Video: Riding Chamonix's Brown Pow
New video from the French Alps, Chamonix Mont-Blanc valley with Aurel Lardy in “Les Houches”.
Aurel would like to give you a look for those new Chamonix’s trails. The last few years only trail runners were running and enjoying the valley, unfortunately, they are not really fun. But the last two seasons ago we can see also a lot of new bike’s trails and obviously some new bike friends.
Chamonix’valley takes a big turn in his bike history, for example, the next October, in one of the most famous bike ’s mag going to be an article on “Les Houches”.
Les Houches bike’s park has some crazy fast lines, with bumps and an awesome fresh dirt.
Instagram: aurel_lardy
Thanks to Giro cycling, Slash Chamonix and The needle rock tattoo.
Pictures: Gaetan Haugeard
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*Because I want to keep all the unreal brown pow for myself.
www.chamoniarde.com/montagne/reglementation
If you read the arrete you link to with a more open mind you see it only counts for the trails in the centre of the valley, so all the Les Houches trails, the Le Tour trails on the Vallorcine side, and all the trails it says are ok, are all ok. Also, the trails that are forbidden are too busy with walkers to be worth riding during July and August anyway, so it's no great loss.
(if anyone's interested, and I doubt they are, we went back this year and managed to tick all the lifts in one go. It was quite a long day out.)
Also, having travelled all over the world with my mtbike in dream destinations (Moab, Fruita, Whistler, Ainsa, Verbier, Lenzerheide, Dolomites, Andorra, Sierra Nevada, Cairngorms...), I can say Chamonix is in my top 3.
First, what most tourists call "Chamonix" is a chain of mountain villages starting in Servoz (SW) and finishing in Vallorcine (NE) near the France-Switzerland border, totalling 6 resorts. One of these resorts (Les Houches) is connected to St-Gervais, which is connected to Megève/Combloux/Les Contamines. With a summer Cham'Unlimited ticket, it is technically possible to link all those resorts, making it a unique feature in the Alps (see www.chamonixbikeblog.com/2018/all-the-lifts).
2 out of 6 resorts have proper mtb trails which are actually intermediate level DH tracks : Les Houches and Le Tour. Opened early June end of Sep.
As for the rest : it's all trail riding, mostly "steep tech" with rocks and roots, either sanctioned or unsanctioned.
Sanctioned trails : forget the sign-posted tourist office trails (80's XC style), and prefer the huge network of hundreds of km of walking trails which are suitable for bikes (although not purposedly made for them) - see Trailforks and the Chamonix Bike Book (Amazon). All rideable, all year round, except for 6 of these trails (Petits et Grands Balcons) in July and August which is OK since they are crammed with hikers in busy summer months.
Unsanctioned : locals build trails -> be nice to them or try to bribe a shop mechanic and a new world will open to you.
To access those trails.
Last but not least, with enduro and high mountain trail riding becoming bigger, Chamonix sees more and more bikers and even has a very active local section of MBF (French IMBA) advocating for more trail access.