A Noobs Guide To Morzine

- - First thing first, I am by no means a great rider, or writer, but i have a heart of adventure with lots to share - -

My name is Amber, I'm 24 and from Sheffield (Woop) This is just a quick blog on my totally inexperienced (and probably unprepared) Morzine adventure! I started riding on a pretty poor 120m XC bike (which was always broken)! Starting riding little trail for a while until I started full on in June 2015, when I bought my Downhill bike (A Mondraker Summum, called Penelope and shes a babe!) Since buying Penelope, I decided a trail bike purchase was needed, a Transition Patrol, to accompany her and now my family is complete. My riding experience before france goes as far as, Revolution Bike Park, Descend Hamsterley, Antur Stiniog, Moelfre, Llangollen, Rhyd y felin, and more!

Meet the family

- - - Planning the adventure! - - -

First thing first on peoples minds when planning a France holiday, where to stay, how much money, what to take and where to ride!


- - - How much? - - -

I’ll be honest with all costs! Our accommodation was pretty cheap, centre of Morzine and cost £600 for the two weeks (I guess that’s why the kitchen was so poop!) but you can get really good places for only a little more than that. We took 500 euros with us each for the two weeks. Plus an extra 160 euro for the lift passes (These can change on season, if you have discounts and the time of year) Oh and be sure to get yourself some accident insurance! we used Dogtag, £85 ll in for two people! Life changing debt could occur after a major incident if not.


- - - What to take? - - -

I would recommend taking your bank card so that you have back up in case of any breakages on bikes. It isn't a myth... Morzine is almost double the price of the UK! Take what spares you can with you. Driving is an absolute nightmare of a journey but it is a very cheap way (it cost us £140 for the channel tunnel return, £170 in fuel, diesel and 120 euro total for toll roads).

I would definitely recommend you drive if you can so that you can take all of your spares with you just in case. Such as a well-equipped tool box, spare tubes, mech hangers, mech, chain guide, brake pads, bleed kits, wet tyres, bike cleaning kits, lubes, track pump, bike stand, shock pump, tyre levers, multi tool with chain link tool. If i was flying and limited on weight I would take, multi tool, pump/shock pump, brake pads, mech hanger, lubes, chain guide.

My broken chain guide, easily fixed with no cost using a spare, and own tools

- - - Now the important bizz! Where to ride! - - -

First off, le pleney It is by far my utmost fave place to ride there! It has a blue, red and black. It is located in the heart of morzine, across from bike morzine and riders refuge. IT is also next to le cottage bar which offers free use of the bike wash with any drink! full link to the pleney black on this link The blue i only did once but was a great warm up/for steadier ride, The red has some awesome slippy as balls roots but again i only did a handful of times, the black is just pure awesomeballs from top to bottom, there's some more info here It has rocks, drops, gaps, drops, roots and some cool switchbacks.


saskiadugon.com photography, check out her site!

Next stop... Les Gets/chavannes! Les gets is a short trip over from Morzine, just take the Pleney lift and follow the signs from there! It has greens, blues, reds and blacks. The perfect place to start on your holiday and get warmed up. It was pretty beat up when i was there (all of the breaking bumps). I rode both my bikes over the trip, the trail bike was perfect but the DH bike saved my arm pump loads! It has lots and lots of berms, tables, and a mini dual slalom at the end. i would say most skill levels will find something here for them, the blue was awesome fun with all the tables, it has an incredible amount of 20 back to back! The red was my favourite track mixed with the bottom half of Le canyon (double black). It has 3km worth of huge berms and some awesome tables, and lots of roots if you head onto the black. The full canyon would require a high skill level and confidence, it has a deep gully with rocks and drops up the top, this surpassed my skill level, a bit more on the canyon here

My second fave place, Super Morzine!

