trailAddiction - Downhill DH Crosscountry XC Mountain Biking MTB Holidays Les Arcs Bourg La Plagne Singletrack French Alps, Not Les Gets, Morzine.

Epic Downhill DH Crosscountry XC Mountain Biking Holidays in Les Arcs in the heart of the French Alps

trailAddiction Backcountry Riding

H.E.I.D.I. (click to article as featured in Singletrack Magazine)

Introduced in 2006, the acclaimed High Exposure Isère Descent Itinerary is a 60km long, all off-road, 80% singletrack route descending from the Col de l'Iseran at 2764m (Europe's highest road pass, situated above Val d'Isère) right down to the Isère Valley base at 800m.

We do use a minibus for most of the ups, but the 3700 vertical metres of descent enjoyed on this excursion must be partially earned by a total of 1000 metres of unassisted ascent. HEIDI is a real high-mountain route in proper backcountry surroundings. With the Vanoise National Park's most prominent peaks and glaciers just across the valley from the main section of the trail, you just don't get any more "alpine" than this!

Along the way we pass through a world of trail variety containing scenery to take your breath away and ancient Savoyard villages such as the protected site of Le Monal.

The following rides are only available on our backcountry special weeks:

The Classic Uplift Day

The original trailAddiction backcountry outing contains a selection of five of our favourite secret trails. With the help of a minibus and trailer, each trail takes in about 1000 vertical metres* of the Tarentaise Valley forests' finest sweeping singletrack. Fast flowy trails is the name of the game on the Classic. *yes, that's 5 x 1000 = 5000m = more than the height of Mont Blanc just on singletrack in ONE day!

The Vanoise Beast

This all human-powered XC epic is a loop starting and ending at our front door in Peisey Village. The first long, gradual climb and following lovely singletrack descent land us in the La Plagne ski area. From here we head directly south to cross a Col taking us into the heart of the Vanoise country and break for lunch. After lunch we follow miles of undulating singletrack, throughout the course of which we are confronted with simply wonderful scenery... such as the impressive north face of the Grande Casse (highest mountain in Savoie at 3855m) just across the way. We then climb again and cross back over the watershed at another Col, giving way to a very long and very wild descent into the higher Peisey Valley. From here we pick up our local trails allowing us to make a bee-line to the terrace bar for that well-earned beverage!

The Mont Jovet Enduro

We use a minibus shuttle to give us an altitude kick start on this point-to-point overland trek. From the drop-off, we climb to the Mont Jovet ridge where we have the opportunity to put in an extra half-hour of climbing and take in the summit of this conical mountain (at 2558m, Mont Jovet is the culminating point of the Vanoise Massif's north-west area and offers a rare 360 degree panorama). Whether or not the summit is bagged, we cross the ridge over into the Bozel Valley area and make the most of two huge and utterly awesome singletrack descents which eventually bring us to the town of Bozel itself. From here, we take gradually descending valley trails all the way to Moutiers from where a train and/or minibus pick-up will whisk us home to Peisey.

Ride all of these trails and much more one of our exclusive backcountry weeks.