Châtel Bikepark (R)Evolution - Video

Oct 10, 2016 at 13:12
by ShapeRideShoot  
This fall, Ride Creations (Nico Vink and Kristof Lenssens) and Shaperideshoot (Gaëtan Rey) teamed up to refresh a couple of trails for Bikepark Châtel. The aim was to add more jumps and flow to existing trails, giving a lot of care to water management, and to improve accessibility for beginners. In fact, the trails have been rebuilt from top to bottom. Nico Vink started the project already this summer with a fresh section of the Blues and Rock and we're super excited for you to see the work we've been doing on the other trails when the bike park reopens in 2017.

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Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
New jump line in the Serpentine. The goal was to add a lot of air in this track well known for its 65 turns.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
Another angle of the new jump section. Two different levels of jump lines, with transfers everywhere. Let's work your creativity there.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
Spent a bit of time on this bit of track that used to go uphill. No more pedaling....

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
Another shot of the whoops.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
Huge berms built by Nico and Kristof in the upper section of the Chatellane.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
Kristof smoothing out some turns in the Chatellane.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
Bucket view of Nico Vink in his 14 tonne. Quite a big bit of machinery, but really needed to move quickly a lot of dirt. Just a bit scary when it gets steep...

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
The whole team. From let to right, Kristof Lenssens, Nico Vink and Gaëtan Rey.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
Gaëtan Rey in his digger. Sometimes you feel a bit lonely after 11 hours working on your own in the forest but this 8 tonne Hitachi is a really good friend.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution

Dirt waves in the Serpentine.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
Fresh turns after the road gap in the Chatellane. By the way, the skinny canyon that used to be your landing is no longer there.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
Sometimes you need smaller tools.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
Shark fin in the Serpentine.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
Followed by a new table top.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
The line of the Serpentine has been changed a bit here, cutting out the uphill and replacing it with some jumps. Table top to roller to step up.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
More than 20 jumps have been added to this trail, and there's still one week of work to go.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
Nico and Kristof worked a lot on the road gap section in the Chatellane.

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
We're just missing something next to it so you can appreciate the true size of this jump. You can get up to 18 meters of air on this table top!

Ch tel Bikepark R Evolution
Kristof, super focused, working his magic.

Author Info:
ReyGaetan avatar

Member since Apr 10, 2012
68 articles

61 Comments
  • 37 1
 This is good to see and Nico is a class builder, but when will they get it, we don't need more trails in the PDS we need trail maintenance Whistler style. to sum up PDS NEEDs trail MAINTENANCE MAINTENANCE MAINTENANCE
  • 12 3
 Then you should stop by Chatel or Morgins bikepark sometime. They do trail maintenance all season long!
  • 7 3
 I was in Chatel in September and the trails were very well maintained. Thank you.
  • 5 1
 @HenkkaK: I was in chatel earlier on the season and it was terrible... Les gets was actually running smoother?!
  • 1 0
 @blitz66: was bad weather start of season. We had 3 wet days with lot of chatel shut. That was 2nd week July
  • 1 0
 @bat-fastard: That's fair enough, I was just riding the baked in ruts from the week before!
  • 4 1
 Nah i agree, and isn't Chatel covered by the PDS ?
Braking bumps in Les Gets are ridiculous .
They were building that trail when i went earlier in the year, and only 3 trails were open in Chatel,and they were a joke
  • 1 3
 You speak but you Understand Nothing.
It's not News Trail. It's just évolution of known Trail.
  • 2 1
 @kampfar: never said it was a news trail , so you can revel in your complete understanding of very little, enjoy the mud and braking bumps while we take our monies elsewhere
  • 1 0
 The answer was for @BMXrad , the first message.
  • 3 2
 So you all want smooth trails: get a road bike????
  • 2 1
 @jehaan: braking bumps are not good trails. rough trails are rough trails, rocks, roots, steps. not just stutter bumps everywhere! using that argument is just taking out of context. bad maintenance of a rough trail is just as bad as bad maintenance of a smooth trail
  • 1 0
 @jehaan: Go to Whistler and see how much fun maintained trails are, hell I even race you down on your road bike. ;-)
  • 15 1
 Whilst it's great they are (finally) building new stuff there, still no-one addresses the big issue of maintaining the trails.

The runs look like they have been used by the French Military for mortar shell practice. Literally destroyed.

Two guys with hand tools are not going to make any sort of dent to the sustained damage the trails get, every day. That said, it's more than we saw in Morzine & Les Gets. Some truely terrible examples of trail building there. Same old crap for the last 10+ years.

