Does this link work better for you @timaaeee ? https://affichage-legal.saintgervais.com/LEGALView/api/web/consultation/PDF/64aea07043f0da1b44931353

The trail marked from near Prarion down to St Gervais town is now not allowed, and the trails to the thermal park (pipeline is another name for the main trail) are also included in the ban. There should be no biking signs at the start of the trails although they haven’t appeared yet. It’ll be hard to enforce them without the signs!

Megeve does not currently have any of these restrictions, nor Les Contamines, so still plenty to ride.

More frustratingly, the construction of the new telecabine from Le Fayet gare to St Gervais/Bettex is possibly going to mean the St Gervais lift isn’t going to run this summer :(

The ban covers a lot of the good trails, certainly a lot of the ones we use out of season, around St Gervais. Whether the ban is still in place by the summer remains to be seen as there are challenges on a few fronts, but the meeting with Peillex back in autumn went as well as expected so it seems his heels are dug in. The fine is probably the lowest order, I think €17, so not the most expensive run in with the gendarmerie but still an irritation!

Anyways, as easy to read it on singletrackmondefrance https://forum.velovert.com/topic/202916-interdiction-de-la-pratique-du-vtt-a-st-gervais-les-bains/

Hi @timaaeee pretty much everything is in this: https://chamonixbikeblog.com/2021/how-to-ride-a-bike-in-chamonix-2-021/ even if it’s a little out of date

But directly, yes the new Le Tour lift is very nice and fits bikes much better than the old one. And the best trails are still on the Vallorcine/Swiss side although there is a new bike ban compliant bike trail from Posettes which is handy (even if the walking trail is still better)

There might be snow up there still i mid June, some years there is, some years there isn’t. Last year was very poor for snow, so far this year has been terrible below 1800m (I was riding the DH bike on lifts on xmas day) but exceptional above 2400m. You just have to see how the season evolves. Fortunately you can avoid the areas the snow stays up Le Tour

The train is easy to use, a new transport operator has taken over public transport in the valley for 2024 however the train is mostly unchanged from a MTB perspective, 1 an hour, up to 5 bikes (more if the conductor is fine, most but not all are) and free with a Carte d’Hote between Servoz and Vallorcine, free from Le Fayet (St Gervais is the town above Le Fayet) and Chamonix with the lift pass.

St Gervais has some great riding, but can be hard to navigate and find the best of it. So obviously I would highly recommend a guide. Particularly me. To get over there, best to take either the Prarion or Bellevue lift at Les Houches, bike down to St Gervais, ride the stuff there, then return on either the Tramway du Mont Blanc (included in the Les Houches area bike pass) or the train from Le Fayet. Frustratingly the mayor of St Gervais (Jean-Marc Peillex, google him, some eccentric views….) has decided he no longer likes MTB’s, so has banned bikes from lots of the trails year round.

The Mont Blanc Unlimited pass covers St Gervais, Megeve and Les Contamines, but if buying day passes the day pass for the Portes du Mont Blanc (the above ski areas) then that’s way cheaper than any of the Chamonix passes and covers the full area.

Finally, the train from Chamonix to Les Houches is about 25 minutes, you can pedal it in less, it’s almost completely flat and can be done nearly completely on a cycle route.

Bim. Hope you have fun Tim

If you’ve got 48h in July then a day up at the Le Tour / Vallorcine end of the valley and a day at the Les Houches end will see you grand.

Up at Le Tour / Vallorcine the new Le Tour lift should be much easier to fit bikes in. Ignore any of the bike park trails on the Le Tour side. Also ignore any of the not bike park trails as July/August are the bike ban months and all of the trails there are off limits. The exception to this is the new Posettes trail which, whilst not quite as good as using the walking path all the way (you can still do that in June and September before anyone asks), at least uses a fair chunk of the walkers path and, more importantly, is not off limits in July and August. Round the back nearer the Vallorcine lift is a different commune, so no bike ban, less walkers, more fun. The Black DH track is great if you are happy on DH tracks, no obligatory wheels off ground. The new red is a very darkly shaded in red, but it’s a cracking trail and a great bit of building. Then there’s the classics down to Chatelard and Trient.

