Results Trail Building Schools 2013: 5 countries, 150 trail builders

In just one year, the Trail Building School program in Europe trained more than 150, most volunteer, trail builders. A promising start for this IMBA grassroots program.  The Trail Building School concept aims to teach several aspects of sustainable trail building, planning and trail maintenance to both volunteers as professionals.After Switzerland and Greece ,  the Czech Republic, Norway and the Netherlands hosted a colorful, autumn trail building school. People are surprised how much they learn in only two or three days.  ‘The strength of this program is that it offers a lot of applicable knowledge. After half a day of theory and discussions in the classroom,  participants already put their acquired knowledge into practice, building new, fun though sustainable singletrack. Those people become our new trail ambassadors, on the eve of numerous new local trail projects‘,  says IMBA EU director Mark Torsius.One of the most successful trail building schools took place in the Czech Republic with a absolute record of 45 delegates.  IMBA Trail Solutions teamed up with CEMBA (Czech Mountain Bike Association) at the Rychlebské Stezky Trail Center near Cerna Voda, Czech Republic. Project Manager Shane Wilson and Trail Specialist Mark McClure joined an international group of 45 delegates who traveled from across Europe to take part in the three-day school. Attendees came from Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Spain and even included two ex-pat American and British individuals.The Trail Center Pub at Rychlebsky Stezky, which recently applied for IMBA Ride Center Status, was used as the presentation venue as well as a base for the practical training. The amazing terrain nearby allowed for the creation of an awesome trail section.  The morning of the first day of the Trail Building School featured a theory presentation that was conducted indoors. Information about designing and constructing sustainable trails was presented to the participants by Shane and Mark within the confines of the newly opened Trail Pub, an old character-filled stone building with exposed wooden beams and a bar serving fresh food and local beers. Following a tasty lunch of soup and goulash the afternoon session allowed the group to experiment with clinometers and flag a new trail section. Trail Solutions staff explained safe working practices and tool handling techniques whilst constructing a short section of bench cut trail as a demonstration. Working in conjunction with Pavel Hornick, who manages the trails at the site, the group constructed 350m of new trail over the following two days. This route will form the basis of the final section of the existing Super Flow trail.  The forest at Rychlebsky Stezky is peppered with rock, which the group utilized to full effect constructing challenging option lines along the corridor of the main singletrack flow trail. Builders were surprised at how a shallow grade could produce safe, sustainable, yet fun trail, with options for a wide variety of skill levels. A massive thanks and congratulations goes to all involved, especially Sandra and Alés from CEMBA who were vital in organizing one of our most successful European Trail Building Schools to date.[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_responsive”,”fid”:”243″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”style”:”max-width: 680px;”,”width”:”100%”}}]]