Oisans territoire du VTT et du cyclotourisme, UCI coupe du monde VTT, marathon VTT, FFC coupe de France VTT, mondial du VTT, Mountain of Hell, Mégavalanche, la Marmotte cyclo, Tour de France cycliste, de Vaujany au plateau d’emparis et par l’Alpe d’Huez, cyclo, VTT Freeride, VTT Cross country pour découvrir les Alpes en Oisans.
Logo bike-oisans

VISIT
tourisme-oisans.com

MTB and Cycling in Oisans
by Oisans Tourisme

 Logo Oisans Tourisme

MTB Trails
in Oisans :

WELCOME TO BIKE-OISANS.COM !

Season's events

+ Calendar Cycling & MTB

The Vallons de la Meije N°18

Freeride

La Grave > Puy Vachier > La Grave

Info-Freeride-05-uk

ORGANISATION

Take the cable car at the entrance to La Grave. For more information, call 04 76 79 90 05.

IN BRIEF

A serious free-ride, not recommended for novices! Look out for hikers, who are not yet accustomed to seeing free-riders coming hurtling past…
If you brake just a little and call out a cheery ‘merci!’, everyone will continue to get along just fine.

DESCRIPTION

Get out of the cable car at the mid-station (2400m) and head off towards the small lake below in the pastures. Ride back up the narrow path and follow the ‘vallons’, or glens, of the Meije. The path turns steeply downwards, with a hand-rail over a 10 metre stretch, before reaching the bottom 100m further on. Carry on downhill, towards the end of the moraine, where the technical, slippery and stony path calls for a great deal of skill. Be careful here, as you are right on the edge of the Ecrins National Park in which mountain-biking is strictly forbidden. For this reason, you must not take the path off to the right which goes onto the other slope and into Park territory, but rather the path to the left. You have to carry the bike through a 10m section of woodland in the middle of a succession of unseating, sliding and scrambling switchbacks.
At the Chal Vachere – Puy-Vachier junction, take the left-hand path to Puy-Vachier.

It’s a short climb up to the Chalet de Puy-Vachier, from where you follow the bends down through the pastures. Follow the path to a slate quarry (an area of black shale). Descend the technical switchbacks on this terrain which is slippery, but without danger. Go up 50m and follow the path to La Grave that takes you to the road.

Leave the sign for the Ecrins National Park to your right and cross the bridge over the Romanche River. The path climbs up towards some steps which, after a two-minute carry, will take you back to the car park for the cable car.