At Les Houches the bikepark has been on the Prarion side for about a decade now. We are in the process of rebuilding some of the old trails on the Bellevue side, but it’s complex with the nature of the terrain there so it’ll probably still be work in progress in July. There’s several great trails over on that side, but they tend to be more technical. The area under Prarion is now a bit of a maze of unofficial trails, think Pleney but a little less obvious as usually you need to leave the official trail to get to the trail heads. The trails off the back to St Gervais have been impacted by forestry work on the upper sections but tracks have been made through the debris and you should be able to follow the new lines easy enough. Tom’s “Hugh’s Way” is probably the mellowest way down to St Gervais, and as mentioned, hard to follow. Doing a lap to St Gervais is definitely worth it however, check out Jack Moir’s youtube channel for when he visited. Les Houches is the busiest area in the valley for riding, not that it’s ever that busy, and usually there’ll be someone to ask about the trails.

Saying all that, if you’re off to Grand Paradiso, just go a day early and ride Pila off piste instead. It’s what most of us Chamonix locals do on a day off. Hope you get some good climbing in!

“I do find it amusing that every time folk mention going to the alps out of season, nearly everyone responds with the lifts are closed.” Me too, but that’s because as an alps resident I can bike from lifts year round (weather permitting, frankly, who’d want to ride a bike right now when the snow is so good)

Obviously outside of the peak July and August months there’s not as much choice and some more creativity is needed, but the first week of September is probably the best week of the year for lift accessed biking in the western alps as most of the useful lifts are still open and the trails empty of walkers after the last weekend in August. September is also one of the driest months of the year and, along with October, the temperatures are prime for riding if you suffer from celtic genes and an aversion to hot weather. With each week from then there is less choice, but there’s still plenty to be done. Switzerland is better than France for lift openings (there’s more telecabines that count as public transport there, so open 365days a year), but France is still good if you look about a bit more.

Giving this a wee nudge as I’m curious about folk’s experiences too….

Between Ride the Alps, BikeVillage, Ben Jones / Endlesstrails, Basque MTB, TransProvence / Stone King Rallye and more, there’s no shortage of itinerant 6 day guided trips out there which take in some grand trails so there *must* be more STW’ers who’ve ridden them than this.

Or mibbies everyone had a thoroughly miserable time!?!

Cheers for the Beta on the airshaft @singlespeedstu and @racereadysuspension Further proof of how excellent the STW hive mind can be!

@honourablegeorge That is an fine and elegant solution, thank you!

Following from @chakaping ‘s recommendation, the Ixs flow light https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ixs-flow-light-knee-guards-2022/rp-prod209497 look ideal for this…. But I’ve never seen let alone tried a pair so hoping the singletrackworld massif has someone who has. I have the ixs flow evo+ as my pedally day out pads and they’ve fared pretty well over the last 3 years but need replaced. If the flow light is the same protection pad, but in a package that reaches higher up the leg, then it would be just perfect for me, and I suspect for bonni’s use too.

Don’t own either brake, so canny comment from that perspective, but I live in the French alps and I have plenty friends on both Mt5, Mt7 and Cura 4 brakes, and guided a few clients run either of those brakes too. The Formulas pretty much never give anyone any problems, are plenty powerful (with Trickstuff pads in particular, which last well too so it seems to add up costing about as much as cheaper pads) and aren’t too spendy (in France) and that’s across a variety of riding styles, rider weights and diligence to bike maintenance. But then, the maguras are pretty good too, so it’s not like going back to cantis! If I had to go out and get new brakes tomorrow with my own money it’d be Cura 4s, but alps riding isn’t the same as uk riding, so I wouldn’t put as much weight on that as the uk based recommendations above.

@seabadger I’d be really surprised if you had any issues with that approach (except for the push up from town to Bertone, which is hard going, only the section up to the col and around to Refuge Bonhomme is worse I reckon!) There’s a higher trail on the map that goes above the banned trail between Bertone and Leuchey. I have absolutely no info about it, walking guide friends haven’t seen it, but it could make it all easier. From there you shouldn’t have any problems other than the occasional grumpy walker, 99% of them are cheery as long as you’re stopping in at the side to pass each other.

Waiting for the restrictions to end should see you grand over on the Val Veny side, and the later you can leave the descent through Courmayeur to Dolonne the better, the lifts are open so you get a fair few folk taking the lift up and walking back to town, which makes the trail busy. It’s a right good trail, so it’s great if you can get it quiet!

@Rivett 21b is a great trail, I’m a little feart that the extra attention it’s getting due to the home run being closed might lead to problems a little down the line, but we’ll see. Most folk are just skipping the very first part of the home run and joining off the road crossing then using it for the way back to Aosta

Good holidays everyone!

