On the 4th day we went up the chair lift to Oberbach and then descended all the way back to the Rhone, we called it a day here and caught the train back towards Verbier. We’ll have to go back and finish it off when we can get time out again.

I’ll do a full write up over the next few days (weeks). Until then you will need to content yourself with the photos and video at the bottom of this page. NB Riding on Singletrack in the Valais is mostly illegal. Some of it is promoted by the local tourist offices, this does not seem to make a it “legal” it just seems to give it some moral standing with us bikers! Either way, if you are going to ride on singletrack in the Valais, keep a low profile and be extra respectful of the other trail users.

Chamonix to Zermatt.

Sometimes called the “Haute Route”, in fact the skiers Haute Route is a lot more direct and way too snowy for a bike trip. There is also a walkers route but this is too arduous for bikes too. A little history is available http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haute_Route

Day 1. Chamonix to Verbier.

The obvious way would be to leave the Chamonix valley via Le Tour, take the lift (if it is open) up to the Col de Balme and then descend to Trient (brilliant), climb to the La Forclaz and then either push and carry (some good riding) via Bovine to Champex or descend towards Martigny and do a (long) road climb to Champex. From here you can descend on singletrack to Sembrancher (at the base of the Verbier hill. I’m not keen on pointless uphill slogs so would recommend taking the bus up to Verbier!

OR, why not consider this, suggested by Graham Moss http://www.wood-man.co.uk/

Leave Chamonix and go to Courmayeur (actually Entreves) and start from here. This route is much more rideable than the obvious choice. Ride over the Col Ferret and then descend towards Orsieres and then Sembrancher on plenty of excellent forested singletracks.

Day 2. Chamonix to Zermatt. Verbier to Evolene.

The obvious choice (and then one we took) is to use the Ruinettes lift out of Verbier, traverse around to the Croix de Coeur and then follow signs for the “Grand Raid” http://www.grand-raid-cristalp.ch/ for the next two days – yes really! If you want GPX files and stats it’s all on this website!

There will be loads of alternatives, this is really Bike Verbier country so they would be the people to go with.

I’ll flesh this out a bit….. The Grand Raid route up until Evolene is very nice, mostly smooth fire road but with some good singletrack sections linking things together. For someone like me it is good route to get a feel for the topography of the area. It is a bit long though. We peddled for 65km and climbed over 1700m. Even then we didn’t bother with the climb over Sex Pey, that would have been one climb too far for me. As it was we had started quite late (11am) and did not get in to Evolene until 7pm. We stayed at a great little spot http://www.pensionevolene.ch/.

Our diversion around Sex Pey took in some of the best singletrack of the day, it was like the track had been made for bikes. We discovered as the days went on that with a 1:25,000 map to navigate by any walking track would turn out to be great riding. This did make navigation much easier and meant we could be a lot more adventuous than we would have been in France. I guess this is why I’m not going to describe the exact trail we rode. There is no point. A route can be manufactured around the circumstances of the day. Though it does mean the map has to be fairly handy! However in hindsight we would have made one change to the day. We hit the road just up the valley from Euseigne, we should have taken the bus from here to Evolene. Instead I announced that it was 6km and 300m of ascent on the road. Easy! Except we were wasted and the actual stats closer to 400m of ascent. Ouch!

Day 3. Chamonix to Zermatt. Evolene to Grimentz.

We had the luxury of starting early today, a good thing too as it was going to be another long one! I need to check but 1700m of ascent and 65km rings a bell. Again we followed the Grand Raid mountiain bike route, we climbed out of Evolene to Forclaz on wide tracks, descended on singletrack to Eison and then climbed, climbed and then pushed the bikes to the Pas de Lona. Here we had one of the very few descisions to make. We could see on the map that a singletrack led off to the left and took a direct route via the Pointe de Lona and then straight to Grimentz. It looked great but on the map it tipped over a cliff band and then over some rocky terrain. We opted for the sign posted route via the Lac de Mory. We probably had one of the best views of the trip when we got to the Basset de Lona, the descent was mostly wide smooth 4×4 track, we added interest on the cut-through singletracks. Steve added more interest by downclimbing his very own cliff band. We stuck to the jeep track!  Well worth it for the views but next time we’ll check out the alternative.

