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    Champery and Les Crosets bike parks – Portes du Soleil

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    Region of Portes du Soleil is the home to largest bike park in Europe. The facts and figures are certainly impressive, because it gathers into one big system of trails places like Les Gets, Chatel, Le Pleney or Champery. Together they offer over 600 km of bike trails, easy accesible with the help of 25 different lifts. Does this size and popularity also come with quality? Which of the bike parks offers the most interesting trails? Today I will take You to Champery and Les Crosets bike parks which are located in the Swiss part of the Portes du Soleil. For those planning to visit this region, I recommend also taking a look at other articles about other bike parks in the area: Morzine and the Avoriaz bike park, Les Gets and Le Pleney, Morgins and Chatel.

    Portes du Soleil – Swiss bike parks – Les Crosets and Champery

    On the Swiss side of the Portes du Soleil region, as part of one large network of trails, there are the Les Crosets, Champery and Morgins bike parks. Morgins bike park has separate article, and here we will focus on Champery and Les Crosets, which are located right next to each other. Everything here is designed so that even from the furthest Les Gets, you can get to each of them by bike, just using lifts and downhill trails. Easy access from the French part of Portes du Soleil is provided by the Mossettes lift, which starts in the Lindaretes valley. Its lower station can be reached by turning off the Bleue des Brochaux route (Avoriaz bike park) onto the Transfer Mossettes access road. This lift takes you straight across the Swiss border to the incredibly scenic Pointe de Mossettes peak. However, if the lift is not working or you absolutely want to get there by car, it will be more than hour-long trip around the mountains to Champery from Morzine. From Champery city, the cable car can take You also to the Les Crosets bike park trails.

    Bike park Les Crosets

    If You will come by the lift from France, the first bike park you will come across is Les Crosets. It offers four different trails, which are operated by two chairlifts. All of the trails available here are marked as red, meaning they are difficult. The vast majority of them are typical flow trails, but some sections are really steep and can be difficult because of that. A visit to this Swiss bike parks of Portes du Soleil was recommended to me mainly because of the views and the high-alpine nature of the trails. Indeed, the descents here are the most scenic in the entire region. However, the narrow Alpine trails offer very nice flow, large-sized and well profiled berms, pleasant rollers, and sometimes also pretty big jumps.

    Bike park Les Crosets – Grande-Conche and Le Loquet

    The first trail we come across after taking the Mossettes lift is Grande-Conche. It takes a short ride along the gravel descent from the lift to get to the start. But when we reach the trail we enter a great single trail that winds pleasantly along a rocky slope. An interesting and smooth trail leads between incredibly scenic pastures and takes us to the town of Les Crosets. From there, we can choose a lift back towards Mossettes or another towards Champery. Halfway down, it is also possible to take a short ride along the gravel road and ride Le Loquet trail. This short variant is another smooth and very flowy path with great views, which also reaches Les Crosets. Both available variants offer a lot of fun riding, and some steeper sections or pretty big jumps do not allow You to get bored.

    Bike park Les Crosets – Crosets and Sundance

    When You will take the lift towards Champery, You can choose the Crosets trail. This is a very fast flow trail that offers a lot of perfectly profiled berms and several pretty big jumps. In order to have fun and unlock all the flights, we must be ready to release the brakes and accelerate to really high speeds. The route will reward you with great flow. Another available option of the Bike park Les Crosets is Sundance trail. This is a route located below the town of Les Crosets and the chairlifts of Les Crosets bike park, the only convenient option to return to the top and to the other trails is to go all way down to Champery via several kilometers of scenic access roads and go up by cable car. I had the opportunity to check out the Sundance trail during the event Pass Portes MTB 2024, where it was marked as the official DH variant. Sundance trail is more technical and tight than the others surrounding Les Crosets. The next perfectly profiled berms are located in steep terrain and require more precision. But in the second part of the trail, the terrain flattens out and the path changes into a jumpy flow line that offers several interesting gaps.

    Bike park Champery

    Champery is primarily known from the venue for legendary World Cup downhill races. Even the best downhillers in the world have described Champery DH trail as incredibly steep and demanding. The Champery Bike Park is limited to the famous Coupe du Monde variant and the slightly easier Chevreul trail. The lifts located directly on these routes do not operate on a daily basis and transport to the top of trails is provided by a cable car that runs from the center of Champery. Unfortunately, this means a lot of riding on access roads. In 2024, the European DH Championships will be held on the Coupe du Monde trail in Champery, while in 2025 the same trail will host the DH World Championships.

    Bike park Champery – Coupe du Monde

    The beginning of the famous downhill trail is located at the top of Croix du Culet, right next to the exit from the cable car. Its upper section is also common to the Chevreul route and already shows the first signs of the steepness for which Champery is famous, but this is just a warm-up. When only the black markers of the World Cup Track remain on the trail, the real fun begins. I treated my descent more as an exploration and did not even try to go very fast or fly over some jumps or drops on the way. During my first visit, the conditions were good, although very dry, and I still had some problems with braking. The vast majority of the trail is manoeuvring high and well shaped berms, so it is relatively safe. Despite the calm ride and rather low speed, it was fun anyway. For such a single and rather rarely visited trail, I was also very positively surprised by its very good condition. The officially accessible descent ends at the asphalt road, which takes us back to the center of Champery. From there, a cable car starts and climbs almost vertically back up to the Croix du Culet. The official race track for competitions, however, leads down the valley to the Grand Paradis lift.

