The 26th July to 1st August is the festival of Outdoor Sports. There will be lots of free events to take part in and an exhibitoon on the environment, to promote environmental responsibility in the mountains. If you’re looking for the excuse to get non-riding friends and family out to the Alps then this is the perfect week to come!
With demonstrations from the pros, films, games and parties it’s a great event for families. A multi-activity card is available giving you €200 worth of activities over the week for €50 per adult and €25 per child. Email us to find out more and reserve a place to stay for the week.
The planned structure is:
• Samedi 26 juillet : opening the festival with the arrival of Saab-Salomon Mountain X-Race, international competitors in a multi-sport event
• Dimanche 27 : mountain biking
• Lundi 28 : rope sports (climbing, adventure park, via ferrata…)
• Mardi 29 : water sports (swiming, diving, water games…)
• Mercredi 30 : Aerial sports (parapente, hot air balloons, kites, free-fall…)
• Jeudi 31 : family activities (treasure hunt, orientation, circus school…)
• Vendredi 1er août : mountain activities (discovery of fauna and flora, nordic walking…).
Get in touch to reserve a place.
Hiking trails = good trails, originally uploaded by guybowden.
The next day we headed off to the train station and got two tickets to Grindlewald – the mountain resort in the constant shadow of the Eiger and Japanese tourists – there’s hundreds of them! All quite strange seeing all these people, especially coming from Morzine – which basically shuts down for May.Once there we realised that it wasn’t going to be all uplifts and downhill – the lift prices put paid to that plan! Anyway – after a winter of not riding, we needed the climbs (haha).The rest of that morning was spent climbing our way up to 1800m (where the snow started) and then back down a hiking trail to Grindlewald and a coffee stop and a rest in the sunshine.
We waited until 4pm when we were allowed to put our bikes on the mountain train up towards Kleine Schiddeg, getting off at the stop before so we could ride rather than slide (in the snow). This time a mix of 4×4 track, tarmac and singletrack got us across the side of the mountain and back down to the main road 700m below. Then a 17k ride back into Interlaken – 7pm – time for a quick beer, shower and off into town for tea (melted cheese and bacon obligatory).
Sunday – time to pack up the tent, and drive up towards Lauterbrunnen, 20 minutes away. Once there we had the odd experience of parking in a multistory carpark before unloading and building bikes – not the normal dirt trailhead carpark! Then up on another mountain train to Wengen – 500m vertical, and not much more horizontal – it was steeeeep. Then off we set on a shorter climb another 400m up the mountain before stopping for some sandwiches (cheese of course) and admiring the view. Then we had a mere 900m decent. Almost all on Hiking trails (i.e. switchbacky singletrack). The beauty of it being that in mid May the hiking tourists that usually walk this route weren’t there. Some 900m decent later we arrived back at the carpark. Then all there was to do was drive the 3 and a bit hours back over 4 mountain passes back to Morzine in time for tea (no cheese) and telly.
pre season megavalanche practice, originally uploaded by guybowden.
There’s plenty more snow on the north facing slopes as well – lets hope the sun gets out over the next few weeks to burn it all off!
Riding here at this time of year is very different from the summer season when the lifts are open – anyone that’s tried it will know there are some very long uphill slogs! So late yesterday afternoon I set off up the road towards Avoriaz on my pink bike. I’ve never been a massive fan of long climbs but yesterday was great. I found a rhythm and felt good. The views were amazing – the different shades of green in the trees and grass, the craggy mountain tops still covered in snow and the flowers springing up all around. It only got better as I cut off the road onto the path winding through the trees and eventually the long descent back down. The rocky rooty descent put a stress on my arms and hands (much tougher on a hardtail than a heckler!) but a smile on my face and I got back down to Morzine wishing I had time to do it all again.
Bring on the summer…..
my new bike, originally uploaded by guybowden.
it is:
Now I need to attach my old bits to it and try it out.
Nice:)
Caroline stayed in Morzine with us last year. A keen rider and racer she’s about to embark on an impressive challenge to raise money for the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust, having lost her best friend Donna to a brain tumour 2 years ago. She’s set an impressive target of £2000 so we’re asking you to give what you can. Here’s Caroline’s route and request:
The ‘Grand Depart’ from Cornwall is Monday 2nd June and if all goes to plan, should arrive in John O Groats on 8th June.
Training is going well, route is planned(see below) and accommodation booked, so the next and most important task to do now is to ask you if you could find it in your hearts to sponsor me……please.
I know things are tight for alot of people at this time but really any amount will do and I will be most grateful for whatever you can afford, and I know that, barring any disasters, I will complete this.
The best and easiest way to donate is on the Just Giving website that I have set up which is:-
www.justgiving.com/cazzagoward
Anyone interested in joining me/watching me or meeting me on any of the days are more than welcome and below is the route. If you require a more detailed route, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Monday 2nd June-Lands End to Taunton
Tuesday 3rd June-Taunton to Ludlow
Wednesday 4th June-Ludlow to Garstang
Thursday 5th June-Garstang to Moffat
Friday 6th June-Moffat to Crainlarich
Saturday 7th June-Crainlarich to Inverness
Sunday 8th June-Inverness to John O Groats
I thank you for taking the time to read this and I thank you in advance if you do decide to sponsor me and please feel free to forward this on to anyone you know who may be interested in making a donation-it would be most appreciated.
Jo riding, originally uploaded by guybowden.
All in aid of research for the Swiss Freeride Week we’re running in July.Can’t wait.
It’s great to be back in Morzine and out on the bikes again – even if the climbs seem tougher than I remember from the end of last summer 
Yesterday evening I climbed up towards Avoriaz with a friend, but we cut the ride a bit short as a storm came in and got back soaked! Today was a far better sunny ride over in Champery with Petra, who’s running our girls weeks. Starting and ending the ride with coffee and chocolate brownies, we sought out lots of great spots for dirtgirls skills sessions (we’re always after a good excuse to stop for a break!). Petra’s found some great places to practise – lots of short steep rooty chutes of differing difficulties, windy rooty tree lines full of natural obstacles, and some great natural drops, handily positioned in varying heights. With a day or two of clearing and riding to bed it in we can create some prefect practice tracks, and I’m getting very excited about it now.
The bike park in Les Gets is moving this year to the Chavannes. A new lift, the Nauchets Express will be open to access the park and a brand new red-graded downhill course. The two green graded downhills, the blue Chavannes descent and red Mont Chery descent (from the top of the telecabine) remain and a new green graded family XC course is being built.
Accessible from the Nauchets lift is a jump park and mini jump park, with a range of jumps and north shore. This lift also opens up a lot more terrain to cross country riders.
There will also be two dedicated MTB patrollers to maintain trails and provide informations, plus a min-digger for trail maintenance.
Getting excited now….
