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Ok, not quite. We bailed at Taninges, it makes for a much more manageable ride.

This is the ride we did on Sunday, we started off in Chamonix and intended to ride back towards where we live near Morzine. First thing we did was jump on the lift, this took us up to 2500m (from a starting point of 1000m). We got on the lift at 9.45, and started out on the route at 10.30. The rides starts off down a stony access track, it quickly becomes to steep to ride, there are quite a few “little problems” to overcome. Though there are short sections of track link sections of carrying. After about an hour of scrabbling about the track starts to ease off giving some very sustained sections of singletrack interspersed with tricky steps. The path mellows out and the switchbacks reduce in number. Finally the route drops down to a stream. A good place to catch breath. We arrived here at 12:20.

From the stream it is about an hour or so of riding (or pushing for me) to the Refuge de Moede Anterne, 400m of ascent. The refuge is perfectly placed for a coffee (I had two) and some crepes. We spent about an hour at the refuge, we knew we had another 45 minutes or so of pushing (with a little bit of carrying) to get to the Col d’Anterne 250m above us. We set off at about 3pm. So we had been going 5 hrs so far and had covered 15km! Things would speed up from now on. The descent from here is brilliant, it drops down to the Lac d’Anterne. You have to watch out for flocks of sheep with their rather unfriendly “wolf-dogs” around here, no sign of them today.

The ride leaves the rocks of Chamonix behind and the tracks become super smooth. It reminded me of Yorkshire (in a drought). The descent to the Chalets des Fonts is on a quad track, it’s in great nick this year. 600m down in one hit. Ouch! Here we had 15 minutes to “chill” in the early evening sun (twas 5.30pm), this spot is the site of the first “Brit” chalet in the Alps. Alfred Wills (a Victorian gentleman, who probably wouldn’t appreciate being called a “Brit”) started exploring the Alps in the 1850’s, he chose this spot to run a hotel.

More info on Wills here

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

And Google has kindly scanned his book (if you wanted to see a copy of this book it would be virtually impossible, it is available to collectors for about $800!)

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=o…age&q=&f=false

And a fast ride into Sixt-fer-a-Cheval, we took the quiet roads to Samoens where we stopped for a beer. We go through Samoens loads

http://www.ridemorzine.org/tag/samoens/

and can never pass up a refuel at the “Bar Savoie”.

We still had almost an hour to go along the river trail to finish the day in Taninges. I found this section quite “intense”, flat but very rooty.

All the photos are on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/endless…7622187078657/

chamonix to Samoens GPX file here