Mountain Bike Trails in La Plagne — 5 of Our Favourites

Bellecôte

Starting from the top of the Roche de Mio gondola and heading around the Lac des Blanchets, these blues follow the same start. One turns off left and back towards Aime 2000, covering 12km and the other takes a right fork and takes you back towards Belle Plagne and back to the bottom of the gondola covering 11km. There's a small amount of climbing +170m and +150m respectively, but the descents are what it's all about: -875m and -810m with some spectacular views.

Trail no.8

From Plagne Bellecôte you can take this back down to the valley floor, through the trees on a whopping 12km trail. There is a 150m climb involved but the -1,100m descent more than makes up for that. Watch out for pedestrians though, this is a shared trail. 

Montchavin - Les Coches

If you fancy a much shorter trail there's one of 1.5km that you pick up at the bottom of the Lac Noir chairlift and descend -150m to the bottom of the Montchavin lift. 

Trails 16, 17 and 18 

These three also start in this area. 

The 16 and 18 tracks are both 10km long with the shortest being no.17. 

If you prefer no uphill, then trail 18 is the one for you with -700m descent from the top of the Pierres Blanches lift, or if you don't mind a little bit of a pedal, trail 16 has +135m and -600m. Both of these longer trails take you through the lovely forests around Montchavin and you can easily connect to Les Arcs from here via the Vanoise Express mid-week. 

Plagne Montalbert 

One blue trail which loops up and around the village is a bit challenging at 8.5km long and it has a bit of a climb (+464m) and then back round through the trees to your starting point. 

Champagny - trail no.24

Heading over the far side of resort there's also a blue trail that starts and finishes from the Champagny gondola and is a manageable 4.2km and -600m of descent. 

If you feel brave you can head over onto the red trails which criss-cross on the way down, and also arrive back at the gondola. 

Find the trails on the map here. 

Trail no.5 

A liaison between two points, so don't expect a downhill track. It's a lengthy 9km and is the highest of the green trails in La Plagne. 

Starting from either Aime 2000 or Plagne centre you climb 150m in total around Plagne Villages and over to Plagne Soleil, then loop back round and take the same path back to where you started. It should take around 1.5 hours.  

Trail no.15 - Lac Noir

Above Les Coches and 7km long, starting from the top of the chairlift with the same name. There's a weeny 50m of climb and the rest is downhill (-490m) back to Les Coches village. 

Trail no.32 - Pelerinage

Over in Plagne Montalbert this is the shortest of the green trails at 4.5km. It's a loop with 191m of climb and descent starting from around the Montalbert chairlift. 

Bourg St Maurice liaison

Down on the valley floor this liaison is also graded green. It's 15km and takes you along the river all the way to Bourg where you can grab a bite to eat and head back, or head up the funicular to explore the trails in Les Arcs. 

Champagny

Has a couple of family circuits or loops taking you along the valley floor and back to Champagny en Haut. 

Find the trails on the map here. 

La Plagne is also part of the Paradiski area which you can connect to via the Vanoise Express, a huge cable car that spans the valley into neighbouring Les Arcs on week days.

The centre of resort and the immediate surrounding area is made up of trails graded as either green, blue, red or black. Also there is a blue, red and a (huge) black trail over on the Champagny side.

Les Tuilles, Les Coches

If it's your first time mountain biking, or if you just want to get your biking legs back, then try out this green trail. You can pick it up from either the top of the Montchavin chairlift or the Plan Bois chairlift, and depending on which part of it you do there's between -420m and -645m of descent on easy to ride trails. You can loop round these two lifts quite happily doing different sections of the same trail.

Leitchoums

From the top of the Roche de Mio lift is this nice long blue run that covers 12.5km and descends from 2,739m all the way to Plagne centre via Aime La Plagne and comprises of mostly fire road (4x4 track). There is around 170m of climbing to do on this trail, so it's more suitable for enduro or hard tail bikes. 

Les Esserts

If you're up for a bit more of a technical challenge and a longer run, then this red trail takes you along 8km (-683m) from Plagne Montalbert back down to the Echo Bus pick up point at the bottom of the valley in Macot.

Champagny

More experienced riders can tackle the 26km black trail here, which starts from the top of the Roche de Mio, and takes you down past Champagny le Haut, back up on the Champagny gondola and over the top back to your start point at the bottom of the Roche di Mio. The trail has +716m uphill and -2,191m of descent incorporating spruce forest and wide open panoramas. Expect to complete this in about 2.5 hours.

Using the lifts

There are free lifts at your disposal on the La Plagne side and in Les Coches, which aren't very long and don't give you a huge amount of access. 

We'd recommend you get hold of a local area pass if you just want to stay in La Plagne, or a Paradiski pass if you want to venture across into Les Arcs. Check out prices here.

Not all the lifts operate throughout the whole week. Take a look at the summer lift timetable for more information.

Also be aware that a lot of the trails used for mountain biking are also used by hikers, so watch your speed and be mindful of other people enjoying the mountain too.

Trail no.4

The downhill trail starts at the top of the La Roche lift below Plagne 1800. It zig zags down the mountain, through the trees on some tight and technical corners. It's 3.5km long and descends -570m. If you want to session any of the features it's easy to do laps of the lift. 

Champagny

Enduro time now. You can break this one up into a smaller 18km route or tackle the full 26km loop, taking in Champagny le Haut and the peaks at the top of the Roche de Mio. 

If that sounds a little bit too much of a height gain, you do actually use the Champagny gondola to ascend 1,100m, and depending on which part of the route you do there's either +435m or +298m, so much more manageable.

Find the trails on the map here. 

Trail no.7 

The highest of the red trails starts from the top of the Roche de Mio gondola and it has to be said that the views here are pretty amazing. It takes you down through the tunnel (which you may recognise if you've been here in winter) and back to the bottom of the gondola in Bellecôte. It's a 4.5km trail and descends -800m, so plenty of time to take a break part way down and rest.

Aime 2000

Trail no.9 

Starts and finishes at La Roche lift and is a nice -570m descent of around 5km. 

Trail no.33 

More of an enduro trail with +100m from the top of the Fornelet lift above Montalbert. It takes you down through the valley below Aime 2000 and back through the trees into Montalbert again. It's a comfortable 7km long and descends -720m.

Trail no.35

From the village of Montalbert you can drop all the way to the valley floor on this red that is 8km long and takes you -683m down back to the bus pick up point (Aire de chainage de Maçot) at the bottom of the mountain. 

Champagny

Trail no.25

If you're an enduro fan there's a great loop  skirting the tops of the mountains and the Champagny gondola. It's a lung-busting 12km long and has +525m climb and the same in descent. This is also the trail you'll pick up at the top of the gondola to connect back into the main resorts of La Plagne. 

Trail no.21 and no.23

These trails criss-cross down the length of the Champagny gondola. There's a good amount of mountain to descend here with -1,150m on trail 21 and -750m on trail 23. If you get tired on the way down there's always the option of swapping over onto the blue trail taking back to the bottom of the lift again.

Find the trails on the map here.