Chamonix Activity Report: 1st September 2008

There have been around 9500 spectators lining the streets of Chamonix over the last three days, cheering along the 4500 runners that took part in the Ultra Trail, the CCC and the Petit Trot a Léon. Whilst heat exhaustion and injury took its toll on many of the competitors - pro's and amateurs alike – only a very hard hearted person could not have felt a swell of emotion as those who did manage to complete the courses headed for the finish line. As the timer ticked away, you could feel concern growing within the crowd for those still out on the trail – what if they arrived 2 minutes after the permitted time? Gutted! As the final runners made their way through town, some seemed oblivious to the frantic cries of the crowd and the ticking clock; others managed a burst of speed that would probably have left me standing even with fresh legs!

However, one of the biggest cheers of the day went to a woman who finished shortly after the official limit of 46 hours. With the majority of the crowd now watching the prize giving on the main stage, I'm not sure how many people were there to cheer her through the last few hundred meters, but an official ushered her onto the stage and she got the welcome of her life! Who cares about a few extra minutes when you've been on the move for nearly 2 days solid! I'm almost welling up just re-living the moment so if you haven't already seen it, I've popped a full report of the Ultra Trail in our News section.

Anyway, despite all of the excitement in town, I still took the time to head into the hills on my bike for a bit of a run around at Grands Montets. I can't quite believe that it's September already and I realised that I hadn't been up GM since the winter. With the area closing for interseason next weekend, I pointed my bike to Argentiere and started pedalling.

As one of the lesser frequented areas during summertime, the car park was very quiet and there was no queue whatsoever to get onto the Lognan cable car. There are only really a couple of walking routes on Grands Montets, although both of which are well worth doing – a short hike to the Argentiere glacier and then the Grand Balcon Nord (via Le Lavancher) which was where I was heading. You can of course, still take the lift all the way to the top (3300m) and enjoy the spectacular views over the glaciers and quite likely see some mountaineers heading off on their icy adventures. I got chatting to a very nice couple on the way up on the lift (Lindsey and Alan from Fife) who had climbed Mont Blanc earlier in the week and turned out to be great fans of Chamonet! Fair put a spring in my step as I headed off towards Plan Joran – makes it all worth while knowing that people enjoying reading our ramblings….. ;O)

The ride I was planning on doing basically takes you down a fairly rocky cat track past the Plan Joran restaurant and on past the base of the three man chairlift of the same name. From there, the terrain becomes smoother as the trail descends through the bottom of the Dream Forest, but there are a number of deep drainage ditches that can catch you out if you're going too fast. After a short climb you pop out into the Pendant Bowl – a lush, green meadow in the summer – from where you pick up a narrow single track that takes you to the bottom of the bowl itself.

I've done this ride many times during previous summers, but the mid-section was far tougher than I remember it being. It seemed to be a lot more eroded with large stretches of exposed tree roots and rocks that I'm sure I'd managed to negotiate on the hardtail before now. Generally preferring to end my Saturday in Choucas or Le Garage rather than Sallanches hospital, me and my non-body armoured limbs found ourselves walking in quite a few places this time to ensure that we reached the bottom in one piece. From Le Lavancher though, it's plain sailing all the way back to Cham.

We've got more info on the MTB trails in the area in our Mountain Biking article if you haven't already spotted it and you can find more detailed trail descriptions in Tom's handy little Chamonix MTB Guide that has become my new best friend this last month.

If you're in town over the next few days, some things to watch out for include the 4th leg of the VTT Subaru French Cup (6th/7th Sept) taking place at the Desert Blanc in Les Praz (by the helipad). You can expect to see cross-country competitions and Trial riding demos as well as an appearance from local biker Cedric Ravanel who is just back from the Beijing Olympics. He'll be hoping not to suffer from further flat tyres which pushed him down to 14th place in the cross-country in China, whilst his team mates romped off with gold and silver!

Also coming up next weekend (5th-7th) is the annual musical fanfare from the Garmisch-Partenkirchen oompa band. Organised by the town twinning committee (now in it's 30th year), the Bavarian troop are invited each year to come and play, dance and slap their thighs in the centre of Cham. This year they will also be whip throwing and blowing their large horns – it's front row stuff!

Have a great week, looks like it's going to be a pretty nice one! :O)