101 Switchbacks

Maybe not quite 101, but not far off. I spied this trail whilst looking at the map one day and thought it could be a goer. It's not one to be taken lightly - a 1,000m climb from Sixt up to the Refuge du Grenairon situated at 1,950m. And that's just the last section. We (Figs and I) rode this from home: Out of the Les Gets bike park, over to la Bourgeoise and down (the direct route) to Samoëns. From there it's another few k up the road to Sixt.

The climb is a fairly steady 4x4 affair. Annoyingly just on the brink of being too steep to ride, without being too steep to ride - if you get my drift. Anyway, with Figs to chase, it was over with in about 90 minutes. Pleasingly only 10 minutes off the (non e-bike) KOM held by a certain Mr Christoph Sauser. The refuge was open, but as the guardian was at pains to point out, it is "not a snack bar". So no sandwiches, only a tasty looking plat du jour was on offer, but we were only half way round our ride.

What followed was 45 minutes of eyes-on-stalks exposure and switchbacks. There must be about 90 of them all in. And none of them are easy. However, much like the climb, there weren't many that were downright impossible given enough motivation.

Then followed some racing. First a two up time-trial back to Samoëns so we could fit in a beer before our uplift home. Then a race to down two pints in the space of 15 minutes before said uplift. Figs does like a post-ride beer :)