We stuck to the off-road all the way to Grimentz. We hadn’t arranged any accomodation which was a problem as we’d found a pub first. I think in the future we’ll give Grimentz (toy town) a miss and head down to Vissoie or St Luc for somewhere to stay. As it was we overnighted in Mayoux.

Day 4. Chamonix to Zermatt. Grimentz to Unterbäch.

We left our beds early and rode to Vissoie, got on the first bus up the hill to st Luc and went up the funiculaire to Tignousa. From here a route had been less clear to us. Thankfully my Googling had produced

http://www.alpavista.ch/Alp09/2009/08/15/illsee-09/

and

http://www.alpavista.ch/Alp09/2003/07/29/sublime-illsee/

Which had given us some clues. In addition to this we had picked up a free MTB guide in Grimentz which described one of the above routes as “Route 6″. AND Bike Verbier had ridden “route 6″ and told Steve it was good. Decision made then!

This day was much more up our street. We started up the funicular which gave us a 500m headstart. As had been usual for this trip we were unable to pass the café at the top of the lift without a coffee (and croissant and sandwich). The staff here were chatty and mentioned we could stay the night, in fact some other groups do. Not as many now as in the past though. Maybe this route is becoming old hat? Here we bumped into Graham and Mark, oddly we had followed Graham around the TMB last year, it looks like we were doing the same this year! Turns out he was always “one step head” or more accurately we were always “one drink behind”.

We followed route 6 in its entirety, we went over the Illpass and down to Illsee, Steve had been over the Pas d’Illsee before and reckons it was more rideable. Pushed over the parilet and then took in the view for ages, well aware that what followed was almost 2000m of singletrack descent. We’ve heard this called the “58 switchbacks” or the “37 switchbacks”, we didn’t count, very good riding though. Just before we hit the valley we rode back up and along to Unterems, more singeltrack and then down to Turtmann (beer stop), then we took the Rhone side cycle track along to Turtig and used the lift to get up to Unterbach. It was quite late in the day and we had no idea where to stay, thankfully Graham met us off the lift and suggested the http://www.rhone.ch/hotel-walliserhof/ ,that hit the spot.

Day 4, Chamonix to Zermatt, Unterbach to Zermatt.

To be continued…..

All the photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/endlessride/sets/72157622454089262/

A video here:

the gpx file

Loads more pictures here.

It’s featured in this mountain bike video. Start watching at the 3 min mark.

Quotes from the riders on the day “my best ride out ever”, “you should have MADE us go riding with you guys earlier in the week, not on our last day!”.

Hospice du Grand Saint Bernard from Gareth Jefferies on Vimeo

It is the easiest way across this bit of the Alps, there is evidence the pass has been in use since the Bronze Age. The first hostel (hospice, I don’t think it is a Monastery, that’s down the valley) was set up by Bernard of Methon 1000 yrs ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_of_Menthon

The hospice was only ever set up as a shelter and rescue post run by 4 monks. It’s a very inhospitable spot but as the only crossing point it was used even in the depths of winter. Apparently there was quite a trade in guiding services, not only is the path threatened by avalanches but in those days bandits too. The Hospice provided guiding for free and mountain rescue when required, also free lodging and food. The tunnel was built in the late 50’s that bypassed it, this messed up the raison d’être for the Hospice so now it has turned itself into a commercial venture and “retreat” for religious teaching. It is still manned by mountaineers – that also wear habits and pray a lot. As it can cater for over 100 people there are other staff there too, though they are all into the outdoors. Their motto is something like “Welcome, safety, nourishment” and you still get free tea. They still don’t turn anyone away – I’m fairly sure that you can stay for free as well. It’s funny but although certain aspects of the hospice are thoroughly modern (there was a very professional audio visual presentation after dinner – where I gleaned these facts) they still will only let people stay who have arrived under their own steam. So no “tourists” can stay in the summer! Only people who have toiled over the mountains to reach them.

