Passportes Du Soleil

PINT of Stella. mate!

PINT of Stella. mate!

Many, many Scotches
Anyone done it before? Any tips? Recommendations? Favourite watering holes?

Anyone doing it this year? I have to cut short my trip home by a couple of weeks so Megavalanche is off the cards however PDS fits perfectly in the last weekend before I head back to shitey Melbourne Winter.
 
R

rednightmare

Likes Dirt
PINT of Stella said:
Anyone done it before? Any tips? Recommendations? Favourite watering holes?

Anyone doing it this year? I have to cut short my trip home by a couple of weeks so Megavalanche is off the cards however PDS fits perfectly in the last weekend before I head back to shitey Melbourne Winter.
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Did Portes Du Soleil this year. Stayed in Morzine and had a great time.

In terms of tips...
-got a sizeable discount (20-30%) by booking bike hire online a few weeks before arriving
- bring your goggles because the shop we went to didn't hire them out
- check the dates of the lift closures if you're travelling close to the end of the season as some of the less popular lifts (e.g. lifts to Champery) close earlier than the main ones
- got caught out a few times with convenience stores closing earlier than expected
- ask the locals about some of the 'off the map' tracks if you start getting a bit bored ('step up' and 'step down' built by the Aussie nationals team some years ago were pretty rad)
- plenty of watering holes near the lift with some great Belgian beer

Enjoy!
 
PINT of Stella. mate!

PINT of Stella. mate!

Many, many Scotches
rednightmare said:
Did Portes Du Soleil this year. Stayed in Morzine and had a great time.

In terms of tips...
-got a sizeable discount (20-30%) by booking bike hire online a few weeks before arriving
- bring your goggles because the shop we went to didn't hire them out
- check the dates of the lift closures if you're travelling close to the end of the season as some of the less popular lifts (e.g. lifts to Champery) close earlier than the main ones
- got caught out a few times with convenience stores closing earlier than expected
- ask the locals about some of the 'off the map' tracks if you start getting a bit bored ('step up' and 'step down' built by the Aussie nationals team some years ago were pretty rad)
- plenty of watering holes near the lift with some great Belgian beer

Enjoy!
Click to expand...
Cheers.

No need for bike/kit hire. Will have my trusty AM Hardtail with me or if I'm very lucky, a shiny new YT Capra Pro. It's at the tail end of a 6 week trip that already has me hitting up Moab, Crested Butte, Brevard NC and Glentress & Innerleithen in Scotland.

I'm planning to be there for the actual festival/challenge which is 24th-26th June.

Foam parties, eh? Is it still the mid-90's there?
 
G

...G...

Likes Bikes
I did it in 2014, starting from Morzine. Also stayed on in Morzine afterwards to ride for 10 days. At that stage, lifts were only just opening for MTB riding, lift lines were short and there were relatively few people on the trails. A great time to be there.

You can get good deals with bundled accomodation and entry for the Passportes du Soleil if you look around. We organised accomodation and tickets through More Mountain: http://www.moremountain.com They were very helpful. There are other places that offer similar deals.

Start early if you plan on doing the full 80km loop. We started at about 9 am and only just made the last of the lifts to get back to Morzine, but we did do a few side tracks in Switzerland (they were choice and just too good to pass up :)

Have a reasonable level of fitness as there's quite a bit of pedalling, however I doubt this will be a problem if you're doing the event at the end of 6 weeks riding.

Take lots of photos. The scenery is amazing!
 
B

Bamm

Likes Bikes
I did it in 2015, we based ourselves in Morzine which was last years event center. Not sure where it is this year, (they alternate from year to year). We had a self contained apartment, with private bike lockup storage, however there was whole array of different types of accommodation from Chalets to shared. It goes for officially three days, I did the three days but the third day I was shagged. I think the final count of riders was appox six thousand, unbelievable experience/adventure that you will hold onto for the rest of your life. Find the website and log your details and enter on the day it is released, numbers sell out fast. We departed from Morzine on one day then got shuttle buses to two different other departure points. You wont need to look to far for good watering holes or good food. Didn't see any foam pits
 
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