Morzine Holidays

Eyon

Hi Bike Radar-ers.

Looking at booking a holiday to Morzine this summer. Anyone here who has any advise??

Basically, I'm looking at going mid-late june time when Morzine and Les Gets is open, but no access to the full PDS area. Is this a bad move? Can you get a weeks worth of riding out of the first two mentioned parks? The reason I plan to go this time is A) its cheaper by quite a bit and It's my birthday, and my ideal birthday is one where I spend all day riding my bike

I am looking to buy a DH bike before I go there for the uplift trail, but are the XC trails in the park rideable on a bike such as an Anthem?? Or would I need a bit more bounce?

What else is there in the area apart from riding (not that I plan to do much else!)?

Looking at staying at Riders Retreat, any experience??

Thanks
Ian

dodgy

If I was going to Morzine, I'd hire a quality DH bike locally. I usually go to that area in the first 3 weeks of July. It can get very hot indeed, but last year we had a lot of rain (just for your info).

The trails from the top of Les Gets are fairly manicured but also with some decent drop offs, I reckon the trails around there actually warrant a DH bike, not like the stuff you get in the UK.

bluechair84

As I understand it, all the lifts are open and one PDS ticket will give you access to dozens of lifts on the same pass. You then use the lifts to access mountain ranges you'd otherwise have to drive to. This is what we did last yeat. we stayed in Montriond, rode at Les Gets, Avoriaz, Morzine and Chatel over 7 days.
There is loads of riding but the bike parks and DH courses are very cut up by the shear volume of riders. An Anthem would seriously struggle on these courses but the jumps and drops can all be avoided. It might still be a bit steep and twitchy for the longer XC but if it's what you're used to then I'm sure yo'd be fine. Just remember to put the seat down
In my blog are writes-ups of last years holiday, videos, and a costings plan for our holiday this year.

Eyon

No I understand the Anthem would be useless on downhills, I wouldn't even consider it, I was more wondering about the standard trails. How do they compare to say, welsh trail centres?

The reason I intend to buy a DH bike is, I'll pick one up second hand, ride it for a week, then sell it. It would cost, at current exchange rate, about £330 to hire a Nukeproof Scalp for 6 days in Morzine, but I'm betting I wouldn't loose out on £330 if I bought and sold a 2nd hand bike.

Not fussed about how manufactured the trails are, if I'm honest I quite like that as they tend to be, for me, more "fun". The PDS ticket is only available from 30th June onwards it seems, and riders retreat carries a premium of €100 from that time onwards.

bluechair84

Yeah, I think you'd be doing the best thing buying a suitable bike then selling it - you potentially loose less money. But only if you are abel to sell it. I can't really comment on the XC routes as we spent all our time on the DH - this year we'll be doing more XC stuff - but you certainly wouldn't need a full DH bike for them. There's plenty of videos online that just show them to be a bit rocky.
When you say, a 100E premium, for how long-a period? Our chalet is 35E a night which I think is very reasonable considering you can't get a B&B in this country for that price. I've enquired about 10 nights with them and they're willing to give us a discount too.

DXG82

Hi there

I went to Morzine in 2010 and went in September when some of the lifts had shut so we only had access to three lifts (Pleney, Mont Chery and Chavannes). I was only really doing the XC riding as downhill was a bit scary for me (although I did have some great fun on the green downhill runs from the top of the Chavannes and Mont Chery, but that's about my limit for downhill I'm afraid!)

There are not that many different official (ie marked on the map) XC trails just in Morzine / Les Get so I did find that towards the end of the week we were repeating routes, but that did not bother me too much and I still had a good time, but there are definitely not enough 'official' XC trails for a whole week just in Morzine and Les Gets. I am sure there are loads of unmarked routes so if you have the cash might be worth hiring a local guide for an afternoon to show you some of the off- piste trails.

In terms of bikes I was riding a Kona Dawg and it was sufficient for the XC trails, although if you were doing downhill trails I would definitely advise on a downhill bike. Some of the cross country trails do have quite a bit of climbing too so you would end up pushing a downhill bike I think.

Re other activities, there are tennis courts in Les Gets so I sometimes played tennis in the evenings, plus there is hiking, climbing, kayaking, rafting, hydro speeding, canoeing, canyoning, horse riding, via ferrata, parapenting...... we booked through Alpine Elements so maybe check out their website for ideas of activities in the resorts. There is also a lake for swimming.

Have a good trip!

Chalky76

Ian,

Bear in mind over 6 days of riding in Morzine there is a good chance you could do a fair bit of damage to your bike, might mean the hassle of buying and then selling a bike is not worth it if you have to replace some parts?

Enjoy whatever you do, it's great out there. There are loads of trails and plenty of xc stuff if you know where to go. A guide (admittedly another cost) on the 1st day would help you a lot.

Cheers

miss notax

I went to Morzine last summer thinking that it would be an xc week, but ended up being quite dh-ish anyway

I rode a 5 for all of the trails and was ok, although I wasn't exactly getting massive air off anything! I agree that a dh bike would be much for suitable (and fun) for the proper dh trails - I did them, but struggled on the 5 :?

bluechair84

miss notax wrote:

I agree that a dh bike would be much for suitable (and fun) for the proper dh trails - I did them, but struggled on the 5 :?

If only for the braking bumps! It's almost impossible to get around some of the berms at full speed without 7inches of travel.

miss notax

Oh god yes, the braking bumps were horrendous :?

It was thick mud and peeing with rain (and occassional snow :shock: ) when we were there too - mmmmm, happy days

bluechair84

miss notax wrote:

Oh god yes, the braking bumps were horrendous :?

It was thick mud and peeing with rain (and occassional snow :shock: ) when we were there too - mmmmm, happy days

ooh God, the rain! S'all right, us Brits are hardened to a good lashing.

Eyon

Bear in mind over 6 days of riding in Morzine there is a good chance you could do a fair bit of damage to your bike, might mean the hassle of buying and then selling a bike is not worth it if you have to replace some parts?

What sort of damage gets done? I can see a RD going but what else is there :?:

So scrap the XC bike idea, now is time to find a DH bike.

Thanks for all the feedback also, making decisions much easier.

Also, do people generally fly to Geneva then get a transfer, or is it easier just to drive??

bluechair84

the two most recent posts in my blog cover the costs of both to help people weigh up the pros and cons. Unless you are one or two riders, it's cheaper to drive (depending on where you setting off from) and you'd get much more allowance for spares, helmets, armour, and beer for the return journey.
As for failures; whilst out there last year, one led blew his Revs from too much DH O_o You can easily destroy your forks / shock at the bushing, seals or cartridge. I serviced mine prior to going (36s) to help mitigate this

miss notax

bluechair84 wrote:

As for failures; whilst out there last year, one led blew his Revs from too much DH O_o You can easily destroy your forks / shock at the bushing, seals or cartridge. I serviced mine prior to going (36s) to help mitigate this

This is true - my bike was serviced before going, and I still managed to blow all the seals on my forks during the course of the week (and i'm very lightweight rider!). It's very tough on bikes