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Having whored my [url= http://www.thechamonixbikebook.com ]Chamonix Bike Book[/url] for a while earlier this season on Singletrack to gracious response, I felt like the time had come to give back a bit.
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Today I had one of the best hour-and-a-half solo rides of the summer...no lift assist, no people, certainly no bikers, awesome light and brilliant views.
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I drove towards Les Contamines and parked at La Gruvaz for this anticlockwise loop (which isn't in the book, although might be in a future one). Out of the truck it was steep 4x4 track, mostly rideable with a couple of steep pitches that needed a dismount and push.
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Chalets de Miage - the highest point of the ride - was signposted 1hr45 from the car park, but I managed to knock a solid hour off that. Lots of the trails on Contamines side give pretty pessimistic timing guides, I find - or perhaps they just want to make you feel good. As the Chalets got closer I got a couple of glimpses of the 'down' part of the trail.
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down part of trail highlighted here in red
The 4x4 track got pretty exposed as it crossed drainages and contoured before levelling out into the high pasture around the Refuge des Miages.
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The views were stupendous but I didn't hang around for too long, I wanted to get onto one of the flowiest, best-rolling singletracks that the Chamonix area has to offer. The track is very grippy, mostly buff, hardpacked clay and topograhy-wise it is a brilliant advert for a hydraulic seat post; you're working the gears and the dropper thumbswitch the whole time, putting the power down to accelerate up steeps and getting right over the back to soar over the tech sections. I was on a 130mm travel 29er and it coped brilliantly with this part of the ride.
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here i got to use my favourite new trail tool
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After about 5km of whooping, grinning and self-congratulatory back-patting about today's choice of trail, I arrived at Le Say and angled down some vicious, rocky 4x4 track before climbing back up to the truck and finishing my day.
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What a ride. In terms of investment (pushing) for return (flow), you'll not get much better out of season, and it should certainly be on your to-do list if you ride here while the lifts are shut. Sorry for the first-person-perspective shots, was on my own for this one.
Nice write up!
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very nice
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Nice.. good to see that trail again. Great riding in that area.
We rode about half of that going the other way this summer. Pushed up from a village just off that map to the N and rode the TMB trail southward and stopped for food at the chalets. I remember those rocky exposed corners ) I'd need to get a map out to say where it was, but W-SW towards Chapelle off the bottom of your loop we ended up on a brilliant cheeky footpath in the woods, steep switchbacks and quite skinny / enclosed, really nice, worth looking for. Probably just one of many tho..
would the 1hr 45 be a walking time for hikers?
looks like a brilliant day out and rather autumnal, wont be long before its all under its winter coat
Nice saw 🙂
rode part of this yesterday from Les Houches via the Col de Tricot, it was a sweet Autumn day in the mountains.
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At the bottom of the gnarly 4x4 track below le Say there was a trail coming in from le Champel which is going to be worth an explore as that might be a nicer option to finish.