You are here: Home > Holidays > Roam in the Rhone > Itinerary
This itinerary is only given as a guide and will be followed as closely as possible. Your guide will assess weather conditions and possibly alter the route to ensure you have a safe and enjoyable trip.
Day 0.
Arrive Leysin by train or transfer. Meet your guide and have a briefing, build bikes and settle in to the hotel.
Day 1.
We warm-up today exploring the trails in and around the hidden gem that is the Leysin mountain bikers’ playground. There’s a huge variety of riding here from the north-shore style bike park which has an excellent range of woodwork from low level for teaching skills, to intermediate level and advanced. If you normally hate wood work this flat grassy area with its multi-ability construction is the perfect place to introduce you to the skills you need to ride it with confidence. Plus there is an old international downhill course to play on and some absolutely epic xc loops. We will be making the most of the chairlifts here and the cog train up from Aigle in the valley bottom. It’s possible to descend from the very top of the resort at 2049m downn some excellent singletrack all the way to the valley bottom at 405m.
Day 2.
We play a little more in the bike park and then leave Leysin down another great descent to the valley floor. Then we take a van transfer to Le Chable for a couple more great descents in Verbier. One which is like riding in a toboggan down a mountain side with bermed corners and smooth switchbacks dropping over 1000m to the valley bottom. We can use the Verbier chair lifts now to access our next descent back down steep single track dropping once again down to valley floor. At the end of a great day the van takes us to Crans Montanta and our overnight hotel.
Day 3.
A proper play day today with lift access to two amazing DH courses. The red run is bermy and swooping with floaty jumps and drop-offs to practice your hucks on. The black run is a current Swiss national DH cup course with steep fast corners, and tight rocky sections with some hard drops. The really hard stuff can be avoided by following easy arrows if you aren’t ready for the full-on route straight away. The black also drops us directly in to another fabulous bike park. Expertly built, the wood work here is a little higher in places and can now be a step up from Leysin with some big drops for those with the courage to try! We spend some time playing here after the lifts have closed before dropping down the valley floor on ace switch back single track. A funicular train that links Crans Montana with the lower town of Sierre brings us back up the mountain to our hotel again.
Day 4.
There’s one more chance to ride the lift in Crans Montana this morning with a big descent again from the top of the resort to the very bottom of the valley. We will pass through the bike park for last time to try a drop you did not do yesterday or to re-do one again. A secret trail we discovered in 2008 takes us down on steep switch backs and fast single track, through woods and rocky sections and eventually into the vineyards of the Rhone valley. We cross the valley to Chalais and yet more lift systems here take us back up to 2331m, a high perch from which we can almost see the entire valley. We soak up the view and plummet back down to the valley bottom on single track, zig zagging our way down. There’s possibly time for a few more descents up the valley at Gampel or Unterbach, depending on time and how fast the group moves together. A transfer late in the day takes us high up in the Annivers valley to our hotel near St Luc, a small mountain gite style hotel for the next two nights.
Day 5.
We begin the day with a fun, play session using the funicular train in St Luc and another Swiss national down hill course. This course is rarely used and often we are the only people using it on weekdays. It’s just undergone a major renovation and loads of new jumps have been built with lots of wood work in the woods on either side. This wood work is easily avoided on the main down hill run, but if you try it you’ll find some of the smoothest landings from graded height jumps you’ll find in this area. These are definitely amongst the best built drop-offs and jumps in the whole valley. A few runs here with time to try new techniques and skills. We will have lunch in town in a small restaurant where the views from the sun terrace are fabulous. After lunch we have a 1900m descent all off-road, 90% on single track right from the highest lift station all way to the Rhone valley floor. This is a marathon of a descent. Sweet trails and lovely pine needles, rooty drops and loads of switch backs of course. The van and trailer are waiting for us at the base and we transfer back to our hotel for well earned beers and dinner.
Day 6.
This morning we’ll do a couple more runs on the down hill course, faster this time to really get it dialled in, before checking out of the hotel and packing the van with our gear. We’ve really saved the best until last and this grand finale of a descent will totally blow your mind! As regular clients will know its our standard finish to have a fantastic downhill at the end of a Ride the Alps holiday. From the very top of the charlift system we have to climb a little to cross a high pass at 2550m. From here we go off the beaten track slightly to a new descent we pioneered in 2008 that drops a cool 2100m down to 450m in the valley far, far below us. But is not just the height drop that is important here, its the quality of the trails on the way down. Insanely technical at the top there are small sections where everyone has to walk, then things ease off before the trail plummets over the edge of a dam and small twisting single track stretches out for miles ahead of us. Towards the end the steepness eases off again and the rocky alpine trails give way to pine needles and fast swooping sections. This trail is so good its worth doing the entire trip again, just to repeat this one! The van will take us back to Leysin for an afternoon of riding there , or, if all are in agreement to an outdoor thermal hot-springs set against the backdrop of the mountains we’ve been riding in all week with jets, saunas and steam rooms to relax in and soothe our acheing muscles. From here it’s just 40mins back to Lesyin and the same hotel we started in. for our last night.
Day 7.
Departure day from the train station at Aigle or by our group transfer to Geneva airport. But if there is time in the morning we will sneak out on the bikes to play in the bike park here one last time and maybe repeat a descent to the valley bottom that we did 6 days ago and see if its any easier! You need to make sure you book an afternoon or evening flight to have this extra morning play time though.
