EPIC MOUNTAIN BIKE HOLIDAYS | FRANCE | LES ARCS - BOURG SAINT MAURICE
ABOUT US
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The White Room was created in 2008 by Steven & Iona McDonald. We started out as a year-round chalet business running Mountain Bike holidays in the summer and ski/snowboard holidays in the winter. Since then, our mountain bike business has grown and grown to the point where we have now taken a step away from running winter holidays and we only run mountain bike holidays. Both of us are passionate mountain bikers and fully French-recognised bike guides. We live in the Tarentaise valley all year round and ride bikes from when the snow first melts in Spring right up until it starts falling again at the start of the winter. We've made it our obsession over the years to ride every hint of a trail in and around the valley, meaning we now have a breadth and depth of trail knowledge which is second to none. We've taken the customer service and top-class catering experience from 10 years of running high-end ski holidays and blended it with our passion for mountain biking and over 15 years experience of riding and guiding on the local trails to create what we think are some of the best mountain bike holidays in the world.
Guiding team
Our guiding team is one of the most experienced you'll find anywhere. All of us hold a French Carte Professionelle and we all have at least 10 years experience of riding and guiding the local trails. We all hold either a combination of the British Mountain Bike Leader and International Mountain Leader qualifications or the French BPJEPS Mountain Bike Instructor qualification. We all work as outdoor leaders all year round, with Stevo, Pat & Rab being local snowboard/ski instructors in the winter and Iona working as a snowshoe leader. Check out White Room Snowboarding for Stevo's winter snowboard guiding, coaching and backcountry camps.
Co-founder of The White Room, Stevo moved to the Tarentaise in 2007. After narrowly surviving the step-up from weekend warrior to full-time bike guide, he became utterly obsessed with riding every possible trail in the valley. Now old enough to have lost any pretensions at having an ego, he's up for riding anything, with anyone. Never happier than when following some hopelessly optimistic faint hint of a trail as it disappears into the mountainside.
The other half of the White Room founding team, Iona grafted her way to becoming one of a tiny handful of British female bike guides to hold full French guide status. Endowed with far more patience than any of the rest of us, she's also a far, far better rider than she takes credit for. Usually to be found delivering endless encouragement to get people down trails they didn't think they could ride.
Pat virtually grew up in the Tarentaise and speaks rougher French than a Savoyard farmer. Having called the valley home for over 15 years, he knows every nook and cranny and, apparently, everyone, everywhere he goes. Known for his quiet, introspective personality and softly-spoken tones, entertainment is guaranteed.
Rab joined the team in 2019, having been living and guiding in the Alps for 20 years. An Aosta valley local for many years as well as a Tarentaise resident, Rab adds a new patch to our already vast pool of trail knowledge. Rab's chilled demeanour hides a long and occasionally distinguished history in downhill racing and an ability to make a gravity-propelled bicycle move very, very fast indeed.