# To the Alps from the Rockies



## Goatrak (Jan 13, 2004)

Hello all. My spouse and I are planning a 2 week Alps trip for mid September this year. I've looked at a lot of the web sites listed in other threads, but was hoping to get a reality check for the feasibility of what we've come up with at this point. Please excuse the email length, but since we've never even been to Europe, we've got a million questions. Any input received will be greatly appreciated. 

We're coming from the Colorado mtns, so we're thinking we'll be OK with the elevations, and as far as riding, I'd guess technical to XC trails are our preference. We're not specifically looking for lift-assisted areas, but we wouldn't be against trying lifts, if any of them are still operating at that time of year. In general I guess you could say we were looking to do some civilized alpine riding (high tracks with maybe an occasional stop for a brew). 

Our thought was not to stay at one place, or with an organized tour (which would be a lot easier logistics-wise), but rather, move around some to experience several places. We'll need to rent bikes at each place, so that probably limits us to more developed MTB areas, and we thought we'd try all public transportation rather than a car (but that's not set in stone). We're flying into Zurich, and from reading many accounts of riding around the Portes du Soleil area (both Swiss and French sides), I thought that would be a good area to head to, possibly Morzine/Les Gets in France, or Champery on the Swiss side, or maybe over to Chamonix. And since reading the thread about the Lauterbrunnen/Grindelwald area and since it looks on the way, that could be a stop now, and maybe Verbier since it looks fairly bike oriented. So, any comments on this rough general itinerary above would be greatly appreciated, or other areas that maybe are more appropriate. Aaaannnnnd, some specific questions I had were; We are likely going to Zermatt at some point, but it in general sounds like hiking is more the focus, and MTBing is better left to other areas? The organized tour brochures say that without their local guides you'll miss most of the good trails, is this really true, or can maps work almost as well, like the Bike-Explore, Kummerly/Frey, and Resort maps? I've got a ton of other questions, but trips are for exploring and learning. Thanks again.


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## fullsuspfuture (May 20, 2004)

Although I see the advantages to trying to rent bikes, if you have bikes you like and they work well, you may consider to overcome the hassle of the packing once in each direction for the flight and just bring your own. I think there may be lots of places nice riding places where it may be difficult to rent good bikes. On the other hand, if you're able to plan in advance that these are the 4 places you want to ride, and each has good quality bikes for rent, then renting may be better.

At least when you are inside Switzerland it is quite easy to bring bikes on most trains (except newer 'ICN' trains that unfortunately are near the geneva and zurich airports, here you can bring bikes, but must make a reservation in advance) In all cases there is a bike ticket you must buy for your bike (maximum 10-15Sfr a day)
Here is the link to the bike on train info (where you can access all the other swiss train/timetable, etc, too)
http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/en/reisemarkt/services/wissen/veloselbstverlad/veloselbstverlad-schweiz.htm

Finding good trails is quite a task. In addition to bike-explorer cds and maps, also check out www.singletrailmaps.ch. Especially maps in the lower half of the country if you are looking for the alpine experience. They don't yet have maps for the Valais (Wallis) (french and german names for the same area) area which has lots of great riding. (But there is the bike-explorer CD).
Keep in mind all those products include singletrack and fireroad and paved roads, so you need to pick and choose what interests you (and no there generally isn't only the option to do 15 miles of singletrack and nothing else)

Around Zermatt it may be a little bit more possible for mtn biking in sept (a little bit fewer hikers) but I haven't done much riding there yet. But around Visp, which is at the crossroads to the zermatt valley, is great riding.

(To put in perspective, great riding (to me) is easy to medium singletrack, mixed with little-used paved or dirt roads for access, sometimes there is a little hiking involved too.)

You may also want to check out the livignio area, they have built extra trails for some race happening at the end of august. I've done some stuff around there, but want to check out more there.

And livignio links you to the grison (graubunden) area which has nice riding too, and might as well mention the tessin (ticino) - the lugano area hosted also some races last year and developed a few nice trails and a map, at least I did one on the eastern side of the map which was fantastic. If you have bad weather north of the alps, often the tessin has nicer weather still, being on the south side of the alps.

cheers


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## [email protected] (Jan 31, 2005)

Goatrak said:


> We're flying into Zurich, and from reading many accounts of riding around the Portes du Soleil area (both Swiss and French sides), I thought that would be a good area to head to, possibly Morzine/Les Gets in France, or Champery on the Swiss side, or maybe over to Chamonix.


