When I lookedat the trail running world, that discomfort became much stronger.

The trailrunning landscape is changing at a brutal pace. Large players are buying up events and entire regions. UTMB has become a dominant force, shaping calendars, narratives, and expectations. Entry fees are rising to levels that exclude many people. Focus shifts almost exclusively toward elite athletes, podiums, and performance metrics, while the wider community slowly fades into the background.

Trailrunning, which once felt wild, personal, and deeply human, risks becoming something polished, expensive, and inaccessible.

At the same time, while scouting routes for SNEAK PEAKS over three years in the Dolomites,I kept stumbling upon places that left me speechless. Remote valleys. High alpine crossings. Silent ridgelines. Places that felt untouched and powerful. And again and again I realized that many of these places were simply not reachable by bike. The terrain demanded a different way of moving. Slower. Lighter. On foot.

TRIPPY TRAIL did not start as a business idea. It started as a feeling. A growing tension between what endurance events once stood for, and what many of them are slowly turning into.

I come from bikepacking. And bikepacking, at its core, has always been deeply community driven. It grew from curiosity, from exploration, from sharing routes, stories, meals, and long nights out there. For a long time, it felt like a space where participation mattered more than performance.

Over the last years, that space has changed. Entry fees have risen noticeably. Professionalization has accelerated. Media pressure, rankings, and expectations have crept in. I am not saying this is inherently wrong. Growth brings opportunities, visibility, and structure. But it also creates distance. And I often found myself feeling torn between admiration and discomfort.