Rare Adventures

Tag: avoriaz

  • The Apprentice’s wrecks the Alps

    The Apprentice’s wrecks the Alps

    It took me eight years to persuade one of my best mates, The Apprentice, that he should come mountain biking in the Alps and that we would have a great time, riding in the sun during the day and drinking beer by the lake at night – what was there not to love.

    Massive storms, floods, diverted flights, broken bones and a long lost son.

    Two cyclists smiling while riding on a wooden bridge, surrounded by greenery and hills in the background. One cyclist wears a red helmet and blue jacket, while the other wears a black helmet and green jacket.

    Over the last couple of years, we have established an annual boys event on the bikes, 2 years ago we did the North to South Devon bike trail, a 100 mile ride across Dartmoor, with a night in a country pub with a lot of cans of beer on the train home to celebrate our achievement.

    Last year the plan was to ride my 50km route around North Somerset, checking out the pubs as we went, but this was sabotaged by VW Festival, which was taking place exactly halfway round the route on the day of our ride. So, we included it in the schedule, camped overnight, and made a video blog of the chaos of that day.

    So it was with some trepidation that my mate agreed to come on the trip, and to be fair things did not start too well. I arrived the day before on a 7pm flight into Genevea and tried to make the trip to our apartment on public transport, but was sabotaged, I was caught in a huge thunder and lightning storm that shut down the entire train system in South West France and left me stranded with a £70 taxi bill.

    A man with a cap and earbuds smiling while holding a green can of beer, wearing a denim shirt, in a well-lit indoor setting.

    When The Apprentice flew the next day things got significantly worse. The region had another huge lightning storm in the evening. It shut down Geneva airport, created torrential rain, as well as the train network. His flight was heading for the Geneva until 30 minutes from landing. I was poised in the apartment preparing to leave to pick him up when his Easyjet flight path suddenly changed towards Lyon, and then even worse diverted again towards Nice, basically he was going on a tour of the airports in South West France. Luckily he stocked up with beer in the flight.

    After refuelling at Nice, they took off and flew back to Geneva now the storm was over, but no, they went to Lyon because they were now too late to land in Geneva. After sitting on the Lyon runway for 90 minutes waiting to be unloaded, he finally got on a bus and finally at 5:15 am, 10 hours late and he had been to 3 airports.

    Two men smiling and holding bottles of beer on a balcony with a mountain and sunset view in the background.

    By the time I picked him up we arrived back in the apartment at 7am, and the enjoyed a beer on the balcony watching the sunrise, “welcome to France mate”.

    A tall waterfall cascading down a rocky cliff, with a person standing at the base on a gravelly area surrounded by large rocks.

    So, after only a couple of hours kip, we decided due to tiredness, to skip mountain biking for the day and go for a walk in Cirque de Fer a Cheval, an amazing canyon with waterfalls everywhere. Unfortunately, the storm from the night before had caused the floods down through the valley and surge had washed the roads away and it was all closed, in fact, even worse a woman had been killed when a bridge was washed away but the surge.

    A person walking on a suspension bridge over a rocky river, surrounded by lush greenery and towering cliffs in the background.

    Undeterred, we ignored the roadblocks, parked near the Cirque, reviewed the damage created by the storm surge and did the walk anyway, leaving my mate amazed at the beauty of the Alps at it’s best, even though bits had been washed away the night before. In hindsight and having recently watched the scenes from the water surges in Nepal, I’m not sure that this was one of my better ideas.

    Outdoor scene at a park with people sitting at tables under an umbrella, a lake in the background featuring inflatable attractions and people enjoying the water, surrounded by trees and mountains under a partly cloudy sky.

    That evening I introduced my mate to the “Morillon Massive”, the group of Brits with homes in the village that gather for beers, by the lake in the summer or by the gondola in the winter. My mate got to enjoy sitting in the sun, watching the sunset looking west, and looking east towards the orange glow on the mountains from the setting sun. The Apprentice was falling in love with the Alps.

    A man in a blue t-shirt sits at a table with a bottle of Absolut Passionfruit vodka in the foreground, surrounded by snacks and glasses.

    We had our evening BBQ on our balcony, investigated the booze cupboard and I presented him with a Rare Adventures T Shirt as a memento of that moment. Unfortunately, he has put on a bit of weight lately so the T Shirt wasn’t big enough, this list of bad luck was getting longer.

    The thing is, when you have been friends with someone for 40 years, and have managed to get up to all sort of mischief, there is a never ending list of stories to reminisce on, all of which get funnier the more you have to drink.

