IMBA Goes to Mexico

IMBA Trail News
Volume 13, Number 2
Early Summer 2000

The Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew and IMBA's international advocacy coordinator Judd de Vall went to Mexico this March to help develop new trails for the country's growing population of mountain bikers.

The trip focused on two mountain biking parks - San Nicolas Totolapan and El Ajusco - just outside sprawling Mexico City. The parks are situated in pine-forested mountains 10,000 feet above sea level, and feature about 100 miles of trail.

While the IMBA staffers utilized their knowledge and broad experience to help the Mexican mountain bikers, they encountered some new and unique problems. The majority of people living in Mexico are low-income farmers. No more than five percent of Mexico's citizens can even afford to purchase mountain bikes.

"We encountered issues in Mexico that go way beyond simple trail construction techniques," said de Vall, who was making his second visit to Mexico on IMBA's behalf. "Mountain biking can actually be a way to provide jobs to lower income Mexicans, and help balance the country's skewed distribution of wealth. San Nicolas and El Ajusco operate on a fee basis, giving the local residents a source of income and providing mountain bikers a safe place to ride."

San Nicolas Totolapan has already faced problems from not knowing how to deal with the influx of mountain bikers. Conflicts with hikers have started to emerge, and much of the park's trail system is built directly on the fall line, leading to massive erosion problems. IMBA experts have worked extensively with Mexican advocates and trail builders to alleviate these problems.

"Mountain biking in Mexico has some similarities to the U.S. fifteen years ago," said de Vall. "We can take what we have learned here and apply it in Mexico to avoid making the same mistakes twice."

Fee-based mountain bike parks like San Nicolas and El Ajusco are popular in Mexico because safety is of primary concern. Banditos - in search of expensive bikes and money - are a serious threat to Mexican mountain bikers. The parks utilize paid guards.

This visit to Mexico was a continuation of a program established in Œ99, when Mexican trailbuilders came to Colorado as part of an international exchange sponsored by the Mountain Forum foundation. IMBA's experts saw the first fruits of the exchange when they visited the newly constructed El Ajusco.

"The trails at El Ajusco are extremely well built, with all the techniques we have been using for trail building in the U.S.," said de Vall. "The people who built these trails came to Colorado last summer for an IMBA trailbuilding training session, so it's great to see them take the information they learned and put it to use in Mexico."

For more on IMBA's efforts in Mexico e-mail