Downhill and singletrack in Les Arcs, France
World class mountain biking in Les Arcs, France
Les Arcs consists of five separate resorts, all of which are accessible to mountain bikers. Arc 1600, Arc 1800 and Peisey Vallandry all sit on the west side of a long ridgeline. To the east of this is another valley where Arc 1950 and Arc 2000 are located and beyond that, the highest point - the Aiguille Rouge (3226m).
The town of Bourg-st-Maurice where our chalet is located is at the bottom of the valley below 1600. During the summer season the resort opens eight of its lifts. A funicular railway takes mountain bikers from Bourg up to 1600 in only 7 minutes, then two high speed gondola lifts and three detachable high speed chairlifts get you around the resort.
Les Arcs Bike Park
Opened in the summer 2009 and has got obstacles and jumps for people of all abilities. There's a practice park for children and beginners, a slope style area with several lines of jumps, wall rides and bridges, a north shore area with high bridges, log rides with one beginner line and two
advanced lines. The Four Cross mtb trail has got it all for advanced riders and there's room for 6 of you to set off together. Finally there is a down hill trail with obstacles, long steep sections, sharp turns and a range of surfaces.
are improved and extended every year as the area becomes more and more popular with mountain bikers. The cachette trail in Arc 1600 is one of the best in the Alps. Around six minutes flat out with a vertical drop of 550m and a course length of over 3km. It has played host to a round of the Avalanche Cup for the last three years. Tables, hips, fades, berms (braking bump free!) technical sections and scarily fast straights all feature. If this gets a bit too much for you, you can take the Trans Arc cable car to Arc 2000 for the Plagnettes course. This is a very smooth trail with some nice flowing sections and smaller jumps. An excellent course for hardtail bikes.
covers Les Arcs, whether it be through the forests or out in the open through steep alpine meadows. One of the best known tracks in the area runs from the Arc 1600 back down to Bourg. With a vertical drop of 800 metres through a steep forest, this winding track takes 20 minutes flat out. And the lift back up? Takes just eight minutes and it runs until seven thirty at night! Between Peisey and Arc 1600 there are 12 separate single-track routes running through the forest down to the valley, and thatäs just what's available below 1600m.
is where Les Arcs gets right where other resorts have failed. Every lift has at least one technical route running down from it. Higher up on the mountain this involves steep switchbacks over some very loose rocky terrain. Lower down in the forests things get a bit more north shore with the kind of trails where you are constantly on the brakes. This can make for descents lasting up to an hour through technical terrain at very slow speeds.
are prevalent in Les Arcs due to the huge drop in altitude. How does a ninety minute downhill grab you? Eighteen hundred vertical metres (yes nearly two kms!) of descent with a mixture of flowing single-track, fire road and technical single-track. And there are three or four completely different routes like this each using different sides of the mountain. More? Bourg Saint Maurice has it's own skate park and the surrounding forests are littered with dirt jumps.
There's even a lake jump.
Downhill trails
are improved and extended every year as the area becomes more and more popular with mountain bikers. The cachette trail in Arc 1600 is one of the best in the Alps. Around six minutes flat out with a vertical drop of 550m and a course length of over 3km. It has played host to a round of the Avalanche Cup for the last three years. Tables, hips, fades, berms (braking bump free!) technical sections and scarily fast straights all feature. If this gets a bit too much for you, you can take the Trans Arc cable car to Arc 2000 for the Plagnettes course. This is a very smooth trail with some nice flowing sections and smaller jumps. An excellent course for hardtail bikes.
Single-track
covers Les Arcs, whether it be through the forests or out in the open through steep alpine meadows. One of the best known tracks in the area runs from the Arc 1600 back down to Bourg. With a vertical drop of 800 metres through a steep forest, this winding track takes 20 minutes flat out. And the lift back up? Takes just eight minutes and it runs until seven thirty at night! Between Peisey and Arc 1600 there are 12 separate single-track routes running through the forest down to the valley, and thatäs just what's available below 1600m.
Technical riding
is where Les Arcs gets right where other resorts have failed. Every lift has at least one technical route running down from it. Higher up on the mountain this involves steep switchbacks over some very loose rocky terrain. Lower down in the forests things get a bit more north shore with the kind of trails where you are constantly on the brakes. This can make for descents lasting up to an hour through technical terrain at very slow speeds.
Epic descents
are prevalent in Les Arcs due to the huge drop in altitude. How does a ninety minute downhill grab you? Eighteen hundred vertical metres (yes nearly two kms!) of descent with a mixture of flowing single-track, fire road and technical single-track. And there are three or four completely different routes like this each using different sides of the mountain. More? Bourg Saint Maurice has it's own skate park and the surrounding forests are littered with dirt jumps.
There's even a lake jump.
"Les Arcs is a wicked resort and we loved staying with you guys, much better than camping! We'll be back to tackle no 8 trail again next year" Rob