    In our block there is a little bar called the Tetras, and in the winter it is a major distraction when trying to get back home, as it is difficult to pass it after a good day on the piste, especially with the Morillon Massive are gathered discussing the day. It has been noted by other friends that the landlord, indomitable Flo. has a striking similar to The Apprentice. So this was the first opportunity to put them side by side, I will leave you to form an opinion but the word “love child” does come to mind, and Flo did actually smile and look happy, or maybe he was just bemised at the attention of the latest member of the Britpack.

    Next day, we headed off to Avoriaz to show him around the spectacular scenery before doing the incredible bike trails in La Chatel. We made it safely to the peak on the French and Swiss border with some of the most stunning views in the region.

    Mountain biker standing on a trail with a scenic view of hills and mountains in the background, under a cloudy sky.

    In one of those amazing coincidences that only seem to happen to me, I heard someone shout “Hello Rod”, in this remote corner of France, one of my pals from walking football just happened to get off a lift at the split second I was putting on my helmet, 30 seconds later he wouldn’t have seen me, an unbelievable coincidence.

    Two men posing together outdoors, one wearing a Billabong shirt and the other in a sports jacket, with a mountainous backdrop and signs in the foreground.

    The Apprentice and I headed down the trail, stopping for photos,  and then into the last section into the Avoriaz valley for coffee when disaster struck. On the very first trail of the day he managed to go over the handlebars on one of the gravel access roads.

    I had stopped to wait for him and was looking at the view when I heard a scream and a crash, the two Frenchie riders stood beside me ran towards the accident. I turned around and genuinely could not believe my eyes, there was my mate on the ground, covered in dirt with the bike wrapped around him.

    I was so disbelieving I actually nudged him with my toe to check it was him, which got an unappreciative response, as did my enquiry as to where was all his protective gear I had given him. Luckily, he had a full face helmet on, but we was clearly badly shaken up.

    Sadly, a trip that had 3 days of mountain biking in beautiful scenery ended right there, he never got to see the bike parks. We got him down to the village, where he had a couple of recovery beers that did him good but didn’t solve the problem of his smashed up body what turned out to be a broken wrist. Examination of the GoPro footage still hasn’t really solved the mystery of why he fell off.

    Shadow of a person riding a bicycle on a rocky dirt path.

    So we headed back to the bar by the lake, downed a few more beers, shared his story with the  Morillon Massive, one of who was a medic and diagnosed the broken wrist, one for A&E when he got back.

    A town square featuring a pedestrian crossing, bicycle lane symbols, and a speed limit sign. Surrounded by shops and buildings with mountainous scenery in the background.

    I offered to take him for a hike across the mountains on the last day, but he opted for a day of watching Indiana Jones films in the apartment followed by a pub crawl along the river and a final sunset beer by the lake.

    A vibrant sunset with pink and orange hues over a park scene featuring people playing volleyball on a sandy court, surrounded by trees and hills, with a small pond nearby.

    It had been quite a trip, it hadn’t gone anything like it was supposed to but we really had a great time with plans being put into place for next years adventure. In fact, it had been even more eventful than the visit from my mate The Mechanic in June, which was hardly dull.

    So it’s not only me that has these misadventures it rubs off from my friends as well.

    As I often say what’s the worst thing that could happen?

    As he still carries the scars from Thailand in 1992, I guess he knew what to expect !

    A close-up of a bandaged hand resting on a blue surface, with individuals in the background inside a medical facility.
  • Video Highlights of Les Gets Bike Park

    Video Highlights of Les Gets Bike Park

    Videos of my day bouncing around the Les Gets bike Park in the Alps

    Having survived the Gremlins and made it to the trails, this blog is the story of the runs I did at the Les Gets bike park, I worked my way around the mountains and recorded the blue runs on a perfect day in August 2025.

    On this trip, Strava was been my only companion and without the normal distractions of my mates, I’ve managed to make into all time top 10 for the old people (over 65) on all the runs and I’ve enjoyed every second of it.

    L’Arpette trail

    The first run of the day is the L’Arpette trail, this runs across country and will probably be the first introduction to the steep berms, which are the main characteristic of the blue trails in this part of France. For people coming out from the UK these can be a shock, but also very exciting, because you realise this is going to be the real deal.

    The L’Arpette is mainly exposed so at least you can see where you are going but takes you into the trees on the second section for a taster of what is to come and after bouncing around in the woods it drops you out at the bottom of the Nauchets lift.

