bikes and things

I’ve been going to Les Arcs for a summer mountainbiking trip since 2004 with my good friend Gavin. A number of others have joined us over the years but Gav and I seem to have been the constant amongst the groups. The summer trip to Les Arcs seems to have become a bit of a tradition and we’ve ended up going in 2005, 2006, 2007. For 2008 we went to Scotland for a week instead to ride the 7 Stanes trails, 2009 was a year off due to me studying for my Part 3. But 2010 was back on to the usual annual trip. This year it was me, Matt, Vaughan and Gavin all travelling in his superb Fiat Scudo van.

Man & machine in perfect harmony – Photo © Gavin Hutton

Previous trips to Les Arcs have always been with TrailAddiction which we’ve always had a great time on. This year we decided to have a bit of a change and go solo as well as sorting out our own accommodation. We managed to find a pretty nice little campsite at the bottom of the main lift in Bourg-St-Maurice. Of course the family tent made another appearance as did the warm weather!

Happy campers – © Andy Matthews

Whenever other riders ask me what riding in the Alps is like I always used to say “Well it’s a bit like riding in Wales only longer and a bit steeper“. The first days riding really rammed home the point that I’d been spouting utter bullshit for quite sometime. You really do forget just how steep, exposed, rooty and rocky the riding is. It’s great but the first day certainly makes you draw a few sharp breaths over some of the trails. It’s hard to capture just how steep some things are but we all spent a lot of our time just hanging off the back of the saddles. It’s pretty exhilarating and your riding goes up a few notches instantly. Smiles all round after our first days riding too.

Rooty rocky stuff – © Andy Matthews

On the Monday we actually did have a guide for the day from TrailAddiction, Ali, whom we’ve spent lots of time riding with previously. He showed some great new trails as well as a few favourites such as White 8, a variation on the popular, and pretty worn out Black 8. We also used the newly opened Vanoise Express lift at Villandry to get over to the La Plagne side of the valley. The lift is simply incredible! Being in a metal and glass box 380m above the valley floor is quite an experience. Ali showed us some real corkers of trails over the other side. Some really steep and rocky stuff as well as some really nice flowy singletrack. We came back over to the Les Arcs side of the valley and finished on Chicane down to Bourg.

Tuesday we just headed out in our usual lazy fashion after a good breakfast and coffee to get some more riding in. There rarely was a plan but we all liked number 10 and found ourselves up that way a few times. This year there were large patches of snow left in some of the higher sections of the trail. This allowed for some pure comedy stacks from Gavin & Vaughan as well as a few great team photos on it. A nice soft landing to stack it on though so nothing damaged. From this lift we also did Ridgeride but again this is so worn out it really wasn’t worth it. One trail that did seem to hit the spot was Lakeride. Getting out at one of the higher lifts and then heading down an enormous scree slope to find the top of the trail was great fun. On the 2nd time down Matt led the way on the snow and has quite a talent for it. Megavalanche next perhaps? The rest of us followed are seeing that he hadn’t died.

Matt’s off ski-biking – © Andy Matthews

After the mucking around there’s actually a really decent trail to be had which starts with a fairly rocky section and ends in a beautiful open series of switch backs to the lake. So the earlier part looks something like this…

Rocky trails – © Andy Matthews

…and ends looking something like this. You can just about see the rest of the trail in the background with a few riders on.

Singletrack switchbacks – © Andy Matthews

Weds was a rest day. Hey, three of us were on hardtails and getting pretty beaten up. Time to have a trip out somewhere. We went up out of Bourg up to Pic St-Bernard and then over into Italy into the Mont Blanc tunnel and over to Annecy for lunch. After lunch and a wander around we hired a speedboat dingy with an outboard. Matt & I jumped in for a dip whilst Vaughan & Gav stayed on pretending to be in Miami Vice. The water was incredibly warm and so nice to swim in. Didn’t really want to come back in to the boat.

Swimmers – © Gavin Hutton

The idea was to spend the rest of the week in Chamonix trying out trails there. Seeing as we’d been having so much fun in Les Arcs and we couldn’t really be arsed moving the tent, well, we stayed put. The riding seemed to get better in the week as we pieced together the trails a bit more and also tried out some others such as Grange Hill, Moist Nun etc. We still covered a few of the favourites too as well as the Cachette DH course which I really can’t stand!

A cracking week was had, the weather was superb as was the banter and of course the riding was the best yet! No massive mechanicals apart from the usual forks spewing oil and brakes overheating. Also no real injuries either. Vaughan damaged his thumb fairly early on but nothing too major. It was great riding in a smaller group than normal. We’re all fairly competent riders and evenly matched, with Matt probably being the fastest (usually as his brakes don’t work). Here’s a few of my favourite photos from the trip.

Hayfever – © Matt Noble

Snow trek – © Matt Noble

Gav in the greenery – © Matt Noble

Rolling in – © Gavin Hutton

Team shot – © Gavin Hutton

More photos available on Flickr of course. Mine are here along with Gavin’s, Matt’s, and Vaughan’s are all online. The come down of being at work is horrendous. Roll on 2011!