International Women's Bike Summit - Girls' Camp in the Engadin, Switzerland

Words: Tina Gerber / Photos: Saskia Dugon

At the beginning of September in the Engadin, the first snow falls down in the valley.

This may not be the best starting point for the International Women's Bike Summit, but all of us are not made of sugar – we are women who enjoy mountain biking and want to share this passion with like-minded power women from all over the world.




In addition to the biking and fun on the trails together, there are various workshops.

The workshops are held for women who want to learn how to plan a tour from A to Z, how to work as a mechanic on bikes, how to prepare mentally for a big event or how to present themselves or their company on social media. All topics from which we as active female bikers can benefit enormously.




My part was to speak about social media and influencer marketing in tourism.

I was invited as a participant and held a workshop about social media and being an influencer in tourism marketing. My goal was to show the great potential of social media and online marketing in the bike and tourism sector and how to use the different channels for oneself or one's own business.




Laura Breitenmoser from the Bike School Engadin and Daniela Michel from Trailstar MTB Guiding were our guides this week and showed us the best trails around Engadin St. Moritz. We experienced wintery conditions for the first few days but the weather improved from one day to the next. My personal trail highlight was the tour from Bever to Poschiavo. Up to now I have always taken the Rhaetian Railway up to the Bernina Pass, but I have to say, the descent via Sassal Mason was worth every drop of sweat on the 23km climb.




It was an intense week

We managed to get a lot of kilometers in the legs, spoke about ways to improved women's cycling and made some great new friendships. The hosts of the Bever Lodge did everything for us, so we didn't have to worry about anything except biking and networking. It's one of the best bike hotels in the Engadin in which I will be happy to return at any time.


The same goes for this week. I was able to take home so many good memories that I am already looking forward to the next International Women's Bike Week on 20. - 23. September 2018 and hope I’ll see a lot of new faces there.