Col de Coux « ridemorzine.org

Taking advantage of the sunshine and the opening of the Champery cable car on Saturday, an intrepid troop of 5 set out from Morzine to conquer the Col de Coux. Nearly 1000m of vertical to scale from Morzine town centre to the top – it’s no small feat.

Starting from Morzine town centre, we headed up the road towards the Valley de la Manche. The road is a good warm up for the steepness to come! And it is steep!

An hour and a half later we were up at the top admiring Morzine down below, and the Dents du Midi looming over Champery. The classic ridge ride down towards Balme then left to Champery. Awesome stuff. Unfortunately on the road run into Champery I felt a knocking in the back wheel – looking down it seemed like a regular buckle. However once at the lift station, to my horror, I found something rather more serious – a big crack in the hub.. ouch.

I like to think those zip ties made the difference between me being able to roll back into Morzine, rather than walk for hours.

So then I took the lift up from Champery and eased over to the base of the Col du Coux climb – I thought I’d walk it rather than risk ripping the rear hub apart (any excuse not to climb up there!) – Then a limpy ride back down to Morzine… but I made it!

The GPX file doesn’t show a couple of tricky descent choices you can make on the way back to Morzine – there’s a great singletrack down from the Col to Morzine, and a bit of a cut through on the way to the base of the climb. Keep your eyes pealed! You can also climb and descend on the river trail rather than the road into Morzine – more interesting on the way back for sure.