My first Alps trip:
Thursday – landed Geneva at noon and was out riding above St Gervais by 3. Took the Bettex bubble and then climbed to the top of Mont Joux. Singletrack forest descent was stunning but over in a flash and we then spent the next two hours climbing all the way back up. We saw two farmers during the whole afternoon, such a wonderful antidote to normal city life.
Friday we rode the PPDS. Started late due to a mechanical that required a shop visit but were soon touring the Alpine tracks in wonderful sunshine. I only started MTB about a year ago so this kind of riding required some quick learning. I had a fairly major off on my first descent. I grabbed too much front brake and washed the front at about 15mph. The bike went flying off the edge of the trail and got lodged in a tree about 20 feet down. Apart from gashes from the chainring, a sore hand and a bruised shoulder I was thankfully OK and miraculously the bike was fine (Boardman FS Team 2010)!
Riding with my great friend Ben, a very experienced biker with incredibly natural skill was so muh of a help. My confidence came back and I managed to use the first stack as a learning experience rather than an off-putting feak out!
I looked ahead a lot more and listened to Ben’s advice.
The rest of the day was a feast of varied trails, breathtaking landscape, welcome food stops and a real sense of adventure. Although fit (I ride road a lot) I found my brain was fried by mid afternoon; processing all the new skills on the often challenging terrain was a massive overload. It was a huge amount to take in for someone with so little off road miles under their wheels.
I thoroughly enjoyed 85% of the riding, endured 10% and was positively freaked out by 5% (the very steep, loose rocky bits). I expected these ratios to be a lot less favourable but following someone who seemed to read the tracks with such confidence and grace put me at ease and I felt fine once I’d learned to look well ahead.
The event itself was first class; incredible infrastructure, an amazing route, enough of a challenge to feel like a big day and loaded with more variety of terrain that I could imagine. Brilliant!
Saturday we climbed from Le Cuchet in Combloux all the way to the Croz Bollet. Huge effort of steep climbing and hike a bike (no lifts at all). Very different from previous day but a really great adventure of different sorts. I have ski-toured the route, so knew the way up. Ben couched me down the VERY steep top section and I was surprised how much fun the ultra-slow, bum off the back wheel, balance and line-choice style of descent could be. On the way up I kept thinking “I’m never going to cope with riding down this”! Again, hats off to Ben and his confidence inspiring, no-nonsense approach of taking it steady, looking ahead. Another brilliant day.
Sunday it rained but having dropped Ben at the airport I headed to Les Gets and retraced some of the PPDS routes. The conditions changed the riding massively and forced even more learning about planning, commitment and smooth flow. I did the 15k black XC route, then headed to Avoriaz and made sure that I took the descent into Morzine very steady so as not to repeat my Friday crash. The roots were a major challenge in the wet – the off camber ones requiring a massive amount of weighting the outer foot and leaning the bike in (the French locals made this look really easy). By the end of the last Red back down to Les Gets I was caked in mud but felt so much more connected to my bike than a few days before. If only I had another week or two out here I think I’d really start to get it.
I’ve spent a good amount of time in these mountians, ski touring, climbing and road riding and I am so excited to discover a new way of enjoying what this place has to offer. It really is an extraordinary part of the world. Majestic, powerful and awe inspiring. For me, pedalling up gives greater reward to the downs but using some lifts to link together a big adventure on bikes is definitely something I want to more of. So much fun to be had.
Thanks to STW for telling me about PPDS – I booked it on a whim following a report on here. Having thought that I may have made a big mistake an bitten off more than I could chew, I’m pleased to be returning home with a desire for more rather than a vow of ‘never again’!
Thanks also to Ben, who lurks on here, for making it all seem easier than it was.