@John_Key Well, this answers a number of questions. https://www.comune.courmayeur.ao.it/linea-diretta/novita/notizie/regolazione-circolazione-in-bici-mtb-e-e-bike
I’m 99% sure this wasn’t published online last week, as today was the first time it showed up in any of my searches, but eitherways, the maps will help answer you questions. There is still a legal, marked, MTB trail through Val Sapin from the Col. What I’m not sure about, nor are any of the other locals I’ve spoken to, is how to link Col Sapin with the TMB balcon trail between the Bertone and the Bonatti.

@tuboflard Wot agentdagnamit said! ;D And the new berger who has the grazing that the trail goes through is a rider, so hopefully the fences will be aligned slightly more bike friendly then they have been in the past. The trail over by the Logon refuge is really good for instagram, and surprisingly fun at the top, but soon ends up as a bit rubbish, then just rubble on the Pierre a Ric piste, with short detours off into the trees. The lift is back to being open 7 days a week after last season’s limited schedule, although it’s the shortest running lift in the Chamonix summer, closing again on 4th September.

In an effort to save thread drift, Has Aosta been mentioned for first timers? If you’ve got transport then a few days in La Thuile (like golfie but so much more) few days in Pila (like Les Gets, but better, and with some great off piste if you look on trailforks/strava) Cervinia (kinda like Les 2 Alpes, but better views) all mixed up, maybe with some pedalling or a day of guided shutteling would be a fairly amazing trip, not too dear with Italian food and drink prices, and not too difficult logistically. And Aosta city is a nicer place than Morzine to hang out post ride, although doesn’t have the same biker vibe or pro spotting potential.

@agentdagnamit Worth noting for Le Tour that it’s not just the front lifts that are closed but also the biking and walking trails that pass under the lift. The upside of this is that some extra bits of trail have been built over by Posettes so there’s now a trail to descend there to Le Tour village that’s legal through July and August. Which is nice.

Plan Joran, it’d be good wouldn’t it! I’ve not had the chance to ride up there yet this year, so maybe there’s something now, but I’ve not heard of anything in the grapevine. I’ve had a look about for other options to descend in the past…. The piste is definitely the best way down those first hundred meters or so of vertical to get to the good trails :D

I had forgotten about Bellevue lift in Les Houches, so that makes it 5 lifts, unless Grands Montets, Flegere and Brevent have since opened up for bikes. But even so, the lift system is definitely not good.

Yup, Grands Montets is open again for bikes, as is Brevent (Plan Praz technically, the upper lift is only open in for bikes in June, September and depending on the year October and November), so during July and August it’s just Flegere that’s not, and this season the 2 front face lifts at Le tour whilst the new lift is built, but the Vallorcine lift still is, so 6 if you include the Tramway du Mont Blanc which is part of the Les Houches 3 lifts.

My point wasn’t very well made, but when folk say “Morzine” they don’t mean the 3 lifts that make up Morzine, they mean the wider Portes du Soleil area, and it’s the same for Chamonix. There’s a fixation with the lifts straight out of town when the lift pass covers a huge interconnected area of great trails.

Les Arcs is good too, as in the wider Bourg St Maurice area that incorporates Les Arcs, like superfli says, definitely best with transport although depending on your budget, a guided trip with theinsideline/bikevillage etc could be better value as you’ll get shuttled about to the right place and not have to worry about lost time being lost trying to find the best trails.

I wouldn’t describe Chamonix as having ‘good lifts’. There are really just four lifts for bikes (Les Houches chairlift and Vallorcine bubble which are currently open and then (not open this summer) (the Le Tour bubble and then chair lift) with a 30 minute drive between Les Houches and Le Tour. And then there’s the fight to get on the train back from St Gervais if there are more than 6 bikers wanting to get on…and a 1 hour wait for the next train (been there, done that!). Yes, some fantastic natural singletrack but logistically a bit of a faff for a first-time Alps rider. Though I’m sure a lot of that faff would be removed if you had a guided trip there.

