Last week Andras and I mountain biked a couple of laps on the 'Patier mtb track' from Verbier to Le Châble. This trail runs all the way from the forest on the far side of the Verbier bowl straight down to the village of Le Châble at the bottom of the valley. There are around 600 vertical metres of descent with two distinct sections: the top part is a steep windy singletrack, then you dive into the woods for the second half which is a little wider but with a lot of rock sections to work through.
At full speed the run can be done in a little under five minutes, but for the first few laps we took our time and scoped out some new lines in some of the corners and more technical sections. The key to a run like this is being able to float over the rocky parts to keep your arms strong for the last few corners. We stopped a couple of times to get some pictures for the website and Andras found a nice jump over a fence!
Overall the trail was in great condition, barely any moisture on the rocks and some of the corners were even a little dusty...crazy to see that in March! There were two trees down in the track, but we knew where they were so were able to bunnyhop one and duck under the second no problems.
For the final run we both took the whole trail at full speed and used Strava for timing, we both got personal records and Andras even took the KOM time! It was great to be out on the trail and riding our mountain bikes so early in the year!
See you soon!
Chris