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Chamonix Activity Report: 22nd July 2008

featured in Activity reviews Author Tom Wilson-North, Updated

Have you ever been up the Prarion gondola at Les Houches? It's the one a bit further up the hill from the Bellevue, and the most westerly lift of the Compagnie du Mont Blanc network. The Prarion itself, for which the lift is named, is a plateau which sits around 150m higher than the gondola arrival station, off to the right as you look up at it from the lift. We decided to go up there and have a poke around in search of some singletrack to ride our mountain bikes down.

The push up to the Prarion was short but hard. The track was thankfully easy enough to find, meandering deceptively into the forest behind the radio antenna next to the top of the lift. Soon, 'meandering' became 'rising' and 'rising' became 'scaling' as the track got steeper and steeper. After twenty minutes, we arrived at the summit and were treated to a 360-degree view of the St Gervais and Chamonix valleys. It was beautiful up there - a fraction less than 2000m, but thin air and deliciously cool temperatures that are a welcome contrast from the muggier clime of the valley floor.

After amusing ourselves taking photos and looking down onto parapente fliers (a bizarre sensation that, with Brevent closed, I hadn't felt for a while), we set off down the singletrack, the purpose of our journey. And this is where the problems began.

Being around bikes a lot, I've often heard people call things unrideable. I tend to nod sympathetically as my inner-self questions their ability. And it's been a while since I've unceremoniously carried my bike down hundreds of metres of vile, exposed pathway over enormous boulders...but that's what I did up there. I was fortunate enough not to pass any other trail-users to mock my tentative, terrified bumbling, so it's just myself, my bike-partner and you, dear reader, that will ever know about this pedestrianism. The track was just too hard and too steep; the switchbacks too tight; the consequences of a fall too dire. I was terrified. It was like being on the moon, just with more marmots.

Fortunately, we got down without incident, and having cleared our throats and found more flowing, flat, midmountainous terrain shortly after, we made full speed ahead to the Col de Forclaz (yes, there are two, this is the other one) and aimed for the mountain of Tete Noire. The plan was to circle Tete Noir and descend to Le Fayet. Irritatingly, a wrong turn spat us out at Le Chatelard (again, there are two, not the one which is better known for its Swiss chocolate and generous petrol prices). Le Chatelard is the diesel garage and restaurant that you pass when leaving the valley, on the right after the windy bit, where police cars sometimes hide. And for future reference, it's an annoyingly long pedal up the track to Servoz station.

In conclusion, I learnt several things today.

1. Never take a mountain bike up to the Prarion.
2. Le Chatelard sells Stella Artois.
3. Some things really are 'unrideable'.

Until next week!