3 short GoPro vids from the Alps

3 short vids approx 1 minute each. All 3 clips are recorded the same day, so it also shows the diversity we had this day. These lines where friggin amazing - so sit back and enjoy : )

Remember HD is available!

The French Alps Part 5/5

Last photo series of our Alps trip.

A small bikepark-ish area near Chamonix. It was a very trail-bike friendly place with some smooth and nicely sculptures lines, we pretty much just passed by, but rode the lines a few times tho'. Here I hit a "natural" drop.

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The scenery was often mindblowing. Just keep on track, 

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Lifts, lifts! LIFTS!! The alps are packed with lifts!

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I'm in France, but the mountains you see here in the background belong to Switzerland. Some of the trails actually took us inside Switzerland, only to loop out and into France again.

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Locals?

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Thats it. Sore, tired and one hell of a experience richer.

 Packed and ready to go back. What a cool trip this was : )

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Hope you guys enjoyed.

The French Alps Part 4/5

The Bikes.

I could easily tell you guys what bikes worked well in the high alps on this all-mountain trip, and which bikes didn't, but decided against it.

So, just enjoy the bikes. Expect carbon frames, big carbon wheels and 11-speed drivetrains.

Santa Cruz 5010

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 Cannondale Scalpel.

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Specialized Stumpjumper? or was it a Camber? I actually don't remember. It was black and red, mkay.

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Santa Cruz Tall Boy.

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Banshee Spitfire.

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The slackest, longest, lowest and heaviest bike among the group. Should I do the trip once again, I would bring the same bike - well except perhaps with a 11 speed drivetrain. Mont Blanc in the background btw.

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The French Alps Part 3/5

More alps! 

Peter ate some dirt on a descend..or rather...he ate a small tree. There where some crashes here and there, and we had two guys with sore ribs, they actually had to skip the last day of riding, but overall I think we got away pretty lucky. 

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What did hurt, was the sore muscles after 6-8 hours of riding each day. Arms, shoulders, hands where burning, Ive reached an age where I have to swallow some painkillers to keep smiling.

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Not every section was ridebale. Sometimes the fastest line to a section was via bushes and trenches. We quickly named this praxis "hike-a-bike" - the longest was 40minutes...by accident tho'.

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Chilling on a hill in the Jura Mountains upper Alps, next to Geneva.

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The Jura Mountains was the single biggest surprise for me on this trip. Its just to the west of Geneva, and on the very end of the Apls. Its not particularly impressive visually (compared to the high alps), so I didnt expect much. But this place had some of the best, if not THE best mountain bike riding I have ever tried (I'm sorry whistler). Our guide showed us some local lines, and they where simply rediculously good. Truly technical, flowy, steep, rocky - well you name it. I could be riding here all week as this place was packed with trails. 

Here Nico hits a rockgarden. Man I wish I had more footage from this area.

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More to come.

The French Alps Part 2/5

Some more about my enduro-specific (oh no I didn't!) trip.

Lifts... mans best friend. We did our share of climbing each day, crank-grinding between 800 and 1200 positive meters. But the lifts took us higher and further, it was such a cool combination.

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Literally the view from our cabin. We lived in a small town called Les Carroz, 1140m above sea level. This was our base, and 5 out of 6 days we left the area by shuttle to go ride the most interesting lines.

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While 95% of the time we had dry conditions, we had our share of mud riding as well, some of it was hilariously fun tho', so I didn't mind it that much. I think this is my lower leg : )

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Most of it was crispy dry tho'

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My poor Predator pedals. The alu-pins had a tough time. I'm glad they are easy to replace, because I did so 14 times during the 6 days. Speaking of platform pedals, I had my doubts that this was the right choice for a trip like this, you know, with all the crank-grinding, but it really was the right choice for all the DH and tech stuff...and there was a lot of that. Sure click pedals would be better on the climbs, but at the end of the day, after 6 days of riding, the benefit was bigger on flats I would say.
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I visted Les Gets bikepark twice, propably one of the best known bikepars in the world, sits right next to Morzine bikepark, and some 30 minutes from Chatel Bikepark. The park is huge with three lifts and spread out on to two mountains (!) Here I stand on top of one end, and in the background you see the other part of the park. I had the naive vision of riding the famous Airline-trail, but after seeing the 10m doubles and 7 meter drops..I hesitated a bit.. Its absolutely unforgiving, the French mean business.. Check a skilled rider tackle it HERE.

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I decided to get a single day of bikepark-only riding. And our guide hooked me up with a friend of his that could give me a lift to Les Gets, little did I know that this guy wanted to join me in on a day of bikepark riding. A local guy in a huge bikepark? FUCK YEARH! I knew from the beginning that this meant exploring every interesting inch of the bikepark, as well as the best combination of lines, and other do's and dont's.

Meet Leron, 40 yrs old, former local downhill champion, now works part-time as a mtb guide for kids. At first glance, his casual look didn't impress - oh boy was I wrong to judge. Leron was a ripper! I'm talking about speed, I'm talking about whips (both sides yo!), and guts. Respect. I just tried to feed of him as much as possible.

Btw. If you enlarge this pic, do notice the inverted (!) BOS dual crown fork with the entire upper made out of titanium. There are only 3 in existence, and this is the only one functioning. He bought it from Nico Vouilloz (yes that Nico Vouilloz). 

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Here Leron gaps a double in upper part of Les Gets bikepark. Landing to the far left.

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More to come.

The French Alps Part 1/5

I had a week of riding in the french alps. To sum it up, it went something like this:

6 days

Some 250km (155mi) of riding

1 million positive meters

1 trillion negative meters

And 10 million beers.

(add some sore ribs, some questionable dancing, and an insulted French guide)

The French Alps. Ridiculously beautiful. Mont Blanc is just to the right of this pic.

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Drea, Jakob, John, Peter, Morten and Nico (guide) taking a break, and sucking in the alpy air.

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Nico, our guide for 6 days. 36 years, and faster and stronger than anything/anyone I've seen at this age. Mad props. I guess that's what you get when you do this stuff for a living. He was sitting on a Trek Remedy, 26inch wheels, and platform pedals, I immediately related to his setup, as I was otherwise surrounded by click-pedals and 650b+ wheels ; )

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Before I get into the quality of the actual trails, let me show you guys what we had to work with;

This pictures sums it up how the trails looked inside the forests. mostly hardpack, with lots and lots of pointy rocks sticking up (add roots) Oh, btw, yes that's cum on the lens.

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Open areas was a whole different thing. Suck it in, and enjoy it.

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So I guess this is some sort of brief introduction, stick around as I go a bit more in-depth.