Trail Building: USA vs. Europe
Europe is approximately 10,180,000 sq km, while the United States is approximately 9,833,517 sq km, making the United States 96.6% the size of Europe. But the USA has one language under (more or less) similar laws and regulations. Europe has around 750 million people, give or take, depending on which source you look at. There are 44 different countries with their own cultural backgrounds, idiosyncrasies, and peculiarities. On top of that, you have more than 200 different languages, with ten main ones like English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, and a few more. You then have the European Union, which tries to standardize laws and regulations across all its component countries and remember, not all European countries belong to the EU. And on top of that, we don’t have vast expanses of land where you can roam for hundreds of kilometers and not find a soul. Usually, you will get a tiny village each 10km in the middle of nowhere in the Alps or the Pyrenees or Carpathian mountains, with its corresponding land owners with their cattle, agricultural land, or just recreational land.
On top of that, try to make sense of a common project with common standards and a common base to build trails. I dare you. Double dare you to get that done. Well, that’s what we have in Europe.
But hey, we are not sitting and doing nothing. The DIRTT project (Developing Inter-European Resources for Trail Building Training), a mountain bike trail educational framework and study program, led to Europe’s first formal education for Mountain Bike Trail Planning, Construction, and Maintenance. Of course, IMBA Europe makes the impossible possible, spreading the word through their seminars, webinars, and summits, with trail-building classes and more projects in their hands. And there is a plethora of smaller organizations in each country trying to connect between them, share experiences and learn from each other.
But what about some specific samples to see how wildly different the approach to trail building or trail access is in various areas in Europe? Let’s dive in based on my own experience. Here are some samples after living in Spain, Portugal, and Ireland and traveling around other countries.
Ireland and the UK are mostly based on the trail center experiences, with big investments from local authorities and event country authorities, as in Ireland or Scotland with +10million investments on sustainable trails and excellent interesting projects. Ireland has several trail centers with thousands of visitors per week, good quality sustainable trails and more to come, a healthy community, and a growing MTB scene asking for more natural trails and less flow.
Spain and Portugal are sadly in the back of the queue, with barely zero to no investment from authorities where very restrictive access regulations are in place, and hunters and hikers lobby advocates to completely close access to mountain bikes to trails. There are lucky few trail-building initiatives popping out in various locations in the Spanish Pyrenees, like the known ZonaZero, or the recently created Eremua, MTB Basaburua that won the 2023 Take Care of Your Trails Best Trail Crew award or LoPodall Trail Association and BikeTrails Valencia in the south. But those are all mostly volunteer-based, with little support from local authorities and few resources. And don’t even start talking about getting an excavator in the forest. Sofa-ecologists, as I call them, will start screaming that you are destroying the forest. But in the meantime, they are trying to build a 23 million euros ski corridor in a virgin area where studies say there will not be any snow in 10 years. Most of the initiatives in Spain and Portugal are just based around recovering old hiking or donkey trails for bikes, but without any big intervention, just clearing vegetation and not much more.
Then you have France, Germany, Italy, Austria and of course Switzerland, in the heart of the Alps. All countries with legendary well-known destinations. Who doesn’t know Leogang, Les Gets, Morzine, Champery, Avoriaz, Lenzerheide, La Thuile, Val d’Isere, Zermatt, and others? But you noticed something; those are all known ski destinations that, in summer, act as bike parks. What about just trail riding outside those places? Germany, Austria, and Switzerland have stringent rules on the subject. They don’t have the famous “free to roam” you have in Scotland. Mostly, the opposite. You have a 2 meters rule in many places in Germany and Austria where you can’t ride less than 2 meters wide trails. There are some efforts to deal with these trail access issues, but things are not always looking good. There are excellent projects, but it is hard to progress when you get opposition from all sides.
Riding off-the-beaten-track trails or illegal trails, it’s a common thing in Europe in general. Some big trail-building projects are going on in Europe for sure. But in comparison, when I read about this in the USA and listen to the Trail EAffect, Singletracks, or Front Lines MTB podcasts, I just sit in a corner and cry. But things are changing. I’m looking forward to a change and getting more and more done.
Don’t get me wrong, mountain biking in Europe is booming; there are huge good initiatives. But, similar to any other project or initiative in the USA, we must deal with regulations and rules across different countries. It is tough to find a common standard to work with. Things are progressing well, but slowly and with tons of bureaucracy involved and lots of opposition from authorities that don’t understand the treasure they have in their forests in the form of trails.
Words: Yaroslov Alpizar Photos: Supplied by Yaroslov Alpizar from different sources
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Yaroslov Alpizar
Yari, born in Russia, raised in Havana for 30 years, living in Europe for the last 18 years, between Spain, Ireland, Portugal, and a trusted VW T4. Started mountain biking in 2005 when landed in Spain and was hooked since the first day. Software engineer spending way too much time with anything related to mountain bikes. Trying to give a voice to trail builders and trail associations in Spain & Portugal. Trail Advocate of the Year 2023 award from IMBA Europe.
