Les Gets - family trip

larkim

Just got back from two weeks in Les Gets with family (4 boys, 7-16, SWMBO and myself). Thought I'd put down my thoughts on what went well etc for others who might be thinking of it, particularly with reference to MTB activities.

Bought a 13 day VTT chairlift pass for 16 y/o son as he is the keen MTBer. Despite being on a bike not ideally suited to it (Canyon Nerve), all held up well. Tubeless tyres on ghetto converted wheels meant zero punctures. Tyres were Trail Extreme Smorgasbord from OnOne. He rode quite hard (well, compared to the rest of us) and while the braking bumps were not as well softened for him as they would have been on a bike which was "right" for the conditions, he rode the downhill trails from green to black as well as some of the more natural, unmarked trails, every day we we were there and is still alive. Maintenance required on brake pads (got through a whole set of fronts and two sets of rears through the two weeks) and he took a bang to the rear mech which meant a new hanger, but we were well stocked with tools etc so no problems there.

I only did a couple of days of MTB riding. The cheap decathlon 29er held up OK, but the bumps were hard (as to be expected). Again, tubeless tyres so would have normally expected a couple of flats, but nothing at all. I rode blues and greens with him in Les Gets and the SuperMorzine area, as well as going up out of Lindarets into the long descent from the top of Pointe de Mossettes. Morzine significantly smoother than Les Gets on the swoopy trails, and the new green over there (Soylent Green) was a particular favourite of mine. Just bought a single day pass for the lifts as needed.

Rest of the family only did a little bit of riding as their capabilities range from OK to non-existent. Family ride around Lac du Montriond was nice (up to the waterfall), and three of the family were treated to me dropping them off for the greens down from Avoriaz to the Zore lift, and then picking them up at the bottom, for a free service.

As a family, we bought 5 sets of the Multipass cards. Our accommodation didn't participate in the Multipass discount scheme, but as we were there for 2 weeks, 65Euros each for unlimited pedestrian chair lift access across the whole area, free access to the swimming lake at Les Gets, mini-golf at Avoriaz, entrance to other attractions etc made sense for us. We definitely got VFM out of that, and that gave some structure to where we planned family days out (leaving the 16 year old to his own devices on the mountains).

Despite there being only 6 of us, we took 7 bikes so I could have the road bike there too, and despite being a complete novice roadie I managed to climb up to Avoriaz twice, once on the main road and once via the Lindarets / goat village route. Not fast, but done in one hit and a real sense of achievement for me.

For anyone with a young family, I'd highly recommend Les Gets as a base. Easy to access, plenty to do there and easy to access other areas if you've got a car with you. If you had no car, it wouldn't be quite so easy.

It seemed most of the riders there were on on full DH rigs, but most of them had talent levels mirroring mine (presumre hired bikes) so don't let your level of talent put you off. But hiring for a day plus lift passes would be expensive.

OTOH, if you "only" have a trail bike, don't let that put you off. It isn't ideal, and your arms will get tired, but our experience seemed to suggest that you can get away with what you've got, even if it makes life harder work. It is definitely less fun than cruising over the braking bumps on a 160mm+ DH bike, I'm sure, but nobody died.

We were lucky with dry weather, but on the one day it poured down son did report zero grip in the mud, again to be expected.

Happy to answer any questions as best as i can for anyone thinking of a similar type of family trip. I can only answer as far as I saw it, and I know that there may be opinions about riding "wrong" bikes in this sort of area, but all I can say is that it worked for us!

rockmonkeysc

Having been to Les Gets I wouldn't go back with a trail bike again. It's OK but there are much better alpine resorts for enduro type riding. I'd go back to Les Arcs instead for all the lift accessible natural single track.
Les Gets is much better on a downhill bike.

larkim

I'm certain that's true. Its just that the compromise option worked well for us as there was plenty of family stuff available too.

larkim

Now, there'll be people here saying "I told you so" after this post...

Son took bike out today for a fireroad ride in Delamere. After a mile or so his mate looked at his fork and said "have you noticed that?" - "that" being a great big crack across the fork brace meaning the lowers are now in two parts. The crack wasn't visible when we packed up the bike on Friday, but there's no doubt it will have been caused by the french riding rather than the Cheshire riding!

I suspect son got overly keen on the last two days and hit things a little harder than the Rebas were designed for. Ah well, he's got a Saturday job, he can shell out for a new fork....

(I can't really deny that this must have happened by riding the bike too hard over the last two weeks - though its still cheaper to ruin a fork over a 13 day period than hire a DH bike for that long I think...)

VWsurfbum

Awesome write up, and i'm looking at doing this myself with my tribe or possibly a group of mates first?
Friends are all out at 2alps at the moment but they are DH types and i must admit i'm a little bit jealous, other friends have just got back from Les Gets where they rode trails and generally had a relaxing holiday. (sounds ideal)

haydenm

Personally I would base myself in Morzine rather than Les Gets, in the 6 years between my last trip and when I was there last week Morzine has changed quite a bit. I even saw some people of the female sex which was next to unheard of 6 years ago (probably not your prime attraction on a family trip), plus there were tonnes of families walking around during the day and plenty of things to do. We went over to Les Gets on one of the days and it was eerily quiet there, maybe it was changeover day or something.

