Trail Heroes: Stephanie Jagl-Posch of MTB Initiative St. Poelten in Austria
Photo credit: Georg Furtmueller
he·ro / noun
Definition: a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.
Every week and weekend, tens of thousands of heroes trek into the woods with shovels, rakes, and mattocks to work on trails. Some are paid to do this as it is part of their livelihood and careers. Others are leading non-profit trail advocacy organizations. Most others are volunteers giving back to their local trails and communities. Each group and each person is a hero in the truest sense … courageous, noble qualities, and so much more.
Around here at Trail Builder Mag, we believe that trail builders, the unsung heroes, are integral to mountain biking. You are the heroes in the story of mountain biking.
I’m excited to share our next article in the Trail Heroes series. Even more so because we get to highlight and celebrate Stephanie Jagl-Posch from Austria. Let’s jump into this …
Photo credit: Georg Furtmueller
How long have you been involved in trail building?
I’ve been volunteering since 2016, but I started out by maintaining paths for hikers.
What has your level of involvement been? (any formal leadership roles?)
I’m the head of a mountain biking association (Mountainbike Initiative St. Poelten - MTB.STP) and regularly participate in building and maintaining our trails and the trails of other areas.
How or why did you start?
Being an avid hiker, I wanted to find a way to give back to the community. In 2016, I started as part of a team of volunteer trail builders in the Austrian hiking association Alpenverein, where I learned the basics of maintaining paths for hikers.
In 2020, I bought my first mountain bike and fell in love with the sport.
During COVID, I dropped out of the hiking trail building group.
Shortly after, I attended a community trail building day at a trail area close to where I live, Trailwerk Wachau, and was really hyped about the possibility of building even more trails for locals in our area.
Together with two fellow motivated mountain bikers, I founded MTB.STP (Mountainbike Initiative St. Poelten), and we started the planning phase for our two trails 2 years ago. In 2023, we started building our trails, opening them to the public the same year.
What are some unique challenges for trail building in your area?
In Austria, we have both cold, snowy, icy winters as well as hot, dry summers with thunderstorms.
We need to handle spots that stay muddy for longer periods of time as well as deal with phases where the ground is rather hard and not really shapeable. The thunderstorms make it necessary for us to react as quickly as possible and check the trails for safety issues after high winds.
What is one or two success stories that you’re most proud of?
It still surprises me how fast we were able to realize the first two trails. With the support of other, more experienced trail building associations (special thanks to Martin from Trailwerk Wachau and Saul from Wienerwald Trails), we could open the first trail about 1.5 years from the start of our association.
Favorite tool?
Either my electric trimmer or a mattock hoe.
What bike are you currently riding?
A Specialized Enduro, and I hope to get an E-Bike soon!
What is your favorite kind of trail to ride on?
I prefer natural trails; a spicy red single-track trail would be my choice.
What are some of the biggest changes in trail building and mountain biking you’ve witnessed over the past 5-10 years?
Can’t say, as I haven’t been active for so long, but my guess would be the e-bike boom, which probably changed the challenges for trail builders and trail associations a bit.
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That concludes our interview. If you have a story to tell, drop me an email.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sean Benesh
Sean is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Trail Builder Mag. He is also the Communications Director for the Northwest Trail Alliance in Portland, Oregon.
