I’ve dug this up from an old blog of mine. Things have changed a little since then … we didn’t get to Les Gets, or anywhere else for that matter, mountain biking this year. Instead we had a baby who is very cute but not so downhill mountain biking friendly … wouldn’t change things for the world though ….
Archive – Les Gets Summer 2008
We went to Les Get / Morzine in early July 2008 for some gravity fueled mountain biking. We stayed in a chalet just outside of Les Get town centre which had a very nice heated floor and views over the mountains. Only downside was that the first lift of the morning was uphill!
Lift passes were significantly cheaper than winter lift passes although only 20 or so lifts are open rather than 80 or so, but it was all you really needed to cover a fairly large area including getting over to Switzerland. The lifts had various ways of attaching your bike (none of which filled me entirely with confidence!) and were definately a much better way of getting to the top of the hill than cycling!
The riding was very different to anything I had ever done before. What you notice more than the steepness (and it is steep) is the length of the downhills. I really struggled to manage my speed and had lots of trouble with arm pump. The levers on the Hayes 9′s not really suiting my stumpy little fingers! Resorting to 2 finger braking helped, but I have now replaced my levers for some Straigtline’s. Once you get used to the type of riding it is so much fun, learn to carry the speed through the berms and get used to not being in touch with the ground and most of the Les Get side is awesome.
The Morzine side is much rockier and required some serious holding on in places. Even with 6 & 7 inches of travel you get rattled to death! Sarah coped really well, even though she was only on a cross country bike (Specilized Stumpjumper FSR Comp), and was generally not so far behind Rick, Craig and I that were riding significantly beafier bikes (Santa Cruz VP Free, Specialized Big Hit and Marin Quake respectively).
I was certainly glad of my body armour and Full Facer, although you see plenty of people out there not kitted out quite as much most people are. There is quite a lot of cross country to be had away from the lifts. We did one route, that although hard work on a big bike was well worth the effort for the views and the technical descents that although not as long as the downhills was fantastic
One thing to bear in mind if you are heading out there is that even though you are using gravity most of the time we landed up knackered at the end of every day. It is hard work on your whole body, but well worth it!
On the last day being that we were totally knackered we chilled out at a little jump park half way down the chavane downhill (It was designed for kids apparently!). We spent a good couple of hours playing on the drop of, see saw, shore and table tops, felt really good to finally get being in the air more dialed
You’d have though that after 6 days of gravity sports we would have had enough adrenaline to last a lifetime, but, Rick and I decided to finish the week with a run down the Devil Karts! It is basically a go Kart with some kind of fairly disfunctional brakes that anyone can go up in.
Not being competitive at all Rick and I may have been racing each other a little. That was until Rick managed to get sideways and flip the Kart onto his head, I then overcooked it and with a little bit of opposite lock crashed into the fairly solid tyre barrier! Needless to say we were both glad to still be wearing full body armour and proper helmets!
Well I’ll be heading back next year. Nice weather, awesome riding and good company…what more could you want!