ridemorzine.org

This ride is pushing the boundaries of what is “guidable” from Morzine. It’s long and at it’s furthest point it feels very exposed. We’ve done variations of this a few times over the years but this was probably our most ambitious. We went with two very capable guests of ours (Rob and Kate), these guys fitted the bill well, they can go up hill and downhill and both at a good pace.

I’ve described a bit more of the route than normal, if only as a reminder of the timings required.

We set off from Chalet Berger at 9.30am, went via Les Gets, the Col du Joux Plan and the Bourgouise to arrive in Samoens for 11.45. This left us enough time to sit and eat some snacks in the square. We bought our lift tickets for the GME (Grand Massif Express) at 12.15 and managed to get on the lift at 12.30 (the delay being caused by the fact that they only let mtbers on designated bubbles. WARNING the lift closes from 12.30 until 1330. From Samoens 1600 it is possible to ride to Les Esserts (above Morillon) and take two more lifts towards Flaine. We opted for a more direct approach, by my calculation the effort was the same and the riding (I’ve found) on the Morillon slopes is nothing to write home about. 2 hrs from leaving the GME we arrived in Flaine. It’s a fairly arduous section, but with some very picturesque singletrack. We arrived at the DMC (Telepherique des Grandes Platieres WARNING check this lift is open, it only has a 5 week season) at 3pm so had time for the second half of lunch. 4pm so us arrive at the summit. Probably one of the most picturesque spots in this part of the Alps. From there we were faced with 1800m of descent over very varied terrain, from strange rubbley 4 track, to indistinct singletrack and finishing on one of the best singletrack descents the area has. Samoens and a very welcome beer was reached at 6pm.

flaine-loop gpx file