A really brilliant spot. Worth a few days stay – cheap too at 40 euros a night for a bedroom, dinner and breakfast.

You can book on +41 27 787 12 36, you will need to call between 1000-1130hrs and 1500-1730hrs.

6100m of ascent, 138km over 3.5 days, our version of the TMB by MTB.

We had been talking about the Tour du Mt Blanc all summer. The time was set for “sometime from the middle of September”. The main decider would be the weather. None of us were willing to set out on this trip without a good forecast!

We did a little research on the route. The people we know who had done it were split on direction “clockwise or anti-clockwise”, I spoke with Jamie Carr who convinced us to go “anti”, against the flow for most parties. He made a good argument though. It went along the lines of:

1. More rideable
2. Less road
3. You get to do the “Bovine” section which would be avoided otherwise.
4. What’s the point going clockwise just so you can use the lifts at Le Tour? – They’ll be closed in September anyway.
5. What does it matter??

I liked pt 5, on a multi day circular trip the direction augments should equal out, shouldn’t they?

Sian and Carl spotted a clear spell and gathered the troops with 24hrs notice. The team dropped from 6 to 4. Xaver had to travel from Munich, a good effort. He wasn’t at all sure about the chosen direction. We had to gang up on him.

We took over 600 photos, the best 92 can be found HERE

Tour du Mt Blanc by Mountain Bike. Day 1. Ascent, 1300m Distance, 11km

CLICK HERE FOR THE ROUTE ON DAY1

A half day really. I’m not good at getting ready the day before so had timetable a 2pm start from Les Contamines. A cold front had just swept through the Alps leaving snow down to about 2200m. It was going to be cold! We set off from the carpark (1200m) at Notre Dame de la Gorge and managed to ride the flat 500m until the path started upwards. We were reduced to pushing within 2 minutes of starting! A combination of pushing and riding so us arrive at the Refuge du Col Croix du Bonhomme (2433m)at about 5.30pm. I had rung ahead to check the hut was open. It was. I’m pretty sure the person I had spoken to had said that it was “non-gardé”, I only realised this when we discovered that it was in fact “non-gardé”, bugger. Thankfully it had just been vacated by the guadian, this meant that there was plenty of left-over food for us. 2 others had been caught out in the same way, the hut was stocked with wood for the fire and gas for the stove. All in all much more relaxing than when these places are staffed and all for 10€.

Tour du Mt Blanc by Mountain Bike. Day 2. Ascent, 1700m Distance, 36km

CLICK HERE FOR THE ROUTE ON DAY2

This morning was cold with occasional mist. We could see the day would end up perfect but to start with it was well below freezing. We were not up for what was obviously a fairly difficult descent until it had thawed somewhat.

We waited until 10am, at least the ground had defrosted. We rode the tricky singletrack down to Les Chapieux. We had an early lunch at the Refuge de la Nova, more of a guest house really. Open most of the year. From here it was a 900m grunt up to the Col de la Seigne (2516m), by this time the weather was pretty much perfect. We descended down to the Val Veni, before we got to Courmayeur we included am excursion (another 500m of climbing) up onto the South side of the valley. As we started so late in the day and hadn’t eaten much this was fairly painful. Well worth it though for the riding and the views. By the time we dropped into the valley the sun had long disappeared and it was quite chill again. We had talked to a local about the best way to get to the Hotel, it involved a clever dirt road near the exit to the Mt Blanc tunnel and saved us a fair amount of faff.

Tour du Mt Blanc by Mountain Bike. Day 3. Ascent, 1400m Distance, 47km

CLICK HERE FOR THE ROUTE ON DAY3

We set off in better time this morning, the gentle ride up the Italian Val Ferret was another freezing affair, a great looking spot though, much more American than European. We reached the end of the tarmac in about an hour and a half. Here we could not pass up the opportunity for a coffee and cake. We had come to the conclusion that the only places that were open at this time of year would have tarmac leading to them (we were not wrong), this left some quite large distances between refreshments. The slog over the Col du Grand Ferret was very slippery that day. The descent was on the sunny side so had dried up. The track was a real highlight of the trip. Towards the bottom we came to a farm. We believe a left turn here would have led to more singletrack. Lunch in La Fouly was calling and we missed it out. The rest of the ride down the valley bottom was world class. We rode right to the bottom of the valley to spend a sneaky night at a friends house. The purists would have climbed up to Champex Lac.

