To Berm Or Not To Berm... That Is The Question

"TO BERM OR NOT TO BERM... THAT IS THE QUESTION"

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Every so often you're out riding a trail you've ridden a thousand times and you come hammering into your favorite drifty flat corner and find.. a berm. A new berm. Sometimes a hastily built berm, held together with sticks and branches no thicker than your wrist. Why is it there? Who built it? Nobody knows. And if they do know, they’re keeping it to themselves…

Some people love the berm. The old corner was rutted out, they say. It sapped all your speed, they say. It flows much better now. It’s much easier to ride now. And easier to ride is a good thing, isn’t it? Well, sometimes…

If you’re thinking of grabbing the shovels and berming up a corner on your favorite trail, here’s a few questions to ask yourself first:

What kind of trail is this? Is it a flow trail or a natural tech trail? Is a berm going to enhance the existing character of the trail, or work against it?

Am I doing this work to fix something that’s fallen apart and become a danger, or am I doing it to make myself feel better by removing a feature that’s outside my riding skill set? Can I learn to ride this feature better, rather than deleting it so it doesn’t humble me every time I ride it?

Is there already someone who maintains this trail - potentially someone who has put in countless hours over the years to make the trail what it is? What will they think if I start changing the trail they’ve created to fit in with my riding preferences? Can I get in touch with them and run my ideas by them first? The land manager or your local trail advocacy group are your first port of call here.


If, after all that, you still decide that the work does need to be done, and that you’re going to be the one to do it, remember the story of The Three Little Pigs. The first little pig built his house out of straw, and the second little pig built his house out of sticks. When the Big Bad Wolf came along, he huffed and puffed and blew those two houses straight to pieces. That is going to be your berm if you build it out of sticks, or if you slap it together in half an hour and call it done. Every rider that comes down the trail is going to be like the Big Bad Wolf huffing and puffing, and your poor little berm is going to get blown to pieces, leaving a mess of a corner that somebody else has to clean up. The third little pig had the right idea. He used stones to build his house, and he made it so strong that the Big Bad Wolf could huff and puff all he liked and never blow it down. If you decide you’re going to “improve” one of your local trails by adding a berm, then be prepared to put in the work and make it strong enough to withstand more than a few months of hard riding.

If you love your local trails and want to “give back” by helping with trail maintenance then that’s a great thing. It’s worth taking the time to get to know how things work at your local spot first though. Is there a formal management plan in place for your trail network? Which trails are crying out for some maintenance love, and which trails are already spoken for? Asking your local trail organization is a good place to start.