Hmm, I’m not sure I’d agree with Chamonix only having 4 lifts…

I rode all of the bike legal lifts on the Chamonix Mont Blanc Unlimited lift pass in a mid August day a few years ago. All 14 of them, 124km of riding, 10,000m of descending. http://www.chamonixbikeblog.com/2018/all-the-lifts/

I’d agree it’s more complex than Morzine, and not a family friendly resort for biking, but theres plenty of good riding and a lot of lifts to ride, even during the Bike Ban months of July and August there’s Balme (Vallorcine and Le Tour) Grands Montets, Brevent for a lap after 16.00 and the lifts at Les Houches. And the train which can be 1000m of uplift.

But for an alps first timer, yeah, Morzine. Or if cash is less of an issue and you really like the Golfie trails, Verbier.

@John_Key That climb (like so many in the alps I guess) is easier than you’d think from the way down, or at least, the memory is very good at blacking out the climb and just remembering how good the subsequent descent is…. :D
Unfortunately it is one of the trails that got restricted last year, but the mayor’s note that came with the restriction did say that they are not against biking and they were going to construct a new path for bikes and ebikes through that area too, so it’s quite possible that’s happened, just not been published yet. I’ve got a few walking guide friends out on the TMB just now, so I’ll hear of anything new in Val Veny soon

@John_Key Yup, exactly that. It may also turn out to be possible to traverse to the Bertone refuge then continue up the ridge and round to the Col Sapin, but it’s unlikely. I imagine the Courmayeur commune will publish info in the next week or so that will clarify all this, until that point there’s no official ban, so it’s not a problem!

For the Val Veny side, if you’re descending from Col de la Seigne then you have a fairly brutal, but totally worth it, push / hike a bike out the valley floor a few km after the Elisabetta refuge which then traverses on an amazing balcon track below the Arp and into the Courmayeur ski area before descending on great singletrack to Dolonne. Where there just happens to be one of the better pizza restaurants in Courmayeur….

@tuboflard If you’ve not been for a few years, then yup, you need to get back, a lot of things have changed in the valley, a fair bit of it thanks to Timmy at the Les Houches Bike Crew https://leshouchesbikecrew.com/

@tuboflard Pretty much, it’s the same start and middle, but the exit to Montroc (which could, without doubt, be described as Root City!) has always been banned as it passes through the Aiguille Rouge National park so obviously I wouldn’t know anything about it… (although guiding it is pretty cheeky)
There’s a variant that, not long after you hit the tree line, turns off left and heads to Le Tour, and is much more flowy than the Root City option. Eitherways, there’s now a built MTB trail that uses a mix of itinéraire partager (where walkers and bikers are encouraged to play nice on the same trail) and dedicated walking and MTB tracks to go down to Le Tour. The line to Le Tour has been ok to bike outside the July – August MTB ban, and now it’s fine to use the MTB route in July and August too. Slight complication for this year is that the Le Tour gondola is being replaced, so the trails that go under it are all closed, and there’s no uplift on that side of the hill

The implication was that it would just be 2021 whilst new trails were built for the bikes.
Handily, I rode the balcon trail between Refuge Bonatti and Refuge Bertone today, and there was a no biking sign ready to be put up near the Refuge Bertone, I guess for the 1st week of July as per last years ban. HOWEVER, there there was a sign at the end of the Bertone-Courmayeur descent for the MTB route via Col Sapin. It adds about 450m climbing to go via the col, but it also means you go even higher so you get even better views, every cloud etc…

I’ve not been into Val Veny this summer, so not sure what’s happened there.

In other about here access news, the home run from Pila to Aosta is closed indefinitely until a solution is found to a landowner liability problem, and a new VTT route has been built along the Posettes trail in Chamonix so a variation on that descent will be allowed all summer.

You could drive, or you could take the poste bus up pretty much the same height as the top of the telecabine to save the problems of getting the car back. You’re looking for the Le Chable – Mayens line, it goes from the train station/Le Chable to Verbier telecabine parking. https://www.postauto.ch/fr/horaire?from=Le+Ch%C3%A2ble+VS%2C+gare&to=Mayens+de+Bruson&date=20.06.2022&time=19%3A32&datetimeType=ED&via=&vehicleTypes=BUS%2CCABLE%2CTRAIN%2CTRAMWAY%2CBOAT&getJourney=true

I’ve not been up yet this season, so the rules might have changed, but the road is usually closed to motorised vehicles not far after the bus drop off point anyways, so you’ll need to do near 1000m climbing whichever way you do it (or ignore the closed sign and drive up anyways, penalties are a fine and ire of the locals) but it’s 100% worth the effort, proper smashing trail.
If the bus seems too much like logistics, try Jarno at http://trailtaxi.ch/ for shuttles. Unfortunately Bike Verbier aren’t doing uplifts/holidays etc any more :-(

