Portail de Fully
Description
In Dorénaz, take the small gondola lift up to Champex and hang your bikes on the gondola at the bottom. At the mountain station, take a small road up to La Giette and then continue on a gravel path to the Cabane du Scex Caro. Here the route turns into a singletrail, which you can pedal up to the Portail de Fully. However, many people push their bikes here in phases to save some energy. The Portail offers a first-class panorama of the Mont Blanc massif opposite and the Rhône knee far below. Now it's time for the descent, which initially leads along a single trail through very exposed meadow terrain. A cautious riding style is advisable here. The trail then becomes increasingly flowy and ends at a gravel road. Another 80 meters of ascent are required until the phenomenal high-level trail through the rocky southern flank of the Grand Chavalard begins. Later, the descent is really steep and you reach Chibo on a fun trail. An equally spectacular trail now leads to Bendon and then steeply down countless (rideable) hairpin bends into the vineyards between Saillon and Fully. You return to Dorénaz along the Rhone on side roads.
Map & GPX-Track
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Details of the tour
36 km
1315 m
1990 m
1 day
Dorénaz
Dorénaz
1294
limited
More information
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User comments (13)
About the author: Thomas Giger
Note: This content has been automatically translated from German. Please report any incorrect translations.
Please note that you now need a parking permit at the valley station. However, this can be obtained free of charge from the, as always, very obliging cable car staff.
A wonderful tour. Unfortunately, the last part (Beudon - Mazembroz - Fully - Dorénaz) is not rideable; very steep, lots of loose and large stones. Also steep. Very narrow, steep, partly blocked serpentines.
Strenuous ascent, in the 2nd half there are also occasional pushing passages. But then the panorama and trails are good.
Hello Padrenalin
Is there any storm damage on the route? Many thanks and greetings
I was at the Portail again several times last year. The stones on the descent from Beudon have been removed so that it is almost completely passable again. But it is still steep :-)
I've already ridden the double track in Sinlio, which I've already commented on, uphill, which would be just about possible due to the steepness. As a DH, however, it would be pure altitude destruction for me without any fun factor. What I can "recommend" as a variant is the trail from Pt. 1308 to Saillon. However, this is also quite steep in places and not really an alternative to the original route.
Shortly before Chibo on the hiking trail: a tributary of the Torrent de Randonne is not easy to cross without a bridge.
According to Trailforks, the downhill to Chibo is double black diamond: https://www.trailforks.com/trails/chamouere/
If you don't want to do this double black, you can take the path to Alpage de Sinio (with a small incline). An endless downhill is a double track but still quite fun. It was probably the feeder road to an abandoned mine.
I last rode the tour on October 27, 2019.
At the end of the season, I made it back to one of my favorite tours. This tour offers everything a biker's heart desires.
The ascent from the mountain station starts moderately up to Cab. Sex Carro. After that, there are a few running sections, depending on your fitness level. From 2214 to 2410 I was also mostly on foot. From there, however, the trail fireworks begin. After the portage, it gets a bit exposed from time to time, so it's better to get off the bike briefly. We tried to ride around to the left of the lake directly to the hut, but that wasn't a good idea. Next time, I'll ride counter-clockwise around the lake again. At least we were lucky that the hut was still open, it was the last day of the season. After a delicious rösti, we continued, again with a ramp up to point 2133, followed by a hammer trail to L'Erie, from there it gets a bit technical but still very rideable. At 1397 there is a newly created trail which is completely rideable until Chibo. From there it gets really technical until the ultra-steep final section begins after the vineyard and another climb. Thanks to my new bike with plus tires and more suspension travel, this section was actually a bit of fun for the first time, but it demanded everything from man and machine.
Conclusion: With rail transportation, a steep climb, pushing passages, hammer trails and an ultra-steep final section, this tour offers everything a biker's heart desires.
I ride a Scott Genius Ultimate and am usually in the head group uphill; downhill I'm always the last, by a long way.
Was at the Portail de Fully again yesterday, 11.06.20. The route was snow-free apart from 3 easy snowfields to cross. From Beudon I tried the trail in a westerly direction to Mazembroz to avoid the massacre of switchbacks at the end. On Trailforks, this trail was listed as "rideable in both directions", so I thought that the downhill would be no big deal. Unfortunately, far from it. What was just ultra-steep at the beginning was definitely no longer rideable after the river crossing. At least there was a rope in the rock face, so I was able to hold on to it with my right hand while my left hand held my bike on my shoulder. At the very bottom, there were people climbing on the wall, and climbing equipment would have been more suitable for the trail than a bike. So better leave it at that :-)
Rode the tour at the end of August 2019. Unfortunately, we didn't follow the comments exactly. We would have had to endure a few less pushing passages if we had taken these 30 m into the upper hiking trail. The last 200-300 Elevation loss are really technically difficult! The path was filled with loose scree. We could barely cover a few meters on the bike! This frustrated us a lot, as we already had to do a lot of the uphill on foot. Descent in terms of riding technique: dark black!
Checked 2018
We rode the tour in a mixed group (MTB, E-MTB). It is a very beautiful tour that can also be ridden with an E-MTB without any problems. The steepest uphill passages can be ridden almost entirely with the appropriate technique.
Best regards Hans
We rode the tour today.
Everything Daniel writes is correct so far, in Beudon leave the track briefly and do not ride over the terrace of the winery! At the no biking sign, ride straight on towards the clearly visible cable car station, pass it and ride down the little road behind the station along the vineyard! At the third!!! Turn left at the third little road that leads into the vineyards. There is also another hiking trail sign right there! Go up steeply for a short time and then cross over exactly into the hiking trail from the track. Please ride around the outside as described, it's short and no extra effort and you won't miss anything!!! Please dear ride people correct the track accordingly! Otherwise the tour is really great! PS I also don't want a biker thundering over my terrace!!!
Best regards Hans
Loading the bikes at the cable car ( 11.20 Fr. ) goes smoothly and you can easily get to 1124 meters where you climb along the road to the Secx Carro hut.
If you push up the meadow on the right just before the Secx Carro hut where the alpine path ends (about 30 meters at the signpost) (2 minutes), you will reach the upper rideable hiking trail (you have to search a little), so you save yourself the running passage on the path shortly after the hut. After 400 meters, the two paths rejoin the same hiking trail and you are back on the original route.
The trail is then mostly rideable up to the highest point at just over 2300 meters. From there you follow the slope to the Portail de Fully.
The first part of the trail from the pass to the lake has been reworked and is now rideable without any problems, but you should still be aware of the sloping terrain.
From the lake, the steep ascent to the high trail to L'Erie follows.
Just before the parking lot, don't miss the turnoff down to the right, where the hiking trail begins that rides to Beudon. This is sometimes flowy, sometimes steep and technical. Before Beudon, there are some steep, steep sections in exposed terrain.
In Beudon, there are hand-painted signs with VTT written on them to guide bikers around the gardens.
around the gardens. In Beudon there are 2 cable car stations, about 20 meters before the lower station a path goes off to the left into the vines, where the VTT sign is barely visible. This takes you to the hiking trail with the hairpin bends.
The hairpin bends are a real challenge, with barely a meter of straight line between the steep bends, loose rock and steps demand everything again towards the end of the tour.
All in all a beautiful and varied tour, the descent is quite exposed and steep in some places.
Many greetings Dani