Watching the whip off on the huge table on SM

Super morzine lift is situated only a 2 minute pedal away from le pleney. It is made up of the super morzine lift, and then the Zore lift. Depending on your choice, you can either fly back down the black route (Ridiculously slippy and difficult in the wet, also tricky and steep in the dry!) Or taking the Zore lift, where you can either have an equally awesome time on the two blues, one red, or one of the 2 black trails there. The blue starts with lots of switchbacks, where it meets back with the red at some descent sized tables. You can then choose the red option through the woods (trail forks says black but it is a red), the blue option or the black off shoot! The black option has some steep corners with drops on the corner so be weary if unsure on these features.


If you want an adventure you can head over to Avoriaz from the top of zore, drop down into Les Lindarets, it has 3 tracks that i know of. 1 blue, 1 red and 1 black.. The blue is great for beginners or less confident as it doesn't really have techy stuff to it!. The red is pretty cool with its jumps, drops and rocks. The black i personally didn't have time to ride but it was used for a french national so i imagine its pretty tough going! (when in Les Linderets please going down into town and visit the crazy goat village)!!

Me and me pal!

Now you have reached les linderets lets move on tooooo..... Chatel bike park! Unfortunately i cannot give too much information on chatel, purely because both times we went... most tracks were closed!!! However, i did manage to ride some amazing stuff there. There was some pretty cool blues one called les people!. Probably the best blue I've ever ridden, loads of fun to be had, roots, tables, berms, a few rocks. The reds i rode (unfortuantely cannot remember the names, ride humble?) were quite steep in places, loads of steep switchbacks, with techy cornering (rocky steep turns) but take it at your own pace and just be vigilant. Where most of the trails meet in the middle there is an amazing line which i have been told is the closest to whistler you can get (again unsure what trail it was part of as everything was confusing that day with closures)! Nico Vink has a huge part in Chatel, which is probably why it has 20 downhill runs!


And last but not least, if I had to choose a favourite track no place and my toughest track of the holiday.. It would be the Swiss national! Holy sheeet that thing is on a steep mountain! It starts with loads of twisty turns but don't look over the edge... Its a long way down! After the mountain side of awesomeness comes the lower section which was drier than the Sahara desert and mother flippin looooose. Some very technical rocks, a few gap jumps (Which i did my first accidental gap jump hoorah)!! Not mentioning it has the best views of the whole holiday. Its a long way to get there, over a pretty impressive lift! too! But totally worth it, i would recommend this track for the more confident riders and not for beginners. That's probably enough information on the trails for now, any questions please pop them below!

Looking back at the swiss national while going up the opposite lift

- - - Rest days- - - (if you are there for long enough)

once you're all biked out for the week, or even when the lifts have closed, i would definitely get yer butts over to Lac De Montriond! Its absolutely stunning! If you go in the evening there is places around where you can have evening meals, you can ride here from linderets! But if you manage to go in the day you can hire SUP (stand up paddle) boards, kayaks and canoes! or even just go fer a wee paddle in the lake (but it is 62 feet deep! spooooky).

View from the cafe on the lake

If you're excited to use the huge swimming pool down by the suspension bridge, be warned... Men have to wear budgie smugglers! No shorts allowed, some weird European thing! So unfortunately we couldn't use the pool after ride as my other half wasn't playing ha! There is plenty of places to eat in morzine, loads of great bars, bar robinson, rhodos and dixie bar are all next to each other, rhodos does great food, has pool tables and free WiFi Drinking spirits is expensive (8 Euro for a single JD and coke) so i would recommend buying in a bottle (Very cheap, JD was only 22 euro) or two and drinking in the chalet!

our chalet garden provided good chilled drinking space

And last but not least, CHECK YOUR DEPARTURE TIMES!!!!! What absolute goons me and Andrew are.... We set off home on the 27th July, thought nothing of it... arrived at the channel tunnel to find out.. we were a day LATE! We had an extra day on holiday and had to pay extra to come home. What a set of D**k Heads! Sooo yeah.. Check yer shizz! So this is pretty much any advice on my first MTB holiday that i can think to give! Please please post below anything i could have forgotten, or even any questions! Happy shrrreeedding!!!!

Us losers in our natural habitat for the 17 hour journey