Ooo! Been while since there’s been a post I’ve felt I can help with…

You’ve got 2 grand suggestions in there which I can recommend a tweek to:
Tour Des Combins variation. Except I’d fly to Geneva then get the train to Orsieres just up from Martigny (and if times add up, consider taking the post bus up from there to the Grand St Bernard pass, and staying in the monastry which is a pretty unique experience, not too expensive and if you ask very nicely, you might be able to leave stuff there, although it would mean you’d have to take the more boring descent back down to Orsieres. I’d also say the refuges, though Swiss and not the cheapest, are worth it to save carrying the extra weight on the bike, those few kg’s would really make themselves felt when you’re climbing to near 3000m… I dragged Sanny round it in 2019 maybe, he wrote up the story in Singletrack a couple years back.
TMB, definitely doable in 4 days including flying in and out if you’re cracking on, and September is the best time to do it. Basically, if you feel you’re falling behind schedule you can shortcut along the road on the valley floor most of the way round, or hop on the train on the swiss side back to Geneva and just miss the final day past Champex Lac to Chamonix

Skiidy and Getaway Vans are both based in the PdS and very reliable. Easybus and Alpybus also exist and are much cheaper, but you might want to have a wee google for reviews before booking. Or public bus via Cluses and/or Taninges. Regrettably Skiidy are phasing out their sombreros :-(

@bikesandboots It’s near Flaine and Samoens, I took the picture. Except I’m this guiding company http://alpineflowmtb.com/ instead of Wayne’s https://www.chamonixmtb.com/ As you can see, the competition between us is totally cut-throat…

@speedstar Currently running. Ran Guide RE (Guide lever with old Code caliper) since mid 2017 (I’m a guide, so between the 2 pairs I’ve had, that’s over 1 million meters of down [yes, I keep a record, sad innit] so I am pretty sure they got well tested) and was a fan but the lack of tweekability of bite point could be annoying as they aged and the cheap guide lever just doesn’t feel as nice as the machined and higher tolerance Hope lever. I managed to damage both levers a couple months ago, wanted a change, and Hope were able to live up to their great reputation for customer service. Same fluid, it’s an easy swap. You get a softer lever feel than full E4’s, but I believe more power. Without putting the hybrid setup on a dynometer it’s hard to tell, but the old Codes do better on dyno testing for power and head dissipation than the Hopes, and anecdotally from watching clients and other riders in the alps that would seem to bear out in real life, although there’s likely a bit of personal bias in there from me liking what I have.

@allanoleary You might want to have a quick check on the Hope integrated clamp shifter position. I run fairly flat levers and couldn’t get the shifter round far enough for comfortable gear changing and ended up putting on the separate SRAM clamp to get the ergonomics right. But, it could be in exactly the right position for you!

…..or, if you’ve got the time and patience to wait for parts, mix a hope lever with a code caliper to have the best bits of each brake! Fancy looks, rebuild-ability and adjustability of the Hope on the bars, and reliability and power of the Code down by the disk.

The interrail tickets are a great way for getting about europe, I use them from France, including to go visit family back in Scotland, with the X days in XX period tickets you get 2 days travel in your home country so although they’re not a solution to commuter woe they still work a bit! Flaws are you need to pay an excess to use the channel tunnel, and a booking fee for the TGV. If you can book well in advance its cheaper to do that for the TGV and tunnel, otherwise the flexibility of the ticket makes it a winner. As for taking the bike, it seems to be frustratingly difficult (or expensive) on many continental services, however if the bike happens to be in a bike bag, it doesn’t seem to be the same issue….
The obvious next step of the journey would be along the med into Italy and San Remo, Finale etc, then up to the alps, but there’s so many possibilities, kinda jealous! For the journeys across multiple countries I find the Austrian OBB website the easiest to make bookings (worth it on the busy legs if you’re doing a 9hr journey to make sure you get a seat), with a bit of help from the amazing seat61 website to work out what trains to use. Overnight trains can be a handy way to save cash on accommodation if they exist for the bit of the journey you’re doing.

@the00 It’d be really interesting to see that full list of bikable 3000’ers, especially as one persons bikable is another persons evening infront of the screen watching Danny MacAskill…
I can think of plenty of trails that are above 3000m but not that many that start from a peak.

