Portes Du Soleil 24, share you tips, routes, riding mates wanted, plans etc...

We’re also thinking of an Eeb day or two, maybe trying to get from Morzine down to Samoens then either Eeb back up the hill or get Mrs Weeksy to come down in one of the vans and collect us at the end of the day.

I think we wanted to do this descent, but there was no sensible way of getting back.. there's a bike shop there that'll drive you back up fora few euro, but wasn't running the day we had free.
Sorry for ambiguity, as i've never ridden that trail down, but it's meant to be a hoot!

DrP

Swiss national and then chairlift towards Champery . The red on left of the chairlift is really good .

Morgins is also very good but hard work to ride back .

oh, also, our favourite trail was the green one in Chatel - Panoramic.. Absolutely Lush!!!

DrP

but there was no sensible way of getting back..

You could, y'know, just pedal up the road? It's not that bad.

ok... I would have been happy with that. 5 other men wouldn't have been!!!

DrP

We're in la clusaz from 3-9 August, then Les Gets from Friday 9th to 16 August.

I'm after techie lift assisted long routes and the kids will be after jumps and forest tech. " Just like Nazi Gold" was what the [ not so ] wean said he wanted.

Will hopefully head over to the Champery WC course with the boys, though I fear the Trance may be a touch out of its depth!

Also ( slightly OT) but if anyone can recommend good rock climbing in the area then.....

@thegeneralist if you want a beer/ride just shout mate, after the Sunday 10th we're free and open to play. But if you're here for the 10th, get yourselves over to watch at Champery, i'm looking forward to seeing the Pros race there for sure.

Unless you are really keen, and fancy a big pedal, getting back from Samoens is either by the scheduled bus service, I think I posted about it last year

https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/samoens-3/

or else Mountain Spirit run a shuttle service up to the top of the Tete de Cret, above Les Gets.  From memory, the bus runs at about 2pm most days for a few €.  That's what we did last summer after riding down from Tete de Cret.

I'm hoping to get some pointers off this thread, as heading there for the third time this summer, mostly for my boys to push themselves, but keen to find some more 'singletrack' trails, as jump parks are not my thing, nor are queues!

This has merit... potentially.

I've done 2 routes down from La Bourgoise to Samoens, both Brilliant, highly recommended.

As mentioned above, there is a bus or the bike shop. I wouldn't fancy a 13km ride back up the mountain on  knobbly tyres to be honest.

We'll be there 11th-18th August (cycling 12-17th) and planning to do the trip down to Samoens on one of the days. Hoping to get the bike shop trailer/bus back up. All to be arranged/researched though. It worked last year and was great fun.

Probably not aiming for first couple of days of the holiday but we'd be on for that sometime 14th-17th.

It’s been a while but I loved the GR5 trail from the top of the really long linarettes/ morgines ridge back down to lindarettes

After the initial fire road section it is / was  singletrack all the way back

Never ridden it, but this is the route we wanted to do..

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/170477825

DrP

heading there for the third time this summer, mostly for my boys to push themselves, but keen to find some more ‘singletrack’ trails, as jump parks are not my thing, nor are queues!

GavinB, when are you there? I'm in exactly that situation too 9-16 Aug

after the Sunday 10th we’re free and open to play

Are you staying in Champery?  Would be good to meet, but it takes quite a while to get there I reckon

oh, also, our favourite trail was the green one in Chatel – Panoramic.. Absolutely Lush!!!

That's such a fun trail. It's been regraded as blue for this year, unsurprisingly imo. There's one kicker half way down that claims quite a few injuries from unsuspecting punters getting bucked.

We'll be doing the inevitable PdS stopover, based in Châtel for just over a week, overlapping with the race in Champery. We're also on the lookout for any interesting stuff that helps alleviate the boredom of the Super Morzine, Zore + Linderets bottlenecks heading back to Châtel.

We’ll be there 11th-18th August (cycling 12-17th) and planning to do the trip down to Samoens on one of the days. Hoping to get the bike shop trailer/bus back up. All to be arranged/researched though. It worked last year and was great fun.

Probably not aiming for first couple of days of the holiday but we’d be on for that sometime 14th-17th.

14 th or 15th... I'd be very up for that with my 4 accomplices if you need more takers for a bus load

DrP has major FOMO...

DrP

Are you staying in Champery?  Would be good to meet, but it takes quite a while to get there I reckon

No sir, we're staying in Morzine down by the river, we're commuting over to Champery for race weekend (although probably staying in paddock on the Sat night). So we'll be local to Morzine most of the time.

Aha, cool.

Yes, we'll meet up!

I've ridden at least 5 different ways back from Samoens on ebikes. Col de la Golese is the best and has some good singletrack on the way back, but is quite a climb. I've done it on 500wHr but only just. The decent to Samoens is worth doing twice to sample both good ways down.

We're staying in Essert Romand from 8-17 July, but mainly walking, riding road bikes and swimming (Morzine's pool and Lac Montriond), but I'm taking my old Cotic out and my 11-year-old son wants to rent a full susser and spends a couple of days on the lifts. 🙂

I loved Morgins and got the bus back. Taxi was plan b.

Take some massive locks. The years I've been people were breaking inna nicking while chalets worth of bikes.

I had taken a lock, and didn't use it the night the place I was at got broken into and all the bikes got nicked.

Are you staying in Champery?  Would be good to meet, but it takes quite a while to get there I reckon

Ride to Champery is a great day out from Morzine with brilliant trails both on the way there and back. World Cup DH is one of my favourite trails but guessing that is what will be used for the racing.

In the OP - I don't expect that 'Best trails - Part 3' to be open. They're pretty hot on policing no riding on that side of the hill so trails get closed and they have been known to confiscate lift passes.

