Alpine Mountain biking in May…

By Mike on 4:41 pm, 17 May 2011

We had a request from a couple of guys to head out and spend some time at Magic early this year.

So with some thought i said yes and we did our first uplift holiday in May.

We set our weekend up early leaving vans here and there so we could give the guys as much descending as possible with out too much pain of climbing. After all they were coming to the alps to get the best of the mountain and not spend their precious time slogging their guts out in exactly the same manner they could do in the UK. We were unfortunate on this occasion to get a fair stint of rain on the second half of the first day but it didn’t detract at all from our biking. We took a fairly relaxed first descent which took around two hours with everything in it from open grassy fields through deep forest to shale slopes steep enough to test the testosterone! After picking up the first van we headed to les Crosets in the Portes Du Soleil where we drove right up into the clouds as close tot he Mosset as possible. We descended from there all the way down to Champery heading down over open mountain and through Les Crosets it’s self, picking up a section of black DH track made slightly harder by the fact that it had only recently emerged from the snow and had no work since last summer. We then headed along a river side and then down through what could only be described as Alpine urban! We weaved through a series of tight foot paths and gullies worn in by walkers and people coming and going to their mountain side chalets and eventually popped out in Champery itself. A bit of lunch and headed out again. This time up to the Bassachaux. The rain was getting pretty hefty by now but we got on and headed to a little known track usually frequented by the locals. Having been there loads before I was surprised to find the top of it had been literally eaten by unimogs and bulldozers which made it a little difficult to navigate at first but after a stall near the top we got our bearings thanks to Scott (i’m so great!) Barton who spotted the entrance way down the side of the track. We were on our way. We decided to play it by ear due to the weather but at the bottom we decided to give the same track another go. Having done it once it was easy to give the guys a decent run at it without having to worry about direction or speed checking so we were down it in what seemed to be seconds! that was day one over with a few drinks at the Avalanche bar and some dinner at the R’mise. Everybody content, knackered and in bed by 10pm!

Day two. Saleve.

Well, we decided that due to the weather and the probability that Barboleuse would be water logged, we would go to Saleve and ride the cable car which is open from May to October. Fairly new to us anyway, the guys seemed up for a bit of adventure. The weather was great in the morning so we were already on a plus as it was snowing in Chatel! We also had a small problem as When I said ‘cable car’ Chris didn’t think I meant ‘cable car!’ so he was filling his shorts even before we found the trails!!! Getting to the top was nothing short of spectacular. The view over the valley floor, Geneva and Lac Leman was awsome. We were a bit unsure to start with where we were going but a friendly Saleve local rider gave us some pointers and off we went. On this particular day the surface was very greasy due to the heavy rain the night before but the trails there are fantastic. they are a wide mix of tech with roots to steep and there’s even some Roman steps half way down. We rode this for as long as we could then the rain set in again later in the afternoon which called a halt to our weekend. All in all I’m pleased with our first out of season mountain bike holiday and I think we managed to give the guys a good time. Back in town it was dinner at the Grizzlie a few more pints in the Av and crashed out. We took the guys back to the airport the next day and that was that!

Food for thought…

Spurring food for thought. Magic are thinking of putting together some out of season breaks at the end of the year. Feed back from the guys that came out is that some people who have kids and family commitments just cant get the time in peak season. It’s also expensive with flights etc. We think we have a great little product in the making and look forward to more back country holidays at the end of the year!