The message behind awareness campaigns such as Fairtrail is as laudable as it is harmless: be nice to each other. Mutual understanding on the mountain and on the trail is elementary for the further development of mountain biking. There is a consensus on this.

Teacher-like self-evident facts

In order to promote mutual understanding, Fairtrail relies on the teacher's map and focuses on a dozen rules of conduct on how to behave as a mountain biker. However, the rules are downright terse: You should close pasture fences or take your garbage with you. Other rules have nothing to do with coexistence, such as the request to plan your tour carefully, to adapt your equipment to the conditions or to be prepared for emergencies. These are all trivial matters of course. In this way, the actually praiseworthy song of Fairtrail becomes a superficial swan song of well-meaning and know-it-all teachers.

Of course, the Fairtrail Code also states that mountain bikers should give way to hikers. This is also a matter of course, but it has little to do with reality. Because on the mountain, hikers almost always stand to one side when mountain bikers are in sight. The weaker one makes way for the stronger one. As a mountain biker, how can you give way to a hiker who is already in the bushes? The right of way clause is a well-intentioned waste of time and reveals how unrealistic and irrelevant the patterns of such campaigns are.

There is also another aspect that fundamentally questions the hoped-for awareness-raising effect of such campaigns. This is because they primarily fall on the ears of those mountain bikers who are already riding in an exemplary manner. But the "problem bikers" are not interested in the fair trail messages. In other words: Nothing but expenses. Speaking of expenses: The canton of Graubünden is spending a whopping 1.45 million francs on the Fairtrail initiative.

There are other ways

In light of this, the well-intentioned Fairtrail campaigns are reminiscent of a hairdryer: lots of hot air at high operating costs. This is all the more memorable as mutual agreement is a key element in the development of mountain biking. It is extremely important to promote this. However, well-intentioned is not always well done.

There would be more relevant and effective measures. These include, for example, the original micro campaign "Zäme Happy" by Alec Wohlgroth. Or the tips that Ride lists in the recently published Print Issue N°94. These lead to much greater relaxation on the trail than the Fairtrail commandments. The alternative etiquette can be found on page 22 (download the print edition here: ride-mtb.com/download)

The most effective thing about the Graubünden Fairtrail campaign is the ambassador Nino Schurter. When someone like him focuses on mutual understanding, even the "problem bikers" understand this. The sport of mountain biking needs role models and not teachers in this matter.

More blog posts by Thomas Giger

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