Alpine Addiction are planning to put together a trip for South African Mountain Bikers to ride in the Portes Du Soleil Mountain Biking area in July of 2015. We are looking for a maximum of 20 passionate Mountain Bikers to join us for a trip in 2015. We are going in mid July. The provisional departure date is 17th July 2015. This gives us the best chance of good weather and fresh trails.
If you ride a carbon 29er hard tail and consider a jeep track with a middle mannetjie is technical then this trip is probably not for you.
The Portes Du Soleil (PDS) includes the towns of Morzine, Les Gets, Chatel, Morgins and Champery. It covers 2 countries. France and Switzerland. Has 24 ski lifts. 650km of marked trails. The riding will simply blow your mind. There is NOTHING in South Africa that comes remotely close.
It is quite simply the biggest Mountain Biking area on the planet.
The Cost
We are putting this trip together so that guys can leverage off of our knowledge of the area. We want you to maximize your riding time with the least stress and effort. Everything will be organized for you. All you have to do is show up and enjoy the best riding of your life. No cooking. No washing dishes. No hassling with airport transfers and the like. The cost will be R28 500.00. For that you’ll get the following:
- Flights
- Airport shuttles between Geneva and Morzine
- Semi Catered Accommodation (Breakfast & Dinner is included) For lunch you’ll be out on the trails.
- Lift passes for 24 ski lifts
- Access to 5 dedicated bike parks
- Advice from veterans of several trips
- 2 weeks of riding on some of the best trails on the planet
Exclusions
- There are certain costs which we cannot include in the price quoted above:
- Insurance: You MUST have adequate medical and evacuation insurance
- Visa: If you have a South African passport you will need a Shenghen Visa
- Spending money: If you budget on R300 a day for spending money that should be much more than enough. Especially as you won’t be buying groceries. You might also want to buy a kit. While the bike shops aren’t cheap they have loads of variety that we simply don’t get here.
- Bike Repairs: You need to have your bike serviced and in perfect working order before we go. A weeks riding over there is like a year here. And bike shop repairs are expensive.
The Region
We will be basing ourselves in Morzine. Morzine is the epicenter of the Portes du Soleil (PDS). The PDS covers 2 countries, 24 ski lifts, 12 mountains, 650 km of marked track. Morzine is a beautiful little French village roughly the size of Greyton. Adjacent to Morzine are Les Gets and Avoriaz. It’s certainly the biggest town in the region and has the best nightlife and most restaurants. Other towns in the regions include Les Gets, Morgins, Montriond, Avoriaz and Chatel. We will be flying into Geneva and then get a shuttle from there roughly 70km into Morzine.
The Tour de France has passed through the region on numerous occasions and the Col de Joux Plane tops out between Morzine and Les Gets. In 2000 the Joux Plane featured in an epic battle between Lance Armstrong and the late Marco Pantani. Pantani and Armstrong both cracked on the climb and Marco Pantani withdrew from the race the following day. Avoriaz also hosted a TDF stage finish in 2010.
The Riding
It’s actually very hard to describe just how good the riding is over there. Take the best bits of trail you’ve ridden here. Stitch them all together and that will be the first track you ride on the first day. There is riding for all tastes and abilities. Want huge road gaps and hucks? Check! Want 30 perfectly sculpted berms on one trail? Check.
Want kilometres of stunning ridge riding? Check!
I always use a surfing analogy to describe it. It’s like they took Jeffries Bay, Kirra, All of the breaks in Indonesia and the North shore of Hawaii and put them all in the same place. It’s always offshore. And once you are finished with a ride there’s a nice friendly guy who drags you back out into the lineup.
In 2012 I took my Cateye over just to get a feel for how much riding you get through over there. On the sunny days I was averaging 70km a day of riding. Admittedly some of that was commuting. But as an example, to do 70km of DH at Tokai in a day you’d have to do 35 runs.
The trails are all graded by color. The easiest trails are graded green. Then blue, red and the hardest trails are black trails. So there’s very little chance of you ending up on a trail that is beyond your comfort level.
You’ll be most comfortable on a bike with 140mm+ of suspension travel.
The Spots
Pleney. Right there. Loads of fun. The main line is 3.5km lift to lift. In that 3.5km you drop 600m in elevation. There are multiple tracks with multiple offshoots. There are lots of secret trails too which are every bit as steep as Champery.
Super Morzine/Zore. This is the other side of Morzine. It’s Rooty and fast. The main focus of trail building in the Morzine valley is on the Super Morzine/Zore side. In 2012 they had added 2 new trails to the Zore (top) half of the mountain and made an existing illegal track on the Super Morzine section legal. The track down Super Morzine is suuuuper steep but now you can ride from the top of the mountain to the bottom. I’m guessing it’s about 8km top to bottom.
Les Gets. Chavannes. The main red line is 4km long lift to lift and super-fast and fun. There’s also a black track called Canyon. Canyon is actually multiple tracks that are all in the same general area. You could spend 2 days riding Canyon and not hit the same line twice.
Les Gets. Jump Park. 5 tracks loads of fun. There’s some scary stuff on the black trails. It’s also where the famous Les Gets spiral Northshore is.
Les Gets. Mont Cherie. The 2004 Worlds track. Fast and steep. There’s also a nice fun green line and multiple secret tracks if you keep your eyes open.
Chatel. It’s 5km from top to bottom and riding for all tastes. Chatel is probably the best bike park in Europe. There’s everything from Northshore and super smooth fun trails like Serpentine and Blues & Rock right up to Air Voltage and the Chatel Mountain Style course. Yes you can ride it if you want. The great thing about Chatel is the lips on all the jumps are marked with flags. A green flag means you can roll the jump. A red flag means gap. (Top tip: Keep your eyes open for a star. In 2011 Bearclaw and Brandon Semenuk stood behind us in the lift queue and in 2012 we spotted Fabien Barel on the trails.)
Morgins. It’s a bit of a trek to get there and back but totally worth it. Only 5 tracks but they are amazing. They also have alternate lines everywhere to keep it entertaining. The tracks are quite steep and impeccably maintained. The only problem with Morgins is that the trail builders are color blind. The blue track at Morgins would be a red track anywhere else.
Crosets. 3 tracks that are super fun and fast. Well maintained with very few braking bumps.
Champery. Well. You’ve seen the videos. It’s steep. Even by Alps standards. Average gradient 38%.
Lindarettes. The valley lies between Morzine & Chatel. It’s worth spending a bit of time here. It’s un-crowded and has the most “proper” downhill in the area. Rooty, rocky.
What else is there to do?
- The main focus of the trip will be the riding. But there are other activities for the down days.
- Toboggan: There’s a Toboggan in Chatel and Morzine
- Devil Karts: In Chatel they have gravity powered go karts. You race on a dirt track down the hill.
- Water Park: In Avoriaz they have an indoor water park with climbing walls and a water halfpipe.
- Fantasticable: In Chatel there’s a zipline that goes across the valley. TWICE. It looks mad and is always on the to do list but we’ve just never gotten round to doing it.
- You guys can do that stuff. I’m going riding.
Contact:
If you’d like more information on the SA Alpine Addiction 2015 tours you can visit the event website at www.sa-alpine-addiction.co.za, or Follow them on Facebook at Alpine Addiction.
Or give them a call or drop them a mail and have a chat about the tours:
Duane Bosch
083 457 1923
Karl Ebel
072 111 0208
