Châtel:  a mecca for mountain biking

 

In addition to its stunning scenery, Châtel and the Portes du Soleil area of the French and Swiss Alps offer almost endless options for mountain biking (cross country, enduro/ freeride and downhill).  

 

Châtel alone has 90 kms of well-marked mountain bike trails and one of the best bike parks in Europe.  However, it doesn’t stop there.  Châtel’s central location in the Portes du Soleil - which includes 850km of marked trails through 14 villages (including Les Gets, Avoriaz, Morzine, Morgins, Champery, Torgon, Champoussin and Montriond), 8 permanent downhill tracks, 4 bike parks, and 23 lifts that are opened and usable with mountain bikes in the summer - means that Châtel is the perfect base for a fantastic mountain bike holiday. 

 

Downhill tracks and bike parks, freeride areas with drop-zones, epic days out, singletrack through Alpine meadows, high-altitude rocky terrain, beginner outings through to world cup downhill runs – the variety of terrain is unrivalled in Châtel, and there really is something for everyone.

 

Chalet Isobel is perfectly set up for mountain biking holidays.  We have secure bike storage in the basement of the chalet, we’re well located to access the lifts and amazing bike park just up the road at Pré la Joux, and we even have a hot tub to soak away the aches and pains at the end of the day!

 

Châtel Bike Park - Pré la Joux

 

Châtel Bike Park stands out at a major player in the bike parks scene, and is considered one of the best bike parks in Europe.  Indeed, it’s hosted the IXS Downhill Cup and the Châtel Mountain Style Event, so expect something big!  The bike park is situated at Pré la Joux (just 4km up the road from Chalet Isobel), and is accessed via the Pierre-Longue and Rochassons chair lifts.  There are 19 trails of all levels of difficulty (from green tracks for beginners to blue, red and black downhill tracks for the more experienced).  The greens are not just fire-roads, they are maintained machine-built rolling berms with optional jumps and drops.  There is tight steep single-track, technical rooty tracks, as well as machine-built ‘freeways’ running down under the lifts.  

 

Everywhere you look you will find big hit gap jumps, huge drop offs, and fast berms – enough for any interest and any standard of rider as the features are almost always optional.  There is stacks of northshore, with dedicated ‘shore’ trails as you get close to the bottom of the main lift.  Every drop or jump is marked on each side of the takeoff lip (and landing lip on the tabletops).  All the trails are very well signposted, with trail maps pinned to a board at the top of each lift.  In short, the Châtel Bike Park has got everything you might want!

 

For the younger members of the family there is also “Le Kids Park” - an area dedicated to getting kids started into mountain biking – which is a great "baby slope" area at the bottom of Pré la Joux next to the dirt jumps and wooden ramps.

 

You can find out more about the bike park here, download the bike park map here, but most importantly check out this video of the bike park from EpicTV below!