Not even playing the same sport, let alone game as the likes of Whistler.
  • 3 1
 I like the holes, rocks, roots and roughness of the trails, these groomed ones are ok but take away from the likes of hattock over on super morzine which was redone couple of years ago. But then I have avalanche suspension setup for just riding pleney all day long.
  • 4 0
 @bat-fastard: Love Hattock! What a great trail
  • 1 0
 @Garpur44: proper trail, its just big enough to push my limits on the gaps. Too old for bigger stuff now. Would like to see more..
  • 2 0
 @bat-fastard: Never too old buddy, just need more Armour :-)
  • 3 0
 Chatel bikepark has been building and revamping their trails since 2013 when new trail builders joined the team. The Chatelaine was one of the last trails that hadn't been redone. Come on over next season and check it out.
  • 5 0
 @bat-fastard:

I love more natural stuff with rocks, roots etc too compared to the motorway style trails, but when everything, corners, straights etc are riddled with what looks like a staircase, it's really not any fun to ride at all.
  • 1 0
 @HobNob: I don't feel the staircase Smile alavalanche makes it feel like a tarmac Road. That's the pds there will be braking bumps everywhere you just have to deal with it.
  • 1 0
 @bat-fastard: Morgins and Chatel are the bikeparks with trail crews that do maintenance. Come on over and check them out.
  • 1 0
 @SintraFreeride: not that fussed on morgins, need to drive over too it too which is bit of a pain otherwise you spend half day traveling on lifts. Didn't get chatel this year as rained for 3 days and would only been drying up when I was heading home but have been previous years...
  • 3 0
 @bat-fastard: If you like rocky and rooty trails then you should give Morgins a chance. Long pure DH trails which you never get tired of riding. It's my favorite bikepark in the PDS and there is never a queue for the lifts!
  • 1 0
 @SintraFreeride: I have it just don't float me boat. Its alright for a day trip if weathers been good and we booked transport over for the day. Maybe I'm just getting lazy but could and do bang 15-20 runs of pleney every day for a week and be more than happy.
  • 1 0
 @SintraFreeride: We had a good day in Morgins this july and even did Champery the day after , This part of the Alps is far better than Chatel bike park and don't understand why not many people go but then if they did maybe it would get spoiled .
  • 2 0
 @HobNob: that's the spirit mate! Most of the sissy's on this forum eed a set of lycra clothing and a pinarello dogma
  • 1 1
 @konacyril: The reason most people don't go there is because most people are into flow jump trails nowadays. Just keep enjoying all those trails with no queue for the lifts! I know will I continue to go ride over there when everyone else is in Chatel!
  • 1 0
 @SintraFreeride: your maybe loosing riders to other parks as the ones I know aren't into flow trails all day. Infact I know a good few that stay in morzine as a base then do day trips into Switzerland to other bike parks.
  • 1 0
 @bat-fastard: Chatel isn't losing riders to other bikeparks at all. Most people came in August with July being calmer than usual but we had even more people and money coming in than in previous years. The problem with Chatel is that it is not as well known as Les Gets or Morzine.
  • 1 0
 @SintraFreeride: Just speaking from ones I know, Its every bit as well known, problem is theres nowhere worth staying at it so most stay in Morzine where pubs are.. It is quieter than say 5 years ago, and people I know are going elsewhere fact.
  • 1 0
 @bat-fastard: I agree that the "post ride scene" in Morzine is way better than Chatel. Morzine also does great publicity which Chatel lacks. I believe you but we have not seen less people over in Chatel in total only less in July which was compensated in August.
  • 14 3
 Not a big fan of these high-ways. I like rocks and roots. Therefore, Komatrautrail is my favorite on the Chatel side.
Who is with me?
  • 7 0
 Komatrau and Bike Patrol!
  • 3 1
 Koma used to be amazing for the first three years, now it feels ... kinda worn out... For me Cha-nada will always be the best trail in Chatel, it just feels like home trail not bike park to me.
  • 4 0
 That's all bike parks and trail centres seem to be these days. A pissing contest akin to the car HP race. Who can have the biggest and baddest jumps, berms and north shore and yet the smoothest motorway surface.
  • 2 0
 Needs to be a balance, I took my transition double once with my kids, we rode the likes of tutti fruitti and it was soo much fun. on the other hand I want something for a full on downhill bike. I find a lot of trails too slow its just corner into corner into corner.. chevanns red mainline has been dumbed down n spoiled as past few years, its lost the speed it had before. I still love pleney black mainline, Its got the speed if you get off the brakes, its as hard as you can go.
  • 4 1
 @Andy-ap: I agree but what "sells" these days is big flow trails with lots of jumps. With the addition of the "Vink Line" trail we at the bikepark barely saw anyone riding any of the tech singletrack all season. Guess that means you can enjoy them all to yourself Wink
  • 3 1
 Yeah because there are absolutely no natural lines in PdS... But to answer your question, I like a combination of both. Nothing better than riding some steep and rooty tech stuff for a while until I run out of concentration, then sail down some flowy jump lines, have some food and go back to do some more root riding.
  • 2 0
 @bonkywonky: I'm afraid you're dead wrong. There are many natural lines in PDS it is just that most of them are not in the bikeparks. Still many of them can be accessed by chairlift if you know someone who will show you around...
  • 2 0
 Coma trail is where its at mate after the hardcore steep rooty turns you have the steep shale rock fest to survive , Everything else in the park seems quite dull after riding it .
  • 1 0
 @konacyril: You are describing "Bikepatrol" not "Komatrautrail".
  • 3 0
 @SintraFreeride: Is Komatrail the trail that is a couple of hundred yards down the road on the hairpin bend,? That is also an excellent trail to ride
  • 1 0
 @konacyril: Yep that is the Komatrautrail and I agree it is also a highlight at the bikepark.
  • 7 3
 Finally! Tables instead of gaps. I haven't ridden PDS in awhile just because of this. Gaps are cool for locals and on your local terrain that you ride everyday but they suck on unfamiliar terrain. I've either came up short or over shot enough gaps that I normally just leave them alone now that my bones are no longer made of rubber.
  • 3 1
 While all of these walls and jumps seem really nice on the video, the reality is completely different when normal people are riding it... You know, those 80% of the people riding in the bike parks... While I cleared almost all of the jumps I had problems to do a complete run because there were so many people getting stuck everywhere, I mean it looks really nice to clear those step-ups but majority simply dont and struggle on the uphills slowing down everyone...

