© Tom Humpage
Blue MTB Trails
Easy trails for beginner mountain bikers
There are blue mountain bike trails in La Plagne, which are slightly more difficult than the green and suited to people looking to develop their riding skills.
Above Bellecote there are blue trails, starting from the top of the Roche de Mio gondola and heading around the Lac des Blanchets. They both follow the same start and 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 respectively with some spectacular views too.
From Plagne Bellecote you can take trail no.8 back down to the valley floor, all the way down 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, as this is a shared trail.
If you fancy a much shorter trail there's one of 1.5km in Montchavin / Les Coches. Pick it up at the bottom of the Lac Noir chair lift and descend 150m to the bottom of the Montchavin lift.
Trails 16, 17 and 18 also start in this area. 16 and 18 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.
In Plagne Montalbert there's one blue trail which loops up and around the village. It's a bit more challenging as it's 8.5km long and there's a bit of a climb as this trail takes you up +464m and then back round through the trees to your starting point.
Heading over the far side of resort there's also a blue trail in Champagny (no.24). It 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.
