I’m not quite sure how 14 months have passed since we last posted an update on here, but it seems to be true to say that time definitely flies when you are having fun!

2023 flew by in a whirlwind of good times and successful trips both in the UK and abroad, making it our biggest and best year to date. It made the tough couple of years of 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic seem (thankfully) like a distant memory, and we couldn’t be happier to be where we are now a couple of years on, and to have recovered in the way we have. A huge part of that is thanks to our fantastic customers who continue to put their trust in us to organise and deliver great trips and experiences.

We’re excited for what 2024 has to offer, but here’s a little recap of what we got up to in 2023!

We started the spring with some private guiding in the Lakes, followed by a busy month of group and private guided trips up in the beautiful Scottish Highlands. Once again May proved to be a mild and dry month and conditions were great for all of our trips! As well as our popular Cairngorm Classic Enduro tour, we had groups returning for a week of guiding in Aberdeenshire, home to some of the best riding in the UK and rapidly becoming known as one of the UK’s best mountain bike destinations. We couldn’t agree more, we love it here and it’s fantastic to see more and more trails and facilities for riders being developed, and the community growing year on year.

Straight after this Julia got in a solid week of ‘training’ for the Alpine season ahead, by riding a modified version of the Highland Trail over 7 days. A mixture of weather, but mostly hot and sunny with incredibly dry trails, and a fantastic way to explore more of the northern Highlands with some epic trails.

From here it was out to the Alps for a busy summer of trips! We ran our Mont Blanc Enduro and Trans Alp Epic tours throughout July and August, including a women’s week, and finishing the month with our first E-Bike trip on the Mont Blanc Enduro. This went really well and we’re looking forward to continuing to offer this option in 2024. (We won’t mention the random day of snow we had on this trip…although it was certainly an adventure!)

September was spent in the Hautes-Alpes, on our Enduro safari and new Queyras Trail Delights trip. This is our only trip where we stay in one place for the week, and it’s a great base to do so. This trip probably has slightly more riding, both up and down, than some of our other trips as we don’t have any big distances to drive like on a point-to-point tour, as well as offering an abundance of flowy singletrack that the Queyras is well-known for. It’s certainly proved popular with everyone who has ridden here with us, and we’re looking forward to more trips here this coming year.

Finally we headed to Italy for several weeks of our Lake to Lake trip. It normally stays much warmer and sunnier here at this time of year compared to places like Chamonix and La Grave, but our first week was pretty cold and wet! Fortunately the team from Iceland who were with us were completely unphased by the conditions and we still had a great time. After this, the final two weeks were sunny and dry and we ended the season with an obligatory dip in Lake Como.

And so on to 2024! We’ll be back in Scotland for most of April and May with lots of private group bookings as well as our Cairngorm Classic Enduro.

New for this year is our Trans Ligurian Odyssey trip, a 6 day trip with riding in the wild Ligurian mountains between Finale Ligure and Molini di Triora. With a couple of nights in remote rifugios, delicious local Italian food and a whole variety of epic trails, not to mention minimal climbing thanks to the use of off-road vehicle shuttles, we’re super excited about this trip! We have options in May and September both with a few places still available.

We’re mixing things up a little this year in the Alps, starting the summer with a few trips in the Hautes-Alpes and Queyras, before heading to Chamonix for the summer holiday period. There are still a few spots left on a number of trips, so if you are thinking of booking then get in touch to have a chat and find out more!

The end of the summer sees us back in the Hautes-Alpes as the weather starts to turn cold in Chamonix, and we’ll be rounding the season off with our Lake to Lake trips again.

Enduring the cold dark, muddy months of the northern hemisphere winter, it feels like the Spring and Summer will never arrive, but we know it’ll be here in the blink of an eye really. and we can’t wait to ride with old and new friends on our trips this year!

We look forward to seeing lots of you soon. You know where we are and that we’re always happy to chat if you have questions about joining a trip!

Julia