Sometimes, the best journeys are those that incorporate multiple adventure disciplines, and of course, plenty of friends who are willing to come along for the ride. Last April, Sami Sauri was joined by her friends Gaby and Bella for a combination ski/bikepacking adventure in the French Alps that, despite early predictions, had no shortage of snow—or good times. Read on to learn about their special, cheesy trip. 

I remember our conversations being like, “How are we going to pull this off?” We had an initial plan, but everything is green; everything is grass and there is no snow! 

I remember joining Gaby on a Wednesday in early April at her house in Morzine. I came to ski and to bikepack, but on the day I arrived, we ended up doing our first ride in shorts to the top of a climb where we had to walk due to some icy, and then soggy, snow. The heatwave was real, and there was no snow anywhere. 

The fact of putting a specific date on something like this is really hard. You don’t know the conditions months before, or even weeks or days, and everything can go wrong—or turn into a perfect adventure, and that’s what it was! A last-minute switch to the forecast made our days some glory days!

We met with Bella, a good friend of Gaby, and her husband. I hadn’t officially met her before, but I’d heard lots of stories of her adventures, so why not bring her along on our first-ever ski bikepacking trip?! 

So, on a Friday around 12 am, we set off under the snow to go straight up and over Col du Corbier. Already making our tracks through the snow with our tires, we reached the top with big smiles on our faces, enjoyed some food and water, and dropped down into the valley.  

Our destination was Abondance, but right before we got there, we were so lucky to find “la fromagerie” of the valley open, and of course we needed some good cheese for our lovely fondue, so we stopped and let the local surprise us with the best “fromage” of the region.

Abondance is a cute little village in the French Alps, very close to the Swiss border. Being that this was one of the last weekends of the season, only one hotel, one bar, and one supermarket were open, so lucky us, we got to stay in the “Tourist Hotel” (such a great name) where they accommodated us with a storage room for our bikes and some random music. We were early enough to do a little “apero” at the bar in front where some hot wines and beer were served while we looked at our plans for the following day. 

We woke up relatively early and had breakfast in the hotel. We geared up and switched our Fizik gravel and winter shoes to our ski boots and started our walk to buy some bread and get the refuge key up a very steep hill. I’m not going to lie, we underestimated the walk to the initial point of skin up, and so we ended up getting a lift from a guy straight to the parking lot where the path started.

We skinned up this magical valley, and it was like a snowy fairy-tale. Everything was covered in snow; our skis were moving fluffy new snow all over and the valley had clear, pretty views we’d never expected. 

After a little hill, we could start to see the refuge. But when we got the key, we didn’t really get any specifications as to where and which one was our little house—there were a few of them—and it took us a bit to get that sorted. But there it was: a little cabin on top of the hill surrounded by trees, the cosiest spot ever!

We didn’t waste any time, and we ate something quickly and then went to check our surroundings and have a great time. We skinned up around some bushes and trees until we found a nice point to drop down a bit, and from there, we skinned back “home”. It was just a nice little afternoon checking the terrain.

The time had come, and we were ready for fondue! The refuge of Tinderets, as it was called, had a fondue set already there, you just needed to bring a candle.Garlic, cooking wine, cheese, cheese, cheese, and mix—a bit of salt and pepper and voilà! You’re ready to dip in the bread! Good night with a full belly and a fire stove on. 

Day two started with getting all my clothes on to go to the toilet down the hill. It was a fresh and proper wake up!

 Our goal was to go up and reach Point d’Arden’s 1960m peak, but as we woke up with not much visibility and still a lot of snow dumping, we didn’t know if we’d be able to make it all the way to the top. 

We skinned our skis, put on our boots, and tackled what was to be an amazing adventure on the snow to the top. We passed trees, bushes, and even a snow-covered village mid-way through.

When the sky and fog cleared up, you could see the amazing, beautiful valley and some cliffs along the side; it really looked like a fairy-tale. 

We had nearly reached the top of the peak, and doing some maths on timing and stuff (as if I was good at maths), a few meters before the summit, and due to a big fog cloud that had come in, we decided to drop our plan and head back down the mountain! 

We, of course, went back by bike, and the switch from skis to bikes was fun, but hard, with our tired legs from the climb. Luckily, we had no more mega-storm, so the downhill was chill. 

We celebrated with a little Génépy liqueur from a shoe glass bottle and a dance!

Sami’s Ski, Bike, Eat Fondue, and Repeat Route

Gaby’s and Bella’s trip memories

Quotes:

Gaby – It was fun answering questions from the surprised locals when we pulled up on bikes at the local bar in a snowstorm.

We went on a real mission to source local cheese and carry a lot of it up the mountain, then we found out Bella doesn’t really like fondue. 😂

But on a serious note, it felt really good to be able to go on a multisport adventure totally under our own power. It’s made me think twice about always jumping in the car to go skiing.

Bella  – I just looked back at the messages to remind myself, they made me LOLLLLL….:

Sami’s dramatic, surprise crashes… 

Laughing while we ate Swiss chocolates and drank red wine in our super cute hut while the snow fell.

And just how many straps we needed. Do you have a strap?!

Also laughing at when Sami’s mum saw a photo of me drinking the Génépi and thought it was young Sami 😂

Photo: SamiSauri Written by SamiSauri
Riders: @gabythompso @bella @samisauri