As has been already stated, the maintenance in chatel is pretty nonexistent these days, back in '10-11 crew would just close down fluid or even serpentine in the middle of the season and fix stuff, nowadays they just close black runs after 3 drops of rain...
Went to ride Champer dh on the 18. Aug and big part of middle section was just rebuild with the traffic there being 50x smaller compared to chatel.
Same with Zore-Supermorzine, berms were like autobahn in the middle of August... Then there was this brakebump garden just before Zore lift but we can consider it a feature because major part of trails were is such good shape haha.
  • 4 1
 I do not think you have been riding very often in Chatel or perhaps you were there on an off day. Trail maintenance in the last few years has been of a much higher standard than back in the day. We redo 1 or more trails per day! This year the black trails "Gueps" and "Bikepatrol" have been left open ALL season long for all those people who wanted to ride them in the wet. As it turns out barely anyone did...
  • 1 0
 @SintraFreeride: We stayed in Chatel so I was there everyday for a week... The "main" trails (chatelane, vorchatak, upper people/blues&rock, ridehumble, lower serpentine) were all totally destroyed. In 10-11' I remember you closed a trail and went through with excavator if needed, plus there were guys driving around with that cool buggy and fixing stuff left right and center, never saw anyone digging, or freshly shaped trails, this year. I understand the novel things took a lot of effort (reboul jumps and vink lines) but overall we got the impression the maintenance work took a hit... There is also much more people riding compared to 5 years ago, but this also mean you get extra money which should compensate... Didn't want to offend anyone but this was general observation of our crew...
  • 2 0
 @winko: Well I'm sorry to hear you did not see the bikepark at it's best. We are still working on the trails everyday even if you don't see us Wink Hope you'll come back next year and get a chance to get a better impression.
  • 4 0
 Chatel is always my favourite riding hub in Portes du Soleil, can't wait to get over and try out the new stuff
  • 3 0
 So awesome to see bike parks growing and new bike parks popping up. Europe and BC keep 'm coming!!!
  • 2 0
 Getting the job done. I've just had my mind changed from the mighty Whistler, to returning back to Chatel next year. Roll on July. tup
  • 2 0
 Really nice work guys, thank you!!! I'm really stocked by looking forward to next year bikepark season in pds!!!
  • 2 0
 Looks cool but we need more trails made of rocks and roots like komatrautrail!
  • 3 1
 You did an awesome job there boys ! Thank you !
  • 3 0
 Yeah dudes!
  • 1 0
 Been in Chatel 2 years ago. Lake of maintenance. So I didn't come in 2015. Now I would be glad to be there in 2017 !
  • 2 1
 Style, skill, and metal. The trifecta.
  • 1 0
 That manual at the start....praise jah
  • 1 0
 Selassie i know
  • 5 5
 26"rulz







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