Champery is a good spot, we were three times there for one week holiday. You have the
choice of transportation by lift, if you need it.
Two links about the location
https://www.portesdusoleil.com/ete/panorama/Panoramaete.gif
ftp://ftp.bikepark.ch/carte_bikepark.jpg
bike price approx 50 CHF per day
https://www.bikepark.ch/magasin_alouer_de.php?menu=4
You can buy the mtb map by the tourist office and ride them.
Signs are all over the places and in my opinion for that area you don't
really need a guide.
Starting slowly, used the lift for the first day and then
maybe this bike tour
https://www.liebing.ch/bike/wallis/foilleuse.html or in babel english
https://babel.altavista.com/urltrurl?lp=de_en&trurl=http://www.liebing.ch/bike/wallis/foilleuse.html
as you can see on the graphic there is something like a plateau.

converting kilometers in miles an so on
https://www.onlineconversion.com/length_common.htm

If you prefer access to the portes du soleil region via
Morzine/Les Gets the above is also true for.


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## 8-Ball (Jan 20, 2005)

Can't remember the exact dates, but most of the lifts in the Portes du Soleil (and most other areas?) will be closed around then, I think the only ones open are the Pleney lift in Morzine & Mont Chery lift in Les Gets (11th Sept I think they close). These access the two main DH runs in the area, but there are other trails that feed off of them. The Portes du Soleil area seems to attract mainly DH riders, which is what I've always been there for, but I believe there are some more XC style routes. I can recommend Le Boomerang Hotel in Les Gets if you need somewhere to stay in that area - stayed there for the past 3 years, great friendly staff and a great atmosphere.

Somewhere else to look into would be the Bourg St Maurice/Les Arc area, I rode there back in 1999 and am going back again this September.

Hope some of that helps.


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## [email protected] (Jan 31, 2005)

8-Ball said:


> Can't remember the exact dates, but most of the lifts in the Portes du Soleil (and most other areas?) will be closed around then, I think the only ones open are the Pleney lift in Morzine & Mont Chery lift in Les Gets (11th Sept I think they close).


http://babel.altavista.com/urltrurl...ark.ch/tarifs_horaires_de.php?menu=3&lp=de_en


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## Goatrak (Jan 13, 2004)

Wow! Thanks a ton for all the good tips, info, other potential areas, and web sites. Renting bikes versus bringing our own definitely hinges on me finding shops that will still be open for when we'll be there (and may ultimately dictate where we go). I'd heard bikes are allowed on most trains/buses (and bringing our own bikes is still an option), we were just trying to travel as light as possible and I didn't know if bikes would be a major hassle with our moving-around type itinerary .

The Livignio area as a bad weather option was great info and something I hadn't thought about (it also puts one more variable in the overloaded travel equation in my brain, but that's a good thing).

Thanks for confirming about the Champery area and how you approached it. I also just saw Swissbusters latest photos, incredible. The lift schedules for most areas do appear to be shutting down that time of year, but that's not that big a deal to us (famous last words).

The Alps just over the border in France are very enticing, from Morzine, Les Arcs, down to Chamonix. It's hard for me to get a sense of scale from maps, like how accessable one area is to another. I've have read Les Arcs is more XC than DH, which is more how we lean, so we might see you there in Sept.
OK, we just need rental shops now. I've found quite a few links that I'll start contacting, ….but if anyone happens to know of a particular shop ..….I swear that will be my last question.
Thanks again


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## Coyoteboyuk (Jan 10, 2005)

I can confirm Les Arcs is awesome, and a brilliant mix of XC and DH with enough lifts to mean we spent 3 weeks there riding every day and never rode uphill once lol.

J


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## Hockeygod (Nov 11, 2004)

*How was your trip?*

Just curious as to how things went on your trip!  I would love to hear about your trip - the goods and the bads - and any tips or pictures you could share would be apprciated!

I will post our thoughts / experiences on another thread.


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