For Morgins the best bang for your buck is to drive if you can. It's fine by bike, coming back via Chatel lifts (there is a bus but it is rideable), but Morgins justifies a full day and not worrying about making last lifts back.

I've not had much luck with that run down to Samoens (albeit trying to follow strava on phone and not a GPX). Really busy with hikers, lots of stops to figure out the route and a good chunk of road if you can't find the trail at Chantermerle. If you know where you're going and get a clear run it should be good, but I wouldn't have it as a 'must do'. The riding in Samoens is very good so I'd tie it in with that rather than rushing back to Les Gets.

I bet the off-piste at 14+ is SPICY !!!!

Anyone got any pointers for finding this? I've had a look for trails running down to the village after the WC track meets the road but never found anything.

Ride to Champery is a great day out from Morzine with brilliant trails both on the way there and back. World Cup DH is one of my favourite trails but guessing that is what will be used for the racing.

Hi Mark.  I was thinking of your previous posts on this as I was posting. I remember you raving about CWC run :-).

We've done the trip the other direction, from Champery to Morzine, but this'll be out first time staying in France on the PDS.

I minced down it 2 or 3 years ago but didn't/ couldn't persuade the kid to join me on his Anthem. This year he's got his newish Slash so will be well up for it.

So the racing is at the weekend do we reckon the run will be free to ride towards the middle of that following week?

Don't crash on day 1, reducing how many days you can ride and exposing you to 'tourist prices' in the bike shops..

11 days and counting and we'll be on our proper honeymoon in morzine, can't wait.

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51881187149_2baa09edf7_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51881187149_2baa09edf7_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2n3yDqH ]unnamed[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

earlier said Goat Hut type bar/ride.

Anyone got any pointers for finding this? I’ve had a look for trails running down to the village after the WC track meets the road but never found anything.

Do you know where drum & bass (trail) is on that hillside? As you are at the top of the mountain looking down the DH track, it’s to the left. There are actually a load more, higher up. The first fire road crossing off the WC track rather than carrying on, go left down it (for quite a way). Eventually you will hit a meadow with a chalet with a red tiled roof, in the wood there on the right are some spicy numbers.

Be warned though, they are similar to the OG Champery track (not the watered down version it is these days) - they are f*cking spicy.

earlier said Goat Hut type bar/ride.

That looks like the place/lake round the back of the top of Mossettes, where you can ride the ridge back to the top of the Chatel Bike Park.

The photo shows us outside of the Refuge de Cheserey. It was a good day that 😁

Simplest way to get there from Morzine is via (French) Pointe du Mossettes lift. At the top leave the lift station and take the obvious main gravel road down and around the peak, heading down and right. It's signposted as part of the Passport du Soleil route. At the col head left down the blistering fast track to the lake (Lac Vert).

Weeksy, I'll send you a gpx. We covered quite a lot of ground that day.

Enjoy.

14 th or 15th… I’d be very up for that with my 4 accomplices if you need more takers for a bus load

@thegeneralist sounds like it may evolve into a plan. Some ducks to line up - girlfriend will be riding a couple of days and probably not that keen to travel over but I'll work something out and shout to see if it works.

@weeksy hopefully catch up over the week. If I've read the map right, we're not far from the Super Morzine lift in town so should be able to get anywhere really.

I've just got to get on with my physio so I can get enough mobility in my shoulder to enjoy the riding.

@euain deffo mate. You can throw the boy out with mine if he wants and we'll do something less daft. Or at least slower 😄

Can anyone give trail recommendations (and just general stuff) for when its wet - I am at Morzine with my boy next week for the first time and weather looks changeable to put it mildly. A lot of rain. Sounds like it can get very soggy - is there any one trail area better than others in these conditions?

Or perhaps Alpine weather forecasts are unreliable and it will be sunny all week....

A bit of Samoens looks fun 🙂

Looking super super fun with the right level of speed, but also lots of techy roots and sniper turns etc.... I'm feeling this 🙂

We had a great few days in Samoens in 2022. It was dry and hot. Loads of off piste techy stuff.

Would love to get back

It's got the most roots I've every ridden. Wouldn't want to tackle them In the wet.

We are just setting off on our Alps trip. It's not on this year's visit list.

Starting in Verbier where it all went wrong last year 🤞😎

Finishing up a week in Morzine - forecast was indeed wrong and weather was mainly excellent, just heavy rain on our last riding day. Trails were in majestic condition, some braking bumps in Les Gets that must just be eternal.

Pleney black was the highlight of the bike park for us, many laps. Best overall was a big steep twisty treey descent from supermorzine back to the town, which rode great in the dry (wouldn't fancy it in the wet), and the La Bourgeoise descent into Samoens from the cross (eastern fork). Seen it mentioned many times on here - Prob one of the best descents I've ever done tbh.

Going opening week meant beautiful trail conditions and the town being really quiet - right up my street but wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. Some lifts not open, though - I hadn't realised what a big deal this can be for connecting different valleys. Wasn't really an issue for a first trip as there was so much new to ride, but something I'd look more carefully at in the future.

Have a great trip everyone going over this year.

I remember trying to find that Samoens descent once. I must have not found the correct trail, because what we rode was ok, but far from fantastic. I will have to try it again some time. Does anyone have any handy tips for finding the right trail - I think I mainly followed my nose, which must be the wrong way. Is the trail on Trailforks?

Currently in the airport awaiting our morzine destination. Feel very fortune, hope the bikes make it there ok.

DH La Bourgeoise vers Samoens on trailforks johnhe. Other arm of the descent is also meant to be good.

Anybody in morzine this week?

First day of riding delivered claggy mud today, nothing like anything I've ever ridden. Great fun after the wife recovered from a panic attack. Feeling very blessed, it's so bloody beautiful around here.