    Bike Park Champery – Chevreuil

    The Chevreuil route is a slightly easier alternative to the Coupe du Monde trail, but I still wouldn’t call it very easy. I used this option when, during my second visit to the region, I came across rainy weather that effectively turned the local flow trails into mud slides. Even on the shared access trail in such conditions it was very difficult to control the bike, so I decided not to go for the black world cup route. Chevreuil turned out to be a good choice and despite the poor riding conditions I was able to control what was happening and not just be a passenger. Like other routes in the area, it is a well-prepared combination of flow line with some natural elements. This version of the descent turned out to be quite pleasant, although quite short. After riding it, you can return to the official end of the DH trail.

    Swiss – France connection

    To return from Champery and Les Crosets to the French part of the Portes du Soleil region, You simply need to take the lift up to the Mossettes mountain from the Swiss side. From there, You have 2 options for returning to Lindarets. You can stick to the gravel road marked on Trailforks as Mossettes, or return along the scenic single trail via the Col de Chesery pass. I chose the second one as it looks more fun. It requires a short climb from Lac Vert lake to the aforementioned pass, but offers beautiful views along the entire route. From the pass, descent is going along a very nice traversing single trail, which will take You straight to the Chesery route. This scenic single trail option is very nice trip.

    Bike Park Champery and Les Crosets – Summary

    I can definitely confirm that the trails in the Les Crosets bike park are the most scenic ones and for this reason alone it is worth going there. However, in my opinion, riding here was also very good and the Grande-Conche + Le Loquet variant in particular gave me a lot of fun. Fast and very smooth trails in beautiful scenery are a recipe for an awesome day. I definitely recommend coming here in good visibility and weather conditions. In 2024, unfortunately, I was not as lucky with the weather as in 2023 and I personally experienced that the clay from which the trails are made here is incredibly slippery after rain. So it was hard to enjoy riding. Another interesting place to visit is the famous world cup dh trail in Champery. It was amazing to experience these steepness at first-hand. No videos or pictures from the competition will fully show how is it here. Having these 2 bike parks in the Portes du Soleil pass, it is worth going here even for half a day trip to check it out for yourself.

    Visiting Swiss bike parks from French side – practical information

    To get from Morzine to Champery, you can simply ride Your bike using the Avoriaz bike park lifts and the Mossettes lift. A trip by car would mean a loop around the mountains that would take over an hour of driving. To shorten the journey a bit and to have emergency tools and parts little bit closer, I used the combined option. In the morning, I drove to the Lindarets valley, from where I had a direct route to the Mossettes lift. I used the same option to get to the Chatel bike park quickly and efficiently. An important matter is that this road is only available for cars entering until 10 a.m. Between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., you can only go down towards Morzine/Montriond. Another important thing to monitor is the operation of the lifts. It is worth checking them on Portes du Soleil web site. In addition, there are many special signs in the area that tell us what is open and in what hours. You should also bear in mind that if the weather is uncertain and a storm comes, the lifts may be closed earlier and it may be not easy to return from Champery to Morzine. When going to Switzerland, you should also remember that this country is not in the EU and if your phone will connect to the Swiss network, the internet or calls will cost you a lot. It is worth setting the French network permanently, or simply turning off data transfer for the duration of your trip to Switzerland.

    Portes du Soleil – Bike pass

    Whole region is connected to one system so everytime You will buy bike pass, it will work in all of the area. A one-day pass for adult in the 2024 season costs EUR 34. Of course, there are also several-day options available. 6 days of riding costs EUR 185, and 13 days costs EUR 348. These are not very expensive, considering that this pass entitles you to use all bike parks in the Portes du Soleil region on the French and Swiss sides. The prices are not much higher than in Poland or the Czech Republic and definitely lower than, for example, in Leogang in Austria (approx. EUR 57/day). The prices showed are valid when purchased thru online system. Directly at the ticket office, it is a few EUR more expensive. Interestingly, bike passes also entitle you to enter other cable cars that operate in the summer for tourists outside the bike parks. So when You plan rest day from riding, you can go on a trip on the lift leading to the Point de Nyon viewing platform, the gondola in Chatel, or the Prodains cable car.

    Dents du Midi region

    Dents du Midi is the name of the Swiss part of the Portes du Soleil region. The Morgins bike park is not the only bike park here. A bit further on, there are also Champery and Les Crosets bike parks. These places are also connected by access routes in the form of scenic, gravel roads. Although to get to Morgins, You need to cover considerable distance and some of the access routes may also include uphills. You can read a bit more about transfers and trips in the article about the Pass Portes MTB event. In good weather, the Dents du Midi region offers phenomenal and very scenic high-mountain areas that are definitely worth visiting.

    More materials about Portes du Soleil region:

    About Portes du Soleil

    Portes du Soleil region is the home to the largest bike park network in Europe. It connects such legendary places as Chatel, Les Gets, Avoriaz, Champery and a lot more. One pass for the whole area will give You acces to more than 600 km of bike trails which are operated by 25 different lifts.

    Official website: www.portesdusoleil.com/
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