    The ride up in the Nauchets lift is spectacular, it starts in a bowl, and you can see how busy this would be in the winter, but on a hot and sunny summer’s day it is difficult to imagine the area being covered in snow.

    The lift takes up and over the runs that await you. It takes you over a labyrinth of trails that run down under the lift and gives you a great view of the challenges that await you when you get to the top. In fact, there are 3 different trails weaving their way down the mountain under the lift, and even more amazingly, they don’t actually cross each other thankfully.

    Les Nauchets

    This video covers the left hand trail at the top section of that runs down under the under the lift. These top trails take a real hammering but when I was there, it was really nice and dry, and they were really solid. The top of the berms were cracking a bit but it really gets you in the mood and you will probably do them a few times.

    The trails under the lift don’t seem to have a name, but there are 2 blues and a black, this is the video that covers the blue trail that runs down the right hand side, Lots of challenges and rollers to keep you focused and at times there seems to be riders coming straight at you until their trail veers away.

    The next challenge is which trail to take back down to the bottom of the lift, there are 2 options and as most people go up and down this area repeatedly you will end up doing both. The first one you will see is called the The Shore and is probably the most popular because of its location.

    Consequently, it takes the biggest hammering from thousands of chunky tyres, but the hard baked berms and run through the trees gives plenty to concentrate on and in the second section drops into more trees before the fast run back to the lift. When you do these trails in the wet, they are much hairier, as the soil is a type of clay and you slide all over the place on the steep berms,

    The Shore trail

    The alternative is the Triple 8 trail which is by far my favourite, it is on the same fire track as The Shore but involves about 5 minutes of pedalling to get to it. It starts with a drop off the path, so you are flying downhill from the start in and into the first berm.

    This is just a fantastic trail to get your pulse racing; it’s steep winding and really challenges your courage and brakes. It feels like you’re on some sort of Helter Skelter ride as the berms get steeper and tighter and you are holding on.

    Triple 8 trail

    On my first visit here my brakes overheated on this run, that added to the excitement and ultimately 3 broken ribs as I didn’t realise that once brake fluid has overheated it loses its effectiveness and I had a horrible crash the next day when they weren’t there when I needed them most !

    Unfortunately, the Go Pro on the front of the handlebars is looking ahead at the berm so isn’t looking down the mountain, consequently it doesn’t really capture how steep it is. Try to imagine it’s vertical and the only thing that’s stopping you going straight down the hill is the berms, if you do the black run, you just go straight down the hill!

    After hammering the runs, it is time to head back. Normally I do the route around the mountain into Morzine for a change as there is a brilliant section at the top but the end is a bit boring down a fire track and the queues out of Morzine can be huge so I skipped it as I had still had La Chatel to look forward to.

    The run back is called Tomahawk. This run starts at the very top of Les Gets at Nauchets lift and runs down to around halfway where it meets up with La Roue Libra. The first section is fast as you come off the fire road and into the trail with through berms and tabletops, my mate The Mechanic ended up in the undergrowth here after misjudging his speed. It then runs under the Chavannes Express lift across open country before diving fast into the trees and a load of tabletops that will have you much higher in the air than you expect before twisting back through the berms.

    Tomahawk Trail

    La Roue Libra

    As this is the run home, the trail gets busier here so find a free run without being hassled by a Young Turk or finding yourself behind a slow coach isn’t easy. You then join La Roue Libra It follows on from the Tomahawk route in the top section and takes you down through a long winding and very fast set of berms into the jump park near the bottom. It is a really fast ride but due to the wear it is easy to lose the trail in the labyrinth of short cuts that have been worn in over the years. As evidence of how busy it is there are couple of overtaken manoeuvres on the way down.

    Jump Zone

    Finally, you hit the Jump Park. This is a short run at the bottom of La Roue Libra and you come across it suddenly and can easily get caught up in the congestion of people waiting to go. There are 4 starting routes, which are basically, big ramp jump, small ramp jump, big ramp drop off or small drop off. This gives you the speed and you can impress the guys going over the top in the lifts as you go down, the table tops seem to launch you into the air without any effort and you depart Terra Ferma whether you like it or not, as you see in the video, the runs meet at the bottom which can be a bit dangerous if someone doesn’t give way !

    Normally this section runs you down in the Les Gets giant berms, but as the Downhill World Cup had taken over the resort, we were re-routed away so no video this time.