Day 61: Natural trails and the bag jump
30 Aug 2011
Day 61: The Canyon trail and the bag jump. Predictably I was not on the bike today – I’m a little bit bashed up. But fortunately we had been joined by other team members so Tim took to the trails with Sam and Nadège. They decided to pick up some freeride hire bikes which they got from Evasion Sports at the Mont-Chéry end of town. There are obviously loads of rental shops here and we can’t check them all out, but you would be hard pressed to do better than here. A couple of well maintained Specialized Big Hit’s with some great service. They also have an amazing stock of Troy Lee Design shirts so you can look the part. Out on the trails they started with a quick warm up run down to the Nauchets lift and got a couple of pictures there with a great view in the background…
And after this they headed for the Canyon trail. This is what Nadège had to say… “This morning we went to explore the natural trail possibilities Les Gets could offer. Half way down from the ‘La Roue Libre’ trail under the Chavannes lift we kept to the right and went past the restaurants to find a beautiful and challenging trail called ‘Canyon’ which led down into Les Gets and allowed us to avoid the brutal washboard braking bumps of the main trail home. The Canyon is an extended section of dark and wet forest with many different line options to choose from. Countless roots, water filled holes, loose rocks, narrow bridges and small drops keep you busy, and you need to keep your speed and be fully committed in many places to avoid sticking your front wheel in a hole and going over the front. A 3 meter deep and maybe 100 meter long gully, at places barely wide enough for the handlebars, challenge the riders balance since once in it there is only the one line – you have to deal with whatever the ravine throws at you! Tim lurked around in the forest with the camera to catch some of the few riders tempted by the challenge. Serious flash power necessary for a decent image in the dark.”
This evening I had a quick chat with Chrystelle, Ben and Christoph about the set up here. Christoph is the head of the trail shaping team here which consists of 8 people full-time, with the 2-man bike patrol duties included in this. Ironically after yesterday, Christoph was called away early to deal with another accident on the trails! Meanwhile resort managers Ben and Chrystelle talked me through some of plans for development here but unfortunately this info can’t see the light of day just yet. All I can say is watch this space as it will be good!
Finally as the sun set over the hill the guys fired up the big-hit bag jump so we could get a few pics of local rider Alexi doing his thing – thanks to Ben and Florian for making this happen. Difficult light conditions but we’ll see what we got and get them online tomorrow. What you need to know is that the bag jump is only open in the evenings (except Monday), from about 17:00 to 20:00 depending on the rider demand. But it can sometimes go on later if there’s a big crowd and there is a huge floodlight to help out with late night sessions and generating a cool atmosphere. I am sure that if it wasn’t for yesterdays crash I’d have been out doing triple back-flips all night long…
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