Chamonix Activity Report: 29th June 2008
The weather's still fantastic, town is buzzing with the chit-chat of a hundred different languages and Mont Blanc sits shining above the valley, looking more and more majestic each day as some of it's snowy flanks become rocky and its glaciers slowly retreat back uphill.
The trails this week are still in great shape - way less snow than a few weeks back thanks to the scalding hot weather, dusty and sundried underfoot from the heat, and very easily-accessed thanks to the cable car and gondola uplift. In fact, the only resort still closed remains Les Grands Montets, where cable replacement has delayed opening until July. And there's still no-one around, thanks to the French schools not yet breaking up and the July and August hordes not yet upon us.
We stopped by Vallorcine on Saturday to check out the opening of the downhill mountain bike track, accessed by the gondola. The opening happened thanks to the hard work of Ben & Le Vert Hotel crew, who worked tirelessly with shovels and pickaxes to finish the course in time for the opening. And what a track it is. I would have serious reservations about riding it on anything less than a 150mm-travel full-suspension bike, and I'm certainly not going to take my mother down it anytime soon. but for a technical bike challenge it's virtually unbeatable anywhere in the Alps.
A fast, bermed compacted-dirt start from the gondola top station offers the rider a handful of rising corners before sinking deep into a gully and crossing a fireroad. Soon, you're on another fireroad which crosses a bridge before rising up high to the right, requiring deft use of gearing to get up the steep slope before heading back down, back over the fire-road and into the forest. There are some easy corners, and even a couple of small kickers, before the dirt turns to rock and you are spat through a gap in an immense rockface, out to the 4x4 track. Soon you're back off, into a series of switchbacks that precede a huge (and fortunately quite rideable) 20ft drop-off.
At this point you're offered the option to continue on the fireroad, which gives you an easy way down to Vallorcine. Taking a left puts you on rocky, rooty, technical singletrack that winds it's way between strips of brightly coloured tape down to Vallorcine. The vile switchbacks under the lift are there, as are the rocky outcrops which seem to eat front wheels alive. In short, Vallorcine is back; despite there being no 'easy option', it's worth a trip for anyone confident or crazy enough to give it a go. Bon courage!
