The snow is still holding back a little, but soon the excavators in Bettmeralp will be whirring away and making the first tracks with their shovels. Between Wurzenbord and Bettmeralp, the second bike trail to be built entirely with construction machinery without combustion engines, including machine and crew transportation to Bettmeralp, is being constructed under the auspices of Aletsch Bahnen AG and the project management of BikePlan AG. The company carrying out the project, Velosolutions GmbH, is thus demonstrating that the first trail in Laax to be built using purely electrically powered machines was by no means just a marketing stunt.

"We hope that we will be able to definitively mark out the route next week and start construction properly once we have received the building permit," says Velosolutions site manager Sacha Robert. The plan is for a blue-rated, near-natural flow trail embedded in playful terrain, almost three kilometers long and with a difference in altitude of almost 260 meters. "It's going to be a great thing," enthuses Robert about the site inspection. "There won't just be another flow trail here. The terrain with its various terrain chambers couldn't be better for creating a trail. I am therefore convinced that practically all mountain bikers will have a lot of fun here. But first we have to build." The descent should not only be natural and flowing, but also contain many jumps that should be easily rollable for less experienced riders.

In fact, the trail is due to open this year, around the end of August. A sporty goal, but one that Sacha Robert is just as positive about. The location of the trail is also considered ideal, with the chairlift on the right-hand edge of the village riding mountain bikers directly to the trail entrance at the Wurzenbord mountain station at 2,215 meters above sea level.