Day 4. Ascent, 1700m Distance, 44km

CLICK HERE FOR THE ROUTE ON DAY4

After a lift up to Champex Lac (that saved 800m of tarmac climbing) we had our second coffee of the morning and still managed to get going before 9.30am. We had feared this next section for a while. It had been described as a 1hr “carry”, 500m of ascent, we had actually avoided much carrying up until today and Sian especially didn’t fancy her chances on this. None of us ride particularly light weight bikes! As it turns out it was very hard work. We know one thing though, you’ll not be riding this climb in reverse, it’ll be another hour of carrying. Once we’d dealt with the carry it was all good singletrack from then until the col de la Forclaz. Well worth the effort. We had lunch here – BIG MISTAKE, it’s a tourist trap. Next time we’ll head down to Trient for better value. We knew the riding from here on, we climbed up to reservoir above Vallorcine (another 500m) and descended the new Vallorcine downhill course, we sneaked a traverse in to Le Buet and then headed to the MBC in Chamonix the fasted off road route we know. The weather was threatening to break.

Conclusions

1. Is “anti” the best way around – who knows? We’ll do it “clockwise” next time just to see.
2. We’d definitely wait for good weather, the break in the weather we went for worked out perfectly.
3. Would we advise going on an organised trip? Definitely, just imagine what you’d do if you had an injury, a mechanical or an illness? RidetheAlps would be my first suggestion for an “anti” trip. We had various advantages over most. We have all worked as bike guides in the Alps for over 5 years and we know people on both sides of Mt Blanc who can help us out if needed. We ride strong well tested bikes and we don’t break them!
4. Would we do it again? Like a shot – either way round.

Tete de Bostan profile

It takes a small indistinct path straight through the main cliffs (Les Terres Maudites or The Evil Ground). It’s not as bad as it sounds!

Map of the route

The descent was via the Col de Bostan, a very wild spot and then down the valley via the Bostan-Tornay refuge. We came across another group here who were also trying to fit this in between dropping the kids at school and picking them up at 4.30pm!

Autumn Snow

6100m of ascent, 138km over 3.5 days, our version of the TMB by MTB.

We had been talking about the Tour du Mt Blanc all summer. The time was set for “sometime from the middle of September”. The main decider would be the weather. None of us were willing to set out on this trip without a good forecast!

We did a little research on the route. The people we know who had done it were split on direction “clockwise or anti-clockwise”, I spoke with Jamie Carr who convinced us to go “anti”, against the flow for most parties. He made a good argument though. It went along the lines of:

1. More rideable
2. Less road
3. You get to do the “Bovine” section which would be avoided otherwise.
4. What’s the point going clockwise just so you can use the lifts at Le Tour? – They’ll be closed in September anyway.
5. What does it matter??

I liked pt 5, on a multi day circular trip the direction augments should equal out, shouldn’t they?

Sian and Carl spotted a clear spell and gathered the troops with 24hrs notice. The team dropped from 6 to 4. Xaver had to travel from Munich, a good effort. He wasn’t at all sure about the chosen direction. We had to gang up on him.

We took over 600 photos, the best 92 can be found HERE

Day 1. Ascent, 1300m Distance, 11km

CLICK HERE FOR THE ROUTE ON DAY1

A half day really. I’m not good at getting ready the day before so had timetable a 2pm start from Les Contamines. A cold front had just swept through the Alps leaving snow down to about 2200m. It was going to be cold! We set off from the carpark (1200m) at Notre Dame de la Gorge and managed to ride the flat 500m until the path started upwards. We were reduced to pushing within 2 minutes of starting! A combination of pushing and riding so us arrive at the Refuge du Col Croix du Bonhomme (2433m)at about 5.30pm. I had rung ahead to check the hut was open. It was. I’m pretty sure the person I had spoken to had said that it was “non-gardé”, I only realised this when we discovered that it was in fact “non-gardé”, bugger. Thankfully it had just been vacated by the guadian, this meant that there was plenty of left-over food for us. 2 others had been caught out in the same way, the hut was stocked with wood for the fire and gas for the stove. All in all much more relaxing than when these places are staffed and all for 10€.

