All Mountain Next: 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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