Also, the riding on the Zore lift on the super Morzine side is great on a trail bike and infinitely better than Les Gets imo. I was riding my Kona Process 153 for the week (having previously been on DH bikes), we rode pretty much everything from Plenny steep stuff, Zore to Swiss national. I'd say it was only a struggle on the braking bumps (Chavannes being the worst), other than that I didn't feel especially held back. I might have been marginally faster on a DH bike but I wasn't racing. You definitely get battered so if I was doing another season I might get a DH bike as well just for the fatigue.

As an afterthought, check out Samoens too, I've only been there road cycling in the past but the town is really lovely. It's on a dead end road into the mountains so you don't get the passing traffic but you'd probably need a car to get round to the rest of the PDS stuff

mudsucker

I went to Morzine with my Stumpy FSR 120 haveing told that i would be fine.

I would just like to say I was badly lied to! The terrain is rough and fast in Morzine and I wouldn't go back again without a proper DH bike.I survived by my hands were bruised to the point I struggled to grip the bars after a day (was there a week) and my bike needed a total rebuild afterwards.

Great week but as someone said to me "it's like taking a knife to a gun fight"!

larkim

I can see that, but I actually preferred being based in Les Gets to Morzine. Perhaps it was the location of our accommodation, or my general dislike of "busier" towns, but it felt nice and peaceful up in Les Gets, and with the young family the swimming lake at Lac Des Ecoles was a guaranteed hit day after day. In Morzine the pool complex was ace (also included in the multipass), but I wouldn't have wanted chlorine eyes day in day out.

For access to MTB though I do think Morzine may be better, and at the end of the day you can ride down the road from Les Gets to Morzine for an easy route back, whereas Morzine to Les Gets requires a bit more effort.

But I liked the quieter Les Gets as a resort, but that's probably coloured by having had a fantastic break with my family with excellent weather, so I might be seeing it through rose tinted glasses. We're not the sort that look for bustling bars, clubs etc etc, so for us it was spot on.

Horton

larkim wrote:

Now, there'll be people here saying "I told you so" after this post...

I'm sure Rockmonkey is above that...

larkim

:-)

haydenm

larkim wrote:

I can see that, but I actually preferred being based in Les Gets to Morzine. Perhaps it was the location of our accommodation, or my general dislike of "busier" towns, but it felt nice and peaceful up in Les Gets, and with the young family the swimming lake at Lac Des Ecoles was a guaranteed hit day after day. In Morzine the pool complex was ace (also included in the multipass), but I wouldn't have wanted chlorine eyes day in day out.

For access to MTB though I do think Morzine may be better, and at the end of the day you can ride down the road from Les Gets to Morzine for an easy route back, whereas Morzine to Les Gets requires a bit more effort.

But I liked the quieter Les Gets as a resort, but that's probably coloured by having had a fantastic break with my family with excellent weather, so I might be seeing it through rose tinted glasses. We're not the sort that look for bustling bars, clubs etc etc, so for us it was spot on.

Good point, it is nice in Les Gets and probably perfect for a family holiday. I was just quite surprised at how Morzine seems to have changed since I had been away, definitely taking the Mrs next year, maybe this time I'll rent a chalet rather than living in the back of a van

mudsucker wrote:

I went to Morzine with my Stumpy FSR 120 haveing told that i would be fine.

I would just like to say I was badly lied to! The terrain is rough and fast in Morzine and I wouldn't go back again without a proper DH bike.I survived by my hands were bruised to the point I struggled to grip the bars after a day (was there a week) and my bike needed a total rebuild afterwards.

Great week but as someone said to me "it's like taking a knife to a gun fight"!

Yeah I'm not sure I would fancy that on Plenny. Your description of the week does sound rather like my experiences riding DH bikes there though, mainly because my DH bikes 6 years ago were haggard...

My kona is currently waiting on new frame bearings and suspension service/tune so even a 153mm travel trail bike suffered out there

rockmonkeysc

Horton wrote:

larkim wrote:

Now, there'll be people here saying "I told you so" after this post...

I'm sure Rockmonkey is above that...

Yes, I am.
But I did have a laugh about it.

Horton

:twisted:

larkim

In fairness, people break full DH bikes in Les Gets too, so its not just under-spec'd trail bikes that come a cropper...

But at least I was honest enough to post it as (when I made the original post) the issue hadn't been discovered!

rockmonkeysc

DH bikes are a lot less likely to break though, unless you do something stupid or ride very hard.
Alpine trails kill bikes. Especially more popular trails which have some terrible breaking bumps. Very little trail maintenance gets done out there.

larkim

Agree with that!

rockmonkeysc

Mountain biking is small business compared to skiing. It's just used to keep lifts running through the summer so very little gets invested in trails.
Les Arcs is much better for quality trails because all the good stuff is unofficial and not on any maps so traffic is relatively light. The off piste stuff gets maintained by local riders.

larkim

To be fair to Les Gets, it was the well mapped and provisioned area that was the winner for us. We could let the 16 year old head off for a whole day on the resort knowing that he could find his way around on the well marked official routes and safe in the knowledge that they were sufficiently busy that if he had come a cropper there'd be someone along fairly soon.

I'd have been far less keen to let him roam stuff "not on any maps" with light traffic, though I'm sure you're right about the actual trails being "better".