Time gentlemen, please

Chatelard descent Claire

It’s been raining, some of the trees in the valley have started to yellow and town’s filling with ultra-runners, it can only mean one thing: the summer’s coming to an end, and the lifts shut down till the snow comes.

The Chamonix lift closures are staggered across the next 2 months:

VALLORCINE: 2nd Sept

PRARION: 2nd Sept

BREVENT CABLECAR: 2nd Sept

LE TOUR GONDOLA & CHAIRLIFT: 9th Sept

GRANDS MONTETS: 9th Sept

PLANPRAZ GONDOLA: 16th Sept (then Oct 27th to Nov 7th)

FLEGERE: 16th Sept

BELLEVUE: 23rd Sept

TRAMWAY DU MONT BLANC: 23rd Sept

What’s not mentioned is that the Vallorcine DH track, & gondola for bike uplift, closes for the season on Friday due to the Ultra Trail races, so anyone wanting to hit every lift in the valley in a day better get cracking. If you’re looking for a race to end your Chamonix biking season then conveniently the Club des sports de Chamonix have organised a 24hr VTT race in the valley over the weekend of the 22nd/23rd September. For more information click

Vallorcine valley

Outside of the valley, lift closing days start from the end of August and by October Champery & Verbier are pretty much your only choices (though Brevant’s back open again by then, which is nice.)

Grand Massif, started closing on the 26th, all done by 31st Aug: http://www.grand-massif.com/ete/accedez_tarifs.php

La Thuile 2nd Sept : http://www.lathuile.net/datapage.asp?id=41&l=3

Portes du Mont Blanc, 2nd Sept : http://www.combloux.com/en/activities/summer/pass.html

Tignes / val d’isere 2nd Sept (still FREE up till then!): http://www.tignes.net/en/summer-sports/free-and-unlimited-activities-252.html

Pila, 9th Sept:  http://aostavalleyfreeride.com/index.php with desarpa bike mass dh the weekend after 15th/16th http://www.piladh.eu/en/desarpa-bike/

Portes du Soliel starts closing the weekend of 02nd September and is mostly closed by the 9th, except Champery which keeps going to 7th Oct: http://en.portesdusoleil.com/summer-lifts.html

Verbier 17th Sept, then weekends till 20/21st Oct (if weather’s ok): http://www.verbierbikepark.ch/

As for conditions in the Chamonix valley at the moment, the complaints about the temperature and lack of rain have been answered and there’s been a few days of drizzle and a day of torrential rain. My friend Claire had come over for the weekend to get a break from the Scottish summer in Chamonix, fortunately she packed the goretex.

Le Tour back bowls

The skies cleared up on Sunday and, despite a cold grey start, the quick drying trails at Le Tour ensured normal summer service was resumed. The weather is still a bit cooler than it’s been of late, so things are not drying quite as fast as before and as a result there’s lots more grip on the trails. The natural trails are still very busy, though with the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc being at the weekend, the pedestrians are generally moving faster than the cyclists so it’s not the same problem, and in one week it will all be different…

le tour & cloud

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  • By A bit of peace & quiet | chamonixbikeblog on 7th September 2012 at 22:41

    […] of Chamonix, the Brevent gondola (open till 16th Sept, then again from 27th Oct to 7th Nov) whisked me up the hill and I set off up the hill for 50m to […]