Sixth week of the 50-50 Project

The week began under the rain. No problem, I’m vaccinated.

During the 6th week I had some good spots and some less good ones. For instance, in Val d’Isère, the village is nice, the playground is huge, the campground perfect and the gondola is very modern, but MTB is not a priority for them. The trails are covered with sheep droppings, are not very fun to ride, not well indicated and potentially dangerous. There is no indication for the hikers that they are entering an MTB trail. But the work they did on the trails is well done, for example the jumps on the Red or the Blue singletrack which is the nicest I’ve seen during the trip (both on Bellevarde). But once in the bottom you have to pedal 10’ to reach the gondola…


I found the best trails in Les Gets, Tignes and Les Arcs. The latter has a wonderful DH (La Cachette) where I probably did the biggest jump of the trip. I called it Air Time. They also have a lot of possibilities with 10 lifts! But the resort is still developing. The other good thing in Les Arcs is Malgovert, the singeltrack that goes down to the valley and is open until 7.30 pm. In Tignes, they have a very original offer: the bikepark is FREE ! And the trails are well maintained. I enjoyed the tables of the kangooride and I found the best section in Kamasutrail with step-down, step-up, canyon gap, … This part is crazy to ride. In Les Gets, there is a lot of good things to ride in the area of the Jump Park. The Déjantée is cool to ride. On the other hand, Roue Libre and Dans le Gaz are totally destroyed with braking bumps. It’s almost impossible to ride. They probably will have to change the trail; because the big staff of shapers (8 in total for les Gets) can’t maintain these trails even when they are working a lot (I saw 4 people working). In La Plagne, if you expect a bikepark, you’ll be disappointed. They have good possibilities but it’s more some MTB trails and not MTB DH, even if they worked on some trails like Descente de Moi. You can use the full potential of La Plagne if you go there for enduro. The resort is connected with Les Arc. It’s the second biggest resort that I know after Portes Du Soleil. The only problem there is that every lift opens a different day. You probably need a computer to organize an enduro trip!


In Bardonecchia, they have 3 different spots: Biovey, Campo Smith et Melezet. I didn’t ride in Biovey (bus access) and I spent my day in Campo Smith and Le Melezet. There I found the best trail: the 25D. It’s an easy DH and it’s longer than the trails in Campo Smith. They could build more jumps to have a perfect bikepark. Last but not least: La Clusaz where we had the worst welcome for the motorhome of the trip (with Saalbach). They have a campground, but it’s far away from the gondola and it’s very expensive. But the trails are very fun to ride! They have 2 trails. The Loup is very fast and the tables are pretty big! The Ferriaz is slightly more technical, but you can play a lot with the trail. It could be perfect if the trails were better maintained.


Here is the program for our last week : Morzine, Avoriaz, Châtel, Morgins, Champéry, Les Crosets, Torgon and Métabief on August 21.

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