thought La Vada was a bit over rated. Black 8/Red 7 are OK there are better variants around them.

Run from Tignes to St Foye (with a cheeky van lift in the middle) was great.
Descent from the Col du Petit St Bernard was great, as was exploring out the back of the Rosarie, La Thuile was ace. Some of my absolute favorites were out the back of St Foye some epic top to bottom runs with stops for Pizza 🙂

exploring out the back of the Rosarie

We didn’t do this last year but it’s on the agenda for this summer – just a little bit of climbing for a lot of reward, I’ve heard.

Ah yes! The Zitteu Ridge trail is from 3.24 in the Col du Petit Saint Bernard video! Excellent. Though yours is a bit quicker than me, yeah? 😉 😆

It was a good day out on both, we did a full top to bottom in St Foy then the Petit St Bernard, then another couple of van lifts on the way back to Bourg, Huge and awesome day.

Rosarie (the exploring vid is in there too) was great from the fort but we went point to point so I’m not sure how the route would link up without a magic van 🙂

Is that just a standard gopro chest mont mike?

I’ve got one on order

I wouldn’t recommend Grande Sassiere. I’ve walked it and don’t remember thinking at any point that I wished I had my bike with me.

Sure, it’s a nice tick, but it’s a lot of pain for really not much reward.

Without opening that particular can of worms, a lot of damage could be done by bikes to a very fragile environment too.

Anyone know La Plagne well?

We went last year and we were allbeit late in the season and not all lifts were open, but getting from Monchavin or coches was a nightmare. We got to the top of Plan Bois i think and then tried riding around to the Roche De Mio lift and gave up (massive climb and 33degrees).

So how on earth do you get to the Roche De Mio lift? Can you drop down to La roche and go up from there or should we have just started at La Roche as these aren’t connected to Monchavin area lifts?

Riding from the fenicular in Bourg to Champagny would be an epic day if its possible

Another vote for the Zitteu Ridge trail. Did that with White Room a couple of years ago. Great trail.

There’s another great section after the lift station/chalet/cafe too, that just requires a quick climb up the road. It drops you back virtually in Bourg. Dont know the name but Im sure Stevo will know.

Hoping to do it again this summer, but my mate wants to do the road climb instead 🙄

Anyone know if the Escudets lift open for bikes in the summer?

Chamonix > Col De Balme > Trient > Col De Balme > Chamonix

I enjoyed La Varda, a couple of short, unrideable sections for me near the bottom, but fantastic otherwise. Double Header at Les Arcs is good too.

Yes, Escudets lift is open in the summer – this is where the free bus drops you off.

I remember Double Header as being quite challenging. Really quiet round there, too!

Cheers Wallop, thats a massive help.

We will be in a camper enroute to La Thuile so assume we can park up at the bottom lift station get the lift up, do a couple of runs down Zitteu ridge and them my mate can do the road climb up Petit St Bernard whilst i drive over in the van.

Where does the bus drop you off, Seez or the lift station?

In which case we could park up at the campsite in Bourg and get the bus up, as other trail finishes opposite that.

Bus picks you up from the campsite and drops you off right by the lift.

It just gets better! 😆

Cheers for your help Wallop.

Apologies to OP for the slight hijack.

No worries. Let’s just hope the lift is running and the bus is on again this year!

By the way, when we drove over that Col to visit Courmayeur for the day, it was really cloudy. One of the scariest experiences of my life!