The evenings are getting shorter, the passes are emptying, and some riders are already putting the bike away with a sigh. Big mistake. In the Valais, the season doesn't end in August: it's just getting to the good part.
Autumn, the season the locals keep for themselves
Larches turning to gold, low light raking across the ridgelines, air so clear you can see all the way to Mont Blanc. The Valais autumn is a show, and it rides beautifully. Temperatures are ideal: no more cooking in the midday climbs, no more heat storms cutting the afternoon short. The trails, drained by weeks of good weather, are in their best shape of the year.
And above all, there is nobody left. The summer hikers have gone home, and so have the tourists. That singletrack you were sharing in July is now yours alone.
The lifts close, the Exo'bus keeps going
It's the same story every autumn: the bike parks and the lifts shut down one after the other, and many people think the vertical metres stop with them. That's exactly the opposite of what we do.
The Exo'bus has no lift schedule and no closing date. As long as conditions allow, we keep stacking descents: around 5,000 m on a normal day, up to 10,000 on our big ones, ten riders maximum, and the choice of slope decided by the morning's weather. While the resorts are packing up, we ride.
The next dates are in the shuttle calendar, and autumn is also the perfect time for a skills coaching day: perfect terrain, small groups, and a whole winter to let it sink in.
Winter is also workshop season
When the bike finally goes away, another season begins: the workshop one. Our mechanics courses are back, and it's the ideal moment to learn to do yourself what you've been outsourcing for years.
The beginner course starts from zero: fixing a puncture with an inner tube or tubeless, getting a broken chain running again, adjusting your derailleur, changing your brake pads and running the checks before every ride. You also leave with the inventory of which tools to carry on the trail and which to keep at home, and you know how to spot what needs to go to a professional.
The intermediate course goes further: brake bleeding, wheel truing and deeper servicing of your bike, suspension excepted.
Both are a full day in a fully equipped workshop, in a small group, with your own bike in your hands. Come spring, it will be ready before everyone else's, and you will never be stranded at the side of the trail again.
And when the snow arrives, Morocco is waiting
There comes a moment when even the Valais hands over. That's when the Exoride season changes continent: our Morocco trips are getting closer, between the ochre pistes of the Atlas, singletracks carved into the canyons and Berber hospitality at sunset.
A week of riding in full sun while the Swiss passes sleep under the snow: hard to imagine a better way to end the year. Places go fast, and so do the flights.
Don't let the season end without you
Autumn gives no warning when it ends. One early snowfall and it's over until spring. So have a look at the dates: an autumn day in the larches, a course to make winter useful, or a week in the Moroccan sun. The Exoride season doesn't stop, it changes shape.
