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Les Gets Bike Park Opening Weekend

The first weekend of lift-access mountain biking in the Portes du Soleil

featured in Activity reviews Author Pam Williamson, Morzine Editor Updated

As I got out of bed this morning to start the working week I began to regret our decision to head through to Les Gets early on Sunday and to make the most of the day by riding from start to finish with only a 45 minute break...

Everything hurts...legs, back, arms, shoulders, hands and even my head! But...it was worth it! Despite the crowds of bikers who showed up to enjoy the sunshine, the queuing after each run and the lack of restaurants and cafes open, the trails were great and we smashed out as many runs as we were physically capable of.

NB. This pre-season opening means that the trails are open each weekend (not during the week) until the 20th June, when it will be open daily. The day price for these pre-season weekends is 16.50€.

Arriving around half 9 in the morning we thought we were early enough to beat the crowds but quickly discovered that the sheer volume of people made this impossible. After queuing to buy our passes - something that I have never had to do here before - we made our way up to the Chavannes lift to another massive queue. Luckily a queue of mountain bikers with huge downhill bikes is more civilised than the pushing and shoving of the winter lift queues where people trample over each others skis to get to the front. Plus you get to ogle over other people's bikes!

So, first chair lift of the summer season and my stomach was in knots. A mixture of excitement, anticipation and the complete and utter fear that I would have forgotten how to ride a bike! Luckily this wasn't the case. After the first run down I was actually glad of the queue for the lift to take a breather. We had come down the main trail under the chair lift as a warm up run and discovered it was still full of breaking bumps from the previous summer but that there were several sections being worked on to create new parts to the trail and to improve the drainage and water run-off.

After meeting more friends and Chamonix locals who had also made there way over the opening weekend we decided to try a a few variations down the front and spotted a new blue trail (Tomahawk) that led from the top of the Chavannes lift and meets up with the main trail at the first road break (the golf course road). Wow! This is an awesome little bit of trail. Really well made (standard for the bike park shapers in Les Gets!), smooth at the moment with little or no breaking bumps, stretches of it are in the forest so remained a bit tackier after the rain a few days ago and they have packed in plenty of big berms and fun table tops.

After 'wooping' our way down this we headed over to the black 'Canyon' run for some more rooty tree filled action. This run is in great shape right now - it can sometimes be overly wet and muddy - and just at the limit of my technical abilities. A great variation to miss out the dusty breaking bumps of the main trail but not one for those who are new to the sport.

After several more runs we were beginning to flag but the all-but-gone queue for the chairlift was too much of a temptation and we decided to press on while most people seemed to have disappeared for lunch. Having the trails relatively free from bikers meant we could really get into the flow, although possibly a bit too much as we ended up with some trail-side repairs and a few crashes as people got too excited.

When we ran out of energy we made our way into town for lunch. There is a new snack stall at the bottom of the Chavannes Express which looks perfect for a quick hot dog, crepe and juice, however no real vegetarian options. Being the opening weekend it seems that things haven't quite opened up yet in Les Gets so we trailed through town to find a place where we could sit in the sun and grab some lunch. Most places seemed to have run out of burgers - I guess the weekend was busier than expected.

So re-fuelled and ready for more we went back up the Chavannes Express and over to the Nauchets chair to test out a favourite trail from last year, a blue run that was full of big berms and was newly built in 2014. Last summer was quite wet and this new trail had been beautifully smooth and tacky most of the summer. This summer however it felt drier and more solid with quite a lot of loose debris on top. Still a fun trail though!

All the runs down the Nauchets chair felt very loose and they definitely need ridden a bit more, or swept, to get them back into shape. I suspect that the bike park shapers are making their way round as much as they can and will no doubt get to it in the coming weeks before the area opens in full.

With only two chairlifts open and a lot of eager bikers it definitely felt busier than normal in the Les Gets Bike Park. However, the few new touches to the trails and the good weather made this a fantastic day out. We rode from around 10am straight through until around 5pm and didn't even hit all of the trails. Now I can't wait until the full area opens and we can get up the Mont Chery side of the valley.

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The full area will be open from Saturday 20th June until Sunday 6th September.
Pre-season opening dates (weekends only):

  • Saturday 30th & Sunday 31st May
  • Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th June
  • Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th June

Location

Map of the surrounding area