Looking back in the Mt Fort Cabane where we had lunch

Link to detailed route page and map click on route title [route-snippet id=”893″ featured=”image”]Plan for today was to do the Tour du Mont Fort (easy rider) which is a bike route from Siviez to a Verbier and back via La Tzoumaz – using chair lifts to make it achievable for mere mortals like us. The day was a perfect day for riding, no wind, not too hot and beautiful blue skies.The recent rain has cleared the haze and the views from up high were crystal clear.

Unexpected road users!

The ride down from the top of Tracouet was fairly challenging, the dirt road is heavily rutted and in dappled shade it was important to concentrate and pick the right line. Was slow, lots of use of brakes but got down happy with myself. My confidence on dirt tracks has taken a big knock since my bad fall in SA earlier in the year and I have to rebuild it. One section of the track was ‘taped’ off as the farmers were grazing their cows on the surrounding pastures. We got off our bikes and walked through the herd of cattle, very placid but they did have big horns! As well as the classic cow bells!
At Siviez as we were making good time decided to stop for a coffee and for Mike to have another look at my misbehaving bike. Well, we found that the front three gear shifter was broken, not fixable with duct tape. Happy that at least the part had failed here where we could rid mostly downhill back to Nendaz and avail ourselves of the services of a local bike repair shop. End of Mt Fort tour for the day!

Jax on route up to Col de Vaux

Top of Col des Chassoure

However as it was still early, and we had a day lift pass, decided to drive back up to Siviez and get the cable car up Col de Gentianes (2,894m) then hike down to the Mt Fort Cabane (2,457m) before heading back to Siviez via the Col des Vaux and the Col des Chassoure (2,749m) – more familiar to us as skiing destinations than hiking ones. From here it was down via the tricky boulder strewn ski run to Tortin, as Mike said on the way down not something he would do again in a hurry. However when we got off the ‘black run’ section the path turned into a very nice trail, bordered by bilberry bushes which we enjoyed the berries from. Enjoyable hike back to the car via trails we have skied down many times in the past. A successful, but hard day,  even though it turned out quite differently from what we had planned.

As a footnote what it has inspired us to do is to climb Mt Gelé (3,023m) as there is a footpath from the top of Col des Vaux.