An Airdrop Edit? Ticks most of the boxes and you can change the spec to tweek it even more towards what you need. The lux model was just under the 3k mark when in stock… https://www.airdropbikes.com/collections/airdrop-edit/products/edit-v4-luxe

@nedrapier Haha, that predictable!?! I don’t think the lad in the video rode much of the down there… Papy has a penchant for riding hills that are rubbish to ride, until recently on a old GT DH bike, or the worst possible bike to carry up there in the first place. He’s ticked off the Argy glacier and plenty gravelly peaks in Switzerland, and after a bit of searching, the Bishorn 4153m (13625 foot / 80 Nelsons columns for the imperialphiles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR7lLcCLRX4

It doesn’t exactly meet the “trail” requirements though!

Doesn’t help directly as I replaced my V2 with a V3, but the large V3 has a lot in common with the V4, so I’ll throw in a few comments anyways.
I’m a MTB guide in Chamonix, so I ride exclusively longer, steeper terrain (if it helps with trails I’ve guided for Bike Verbier, Ben Jones MTB and The Inside Line as well as my own private work) except when I go on holiday to flatter places like Finale or BC or visit family back in Scotland.
If I was riding mostly in Scotland I’d go for the air shock for the extra “pop” and adjustability between pedaly days and more downhilly days, but in the alps the coil is a no brainer. It’s not the lightest bike, although for me much of that is the build (DH or DD tyres, inserts etc etc) and I’ve been happy to pedal it for up to 2500m a day (ok, happy is perhaps the wrong word, but that’s more to do with my legs than the bike) basically you won’t be fastest up the hill, but it goes up with very little effort. And on the down it’s more fun than any bike I’ve played on. I’m 185cm tall and ride the L, I’ve got no desire to ride the XL even though it’s in my size range, BUT I prefer slightly shorter bikes than some and like the maneuverability for some of the real interesting tech, flat out speed isn’t as important to me, though if it was the XL would be my choice.
For reliability I can only add anecdotal evidence. I sold my v2 with 770,000m of descending on it to a MTB newbie who is also quite a good skier, obviously he took to MTB like a duck to water and the V2 is nearing about 1 million m of alpine descending. That is quite a solid performance for any bike. The V3, thanks for France’s quite severe lockdowns and winter, has had only 6 months use, but still done about 50,000m of up and 225,000m of down. The full strip and rebuild last month only took an afternoon as none of the bearings needed replaced (it was a fairly dry summer and i didn’t wash the bike much), in fact over the whole bike I just needed to bleed fluids and service the forks (lyric ultimates, that needed to go to SRAM for a little warranty work, but all done very easily)
I get my bikes on a bit of a deal from Airdrop, but no better a deal than being a French MTB guide gets me on Pro Forma from most of the bigger bike companies so it is a choice to ride the bike, albeit my opinion is not without bias. Hope that helps!

@40mpg The VB got ridden back in the 80’s, pre fat bike and no word on whether everyone survived the many holes on the way down…. And at 3842 for the top of the station it’s not much over the Grande Sassiere. Riding out through the gates onto the arete would be, err, committing though! A group fatbiked down from the new Skyway lift a couple winters ago, a bit lower in height again but still a brave choice. I think Papy Millet rode Gran Paradiso 4061m a couple autumns back, but it’s not a trail. Or a good idea for most!

Give it another few years of glacial retreat and rising snowline and I’m sure the Grande Sassiere will have some more competition, but it’s the highest actual trail rather than line in the snow I can think of in the western alps, but the alps are a big place so I’m interested to see what others come up with, the Caucasus are part of europe aren’t they?

Hi Ali, it’s not mentioned in this advice note from Track and Flow (or any other advice note I’ve read) but do you know of any advice for UK citizens resident in the EU who wish to guide outside of their EU country of residence? Or for an example, if you wanted to guide in Switzerland or Italy. It seems the rules are different depending on whether you are based in the UK or the EU….

In the UK/CH services agreement it applies to:

“For the purpose of this Annex, “service supplier of the United Kingdom” means:

(a) a national of the United Kingdom who is established in the territory of

the United Kingdom and seeks to provide a service in the territory of

Switzerland; and

(b) an employee, irrespective of his or her nationality, who is integrated into

the regular labour market of the United Kingdom and is posted for the

provision of a service in the territory of Switzerland by his or her

employer established in the United Kingdom”

So basically EU based UK national guides fall between this agreement and the EU/CH agreement which is for EU citizens only, so in theory we can’t guide there. This is already affecting UK citizen but EU resident mountain guides who have tried to get their work permits sorted for guiding in Switzerland.

