Video: BlackMetaul Downhill: The Right Way to Build

The project began in 2005 with a few friends sharing the same passion for bike and wanting to create their own trail. The Blackmetaul Downhill trail is located on the sides of a mountain called Les Pléiades overhanging Lake Geneva in Switzerland.





Before starting the work, we asked permission to the town Municipality to be sure that we had the right to build a biking trail. They answered positively but still with a few conditions. First, an official route had to be determined in accordance with the municipality, the ranger and the diggers. Secondly, the constructions were not be made with nails or external elements like boards or treated wood in order to protect the fauna and flora and avoid pollution. We had the feeling that it was going to be a difficult job and indeed it was…



The first time we went in the forest to work, we just had manual saws. We quickly realized that we needed a chain saw and bought one which allowed us to make in a faster way bigger and stronger constructions. On those pictures you can see the bridge that we built for the backswing of our road gap. It's completely made out of wood, earth and stones.





The fact of not being allowed to use nails at this point of time made our brains smoke. But we found a nice solution to fix all the pieces of wood together. We did cuts in both beams to fix the transversal wood pieces and we finalized with displaying gravel on top of the bridge to hold everything together.



After the construction of the bridge and a few other works, we realized that it was possible and really nice to build things just with what is lying around in the forest and that the concept of a "bio trail" was very interesting.

Here you can see one of our realization. Before and after the work.



Being a real shaper means working in all meteorological conditions and with elements of nature.




Sometimes nature can be really wild and destroy or block the slope, like on this picture, where you can see an enormous fir tree which came down across the trail.


But fortunately, we are lumberjack amateurs and we made a gate through the tree and finally it brings charm to the slope and markes the beginning of the steep sections.



It means also enjoying the simple pleasures of life and spending good moments with friends …




We named the trail Blackmetaul Downhill because of the difficulty of the slope and our love for metal rock music. It is a really technical and steep route. One of the steepest of Switzerland. You can find every think in it. Rock gardens, steep parts, jumps, a road gap and speed lines. Perfect to train !


It also gave birth to The Blackmetaul shapers, a team of friends who's working together and also racing in the Swiss and European cups.



I hope that this blog can bring interesting ideas to all the shapers around the world. Long life to bicycle !


Photos: http://almiramedaric.com
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