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After having seen this article a while ago, I'm tempted to try the trails in Flaine.
[url= https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/jun/18/top-10-mountain-bike-rides-alps-france-italy-switzerland ]Guardian top 10 mountain bike rides in alps[/url]
Has anyone been, am I looking at decent singletrack, or more DH type trails? That article refers to a decent route from Flaine to Samoens, but looking at the piste map there doesn't seem to be a easy way back?
Thanks in advance.
Really Close to Morzine / Les Gets ... Doable as a day trip from either ?
Flaine is a purpose built concrete ski resort high on the mountain at the end of a dead-end road. Probably not a great place to stay.
The one time I went biking in Samoens I spent quite a lot of time lost as the maps/signage seemed pretty bad. When I did find some decent trail it was actually really nice.
I've stayed in Samoens, it's on the other side of the hill to Morzine/Les Gets so we cycled a lot on those trails but also got to ride in more isolated places. If you want a holiday exploring a bit more then it's good, but if you want uplifts and not much navigating then you are maybe better going elsewhere. Having said that it was many years ago that I went so it might have changed. It was a nice town though and I'd happily go back.
I live about an hour's drive away and to be honest I was looking for an alternative to Morzine/Les Gets. Plan is to go somewhere for a weekend with a couple of mates. We'll be on hardtails and don't do serious offroad that often so looking for calmer trails than some of the stuff we've done in the PDS. I should say that I've only cycled in Morzine/Les Gets as part of the Passportes so my view of the region is probably more frenetic than on a normal weekend.
Having said that, stopping all the time to check a map/GPS doesn't sound like much fun...
I've ridden both Les Gets and Samoens on a hardtail and would say the blue and red trails are harder in Samoens. They are twice as long and generally on walking trails so feel much more natural and rocky in places - which I really liked. Can't comment on the riding outside the bikeparks but generally found the signage ok.
Im in Les Carroz at the moment albeit without a bike although ive ridden here before 😐
In my mind it depends how long you're coming for. Les Carroz has its own 'bike park' with telecabine access which looks like it could be fun for a day and there's other 'off piste' routes down by the look of it. Was up at top of Flaine the other day but aside routes back to Samoens described in the article, didn't see too much up there although a few bikers were at the top.
If you contact Bike-Alp (facebook etc) they where based in Samoens doing guided holidays for 10 years. I've only ridden the excellent descent down from Bourgeoise / Lac Joux plan but thats on the other side of the valley to the lift system. There are trails in Sixt too I think. Worth getting VTT map from tourist office if you are there
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EWS held a round there last year - [url= http://www.trailforks.com/region/samoens/routes/ ]routes are here.[/url]
We booked an apartment through [url= http://www.alpsaccommodation.com ]alpsaccommodation[/url] last winter - from their website it seems that Tom, the owner, was an avid cyclist- it might be worth dropping him a line. I thought about going there again with the family this summer, but somehow we've ended up back in Morzine
Wasn't that impressed by sameons. Spent a week there is fairly wet conditions - the dirt seems to be far more clay like than other places I've been (all over the alps) which means its a bit horrific (even just over the hill in cham the mud is gritty rather than clay like). Also spent a couple of days traversing the area when doing a transalp epic - that was dry and better but still not amazing by alps standards.
The other thing I noted on both times I've been there is that the lifties aren't really very keen. E.g they didn't open the lifts on some days as it was raining and they couldn't believe anyone would want to ride. Also on several occasions we'd get to a lift 10/15 minutes before their (long) lunch break and they'd refuse to let us on as it was too close to lunch. Likewise starting after lunch - expect to wait 20 minutes before they begrudgingly let you on.
In short I didn't like it. Pretty tho.
Don't doubt it (the mud is a bit like the morzine mud actually - les arc's (for example) gritty stuff is far less gross), but the lifty experience was from last year...