The lifts are open from mid June until the first weekend in September and have specifically adapted racks for your bikes allowing you to spend more of your time riding incredible alpine terrain rather dragging yourself up super steep inclines! By using the lift system you can vastly increase the number of great trails experienced during your stay for riders of all levels. As an example the height gain for the Super Morzine lift would take a good three quarters to one hours worth of effort to ride. Only the super fit cross country nihilist would want to repeatedly do that rather than take the lift. There is plenty of pedalling to be done if that is to your taste but better to be doing it on sweet single track than the fire roads out of the village.

Lift passes can be bought at the base of the Super Morzine and Pleney lift stations on an individual ascent basis. However if you're here for a few days and are going up and down many times during your stay, it's more economical to purchase a multi-day all area lift pass which gives you unlimited access to all the cable cars and chair lifts throughout the Portes du Soleil (PDS) If you are a ski/snowboard visitor to the area you will be pleasantly surprised to find a week’s pass is €60 as apposed to around three times that for the winter.

In terms of the number of lifts, you can make use of 25 in total giving access to the whole PDS area. As with the skiing the big advantage is the linked nature of these lifts with the options of accessing the whole PDS MTB area in one day. You are not restricted to one area per day as is the case with, for example, Chamonix. It is not unknown for other ski resort/biking areas to sport one lift and a commensurate number of trails – Morzine really is the biggest and best!

If you’re around for the opening weekend of the full lift system then there is the opportunity to ride the Passport du Soleil formerly known as the Freeraid. This event is a circuit of the Portes du Soleil, all clearly marked with refuelling stops and technical assistance. You’ll be riding with thousands of other riders and in return for an entry fee will receive number plate, map, food tickets and a two day lift pass