Similarly in the EU/UK trade agreement the UK parties are described as:

“a legal person constituted or organised under the law of the United Kingdom
and engaged in substantive business operations in the territory of the United
Kingdom;”

Which would suggest the same situation as with Switzerland, however when you get deep into the annexes there are lists of exceptions to the agreement (from ANNEX SERVIN-3: BUSINESS VISITORS FOR ESTABLISHMENT PURPOSES, INTRA-CORPORATE TRANSFEREES AND SHORT-TERM BUSINESS VISITORS and same text in ANNEX SERVIN-4: CONTRACTUAL SERVICE SUPPLIERS AND INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONALS)

“For greater certainty, for the European Union, the obligation to grant national treatment
does not entail the requirement to extend to natural or legal persons of the United Kingdom the
treatment granted in a Member State, in application of the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union, or of any measure adopted pursuant to that Treaty, including their implementation
in the Member States, to:
(i) natural persons or residents of another Member State; or
(ii) legal persons constituted or organised under the law of another Member State or of
the European Union and having their registered office, central administration or
principal place of business in the European Union.”

So it could be the agreement covers trying to guide in Italy, or maybe it’s another spot where we fall between the cracks. All fun and games eh!

Also, cheers for the thread and detailed explanation Ali!

If it’s any help to anyone wondering whether to try declaration or equivalence, if you go for the equivalence route then currently your qualification and experience will be considered, rejected as not equivalent to the French qualification, appealed on your behalf, then you’ll be offered to sit a 1 or 2 day test (free of charge) which if you pass you will be granted the French qualification. As neither the brexit deal nor the UK/Swiss deal struck at the start of December include recognition of qualifications, then having the French qualifications means that say you want to work at later date in Switzerland or Aosta, then having your qualification recognised is a formality, it’s just the actual right to work in these countries you need to worry about the paperwork for. I realise in theory having your UK qualifiaction recognised in another EU country should be as simple as Ali has explain above, but having an EU qualification already will make it much simpler, and currently no one really knows how it’s going to work in Switzerland as outdoor professionals across several sports are currently trying to get our access to Switzerland sorted and it’s not going as easily as it did 12 months ago.

“What would a self driving car do in this situation? Hit the jogger or hit a third party head on? 😉”

Anticipated the jogger might move onto the road and change to an appropriate speed, likely brake sufficiently to avoid injury, or swerve only as much as required, communicate with the self driving white van heading in the other direction to make sure they slow down too.
Or if we just get a self driving jogger then the whole situation could have been completely avoided….

Aye, you’ll be grand with that set up as long as you don’t drag brakes all the way down, and if you do then there’s no set up out there that won’t fade, then squeal, then smell like a dying clutch. Have fun, it’s a great route, mibbies the best round trip MTB ride in the alps…..?

Thanks Burchy1

Two very different views of the trails that could be lost behind Les Houches…

Dan Milner’s weekend ride to hit the trails maybe the last time: https://www.instagram.com/p/CG25_Rni9CN/

And 50to01 visiting in the summer, from 3mins in all the forest stuff is Les Houches, although the trails in the last minute or 2 are the most threatened: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/video-the-50to01-crew-head-to-the-italian-alps-for-a-wild-riding-adventure.html

@sharkattack “Anyone know where that ridgeline is?”

99% sure it’s the terrain below Flaine / above Passy and Sallanches in Haute Savoie, gets used in plenty trail running and wingsuit edits. VTT, not so much….! Some other stuff inn there filmed in Haute Savoie too, but it’s a pretty wide ranging video, almost like they did a tour of, erm, France.

@mindmap3 Yup, there’s way more bad news stories on the internet than good news, but it’s just because nobody really bothers typing up the stories of when everything was fine. Hopefully the many “it was fine” comments above will have given you hope, and 6 to 8 weeks off the bike now is nothing in a few months time, you’ll forget all about it. Just make sure to take control of your recovery and if needed have an extra week or 2 off. I’ve had a great time skiing, biking and climbing across my years, but these days I’m wishing the teenage Grum p had had a bit more consideration for older Grum p and paid a bit more attention to healing properly before going back out on the bike…