Day 2. Ascent, 1700m Distance, 36km

CLICK HERE FOR THE ROUTE ON DAY2

This morning was cold with occasional mist. We could see the day would end up perfect but to start with it was well below freezing. We were not up for what was obviously a fairly difficult descent until it had thawed somewhat.

We waited until 10am, at least the ground had defrosted. We rode the tricky singletrack down to Les Chapieux. We had an early lunch at the Refuge de la Nova, more of a guest house really. Open most of the year. From here it was a 900m grunt up to the Col de la Seigne (2516m), by this time the weather was pretty much perfect.  We descended down to the Val Veni, before we got to Courmayeur we included am excursion (another 500m of climbing) up onto the South side of the valley. As we started so late in the day and hadn’t eaten much this was fairly painful. Well worth it though for the riding and the views. By the time we dropped into the valley the sun had long disappeared and it was quite chill again. We had talked to a local about the best way to get to the Hotel, it involved a clever dirt road near the exit to the Mt Blanc tunnel and saved us a fair amount of faff.

Day 3. Ascent, 1400m Distance, 47km

CLICK HERE FOR THE ROUTE ON DAY3

We set off in better time this morning, the gentle ride up the Italian Val Ferret was another freezing affair, a great looking spot though, much more American than European. We reached the end of the tarmac in about an hour and a half. Here we could not pass up the opportunity for a coffee and cake. We had come to the conclusion that the only places that were open at this time of year would have tarmac leading to them (we were not wrong), this left some quite large distances between refreshments. The slog over the Col du Grand Ferret was very slippery that day. The descent was on the sunny side so had dried up. The track was a real highlight of the trip. Towards the bottom we came to a farm. We believe a left turn here would have led to more singletrack. Lunch in La Fouly was calling and we missed it out. The rest of the ride down the valley bottom was world class. We rode right to the bottom of the valley to spend a sneaky night at a friends house. The purists would have climbed up to Champex Lac.

Day 4. Ascent, 1700m Distance, 44km

CLICK HERE FOR THE ROUTE ON DAY4

After a lift up to Champex Lac (that saved 800m of tarmac climbing) we had our second coffee of the morning and still managed to get going before 9.30am. We had feared this next section for a while. It had been described as a 1hr “carry”, 500m of ascent, we had actually avoided much carrying up until today and Sian especially didn’t fancy her chances on this. None of us ride particularly light weight bikes! As it turns out it was very hard work. We know one thing though, you’ll not be riding this climb in reverse, it’ll be another hour of carrying.  Once we’d dealt with the carry it was all good singletrack from then until the col de la Forclaz. Well worth the effort. We had lunch here – BIG MISTAKE, it’s a tourist trap. Next time we’ll head down to Trient for better value. We knew the riding from here on, we climbed up to reservoir above Vallorcine (another 500m) and descended the new Vallorcine downhill course, we sneaked a traverse in to Le Buet and then headed to the MBC in Chamonix the fasted off road route we know. The weather was threatening to break.

Conclusions

1. Is “anti” the best way around – who knows? We’ll do it “clockwise” next time just to see.
2. We’d definitely wait for good weather, the break in the weather we went for worked out perfectly.
3. Would we advise going on an organised trip? Definitely, just imagine what you’d do if you had an injury, a mechanical or an illness? RidetheAlps would be my first suggestion for an “anti” trip. We had various advantages over most. We have all worked as bike guides in the Alps for over 5 years and we know people on both sides of Mt Blanc who can help us out if needed. We ride strong well tested bikes and we don’t break them!
4. Would we do it again? Like a shot – either way round.

Click HERE for the pictures on flickr.

More pictures can be found on my flickr site

There are a few photos on my flickr site.