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Help!
I am heading to Bourg Saint-Maurice with the family this Saturday. I am taking my bike and was hoping to get a few days riding in while we are there. I am gutted to find out that the summer lift season ENDS the day we arrive and my dreams of riding the park have been dashed.
Having searched about I am struggling to find information on whether there are any of the larger lifts / gondolas still open at the moment and also what the non-lift based riding options are.
Any advice / pointers gratefully received! Thanks.
Head to Morzine instead? Think there's still a week left on the lifts there...
White Room MTB do uplift weeks with their 4x4 but don't know if they can sort you out with any riding outside of one of their holidays. Worth giving them a ring anyway
I am pretty sure the Funicular will still be running up to Arc 1600. There are a number of decent runs down to Bourg from there and if you are prepared to climb 200m either to Arc 1800 or towards Arc 2000 there are also some really, really nice natural runs back to the valley. I would take those runs over the lift accessed bike park stuff any day of the week anyway, but that may be just me. Some of the runs I mention are on trailforks, all can be found with a little bit of internet fu.
I can only see Funicular time tables up to the 31st August which is pretty much season close as far as I’m aware.
I’ve left on the last day of winter season and it’s basically been a ghost town in 1800 and 1600. 1950 and 2000 are quiet enough in summer anyway.
If you can get up to 1600 there are bike park tracks down and some off piste though whether you will find it without a guide or direction I don’t know as I haven’t done it myself.
I do know to avoid the Route 66 Blue ‘Enduro’ route back to bourg unless you like 22km of braking down fire roads and mountain roads...
I am off to Morzine this weekend & am sure lifts close on 8th
You could ring the Tourist Office on +33 4 79 07 12 57 and enquire about the Funicular. They have been very helpful for me in the past. Otherwise there is a bus company called cool bus which might be worth a days hire if there are a few of you.
Funi will close with the rest of the lifts.
Val d'isere. tignes, la thuile are all within around an hour of Bourg, a little more and you get over to Aosta/pila which will definitely be open.
Val and Tignes bike park closes on the 1st Sept.
Transition1 - I'd double check that, pretty sure it's only Les Gets lifts open next week plus Pleney till the 5th.
Funicular normally runs all year, but they've just replaced it and the station is having a massive face lift with a grand opening ceremony at some point before winter.
I'd check first, but if it is open them as Welsh farmer says the best stuff is in the woods mostly accessible from the top of the funicular, with a bit of effort.
Cheers for that GeForce your right. Will have the van so no big issue I hope
If the Funi is still running then there is plenty of good riding from the top via the trees or a with a short up hill pedal. Just got back from near on two weeks their and found lots of goodies in the trees!
Funi will be shut. Val/Tignes and La Thuile all shut this weekend too.
Marko i've never known the funi to be open all year and have done plenty of out of bike season trips there before? It runs when the other lifts do
Hi, thanks for all the pointers and advice. Sadly the tourist board confirmed for me that the funicular is definitely closed. I can do a shuttle up to Les arc 1600 so trying to find the routes back down - the locals are being quite unhelpful on that front so any links would be very much appreciated. Probably going to head over to pila for a day too.
Black 8 is easy to follow down from 1600 (signposted from the top of the Funi). There's some off-piste trails on the other side of the big water pipes part-way down (trust me - you can't miss the pipes!)
You could also pedal up Golf (basically a fireroad) to 1800 and find the routes going down from there.
Alternatively give White Room a ring, one of their guides might be available and can show you the best trails.
mtapley, trailforks is your friend and has quite a few options on.
Marko i’ve never known the funi to be open all year and have done plenty of out of bike season trips there before? It runs when the other lifts do.
Never trust a French website!
'Departures are every 20 minutes, every day from 7.30 am to 8.00 pm, and until 9.00 pm on Saturday'.
No mention of a closed season? However when we were there in July the last train was at 5. I assume this was to work on the new station in the evenings?
@marko The French Bourg St Maurice website: https://www.bourgsaintmaurice.fr/vie-pratique/transports.html is fairly clear, clearer than the Les Arcs official site at least.
The funicular is closed, as it always is, in the interseason. It closed on 31st August, it'll open for the winter season in mid December.
Whilst on subject, other places now closed include La Thuile, Les Contamines, St Gervais, Grand Massif. PdS and Pila call it quits next weekend, Megeve the weekend after, then Chamonix the weekend after that. Verbier and a few others keep running, usually weekends only, until late October/the snow arrives.
Trailforks and Pila are the best bets by far.