July 14, 2026
Meet Maurizio Rossi: Winner of the Inaugural Trail Advancement Award
Take Care of Your Trails is proud to announce Maurizio Rossi of North n Line trail crew as the winner of the very first Trail Advancement Award, a new initiative launched by IMBA Europe to invest in the next generation of trail advocates and sustainable trail builders across Europe.
The award – a €3,000 scholarship paired with a place in the Trail Building Management program delivered by Fagskolen Viken – was made possible by the generous support of H+I Adventures, an IMBA Europe Trail Advocacy Partner and proud member of 1% for the Planet. It’s this contribution that allows IMBA Europe to invest directly in individuals like Maurizio, giving passionate trail advocates the chance to take the next step in their development. As H+I Adventures CEO Catherine Shearer put it, the aim is to help “one deserving member of the trail building community” further their professional development, or even launch a new career as a professional trail builder.
Who is Maurizio Rossi?
Maurizio has been part of the trail scene around Lake Como since 2017, cutting his teeth building dirt jumps at ValgreDirt and Made Bike Park before growing into a role that now spans trail monitoring, signage, maintenance coordination, and network-level project planning with the Italian Alpine Club (CAI). Over the past several years he’s worn a lot of hats: network supervisor, bike tourism specialist, trail builder and maintainer at Madebike Park, and event and youth program coordinator for the Lake Como Bike Team – experience that’s given him a genuinely well-rounded view of what it takes to keep a trail network alive, from the first shovel of dirt to the community relationships that sustain it long after.
That hands-on grounding is now paired with academic depth. Maurizio recently completed a Master’s degree in Analysis, Planning and Sustainable Management of the Territory (APGEST), a two-year program in Geographical Studies. His thesis, “Terre Lariane: A Path towards a Governance Model for the Promotion of Outdoor Activities and the Enhancement of Trail Networks,” reflects exactly the kind of thinking the Trail Advancement Award was designed to support.
“Choosing this degree was a natural step in broadening both my knowledge and my perspective,” Maurizio explains. “Coming from a practical background in trail development, I wanted to better understand the wider dynamics that shape landscapes, territories, and communities.” The program, he says, gave him a more systematic approach to project development and land management – helping him connect strategic, regional-scale thinking with local, on-the-ground implementation and see how outdoor recreation, conservation, governance, and territorial planning can work together to create long-term value.
A crew with a track record
Maurizio’s win doesn’t come out of nowhere. His crew, North n Line, was named Take Care of Your Trails’ Outstanding Local Trail Crew of 2022 – recognized for building an inclusive, community-driven trail network around Lecco and Lake Como from what started as informal, grassroots trail work. Since then, the crew has kept building: reopening a mountain biking group within CAI Lecco, establishing a “trail table” within the trail commission to organize routine maintenance, and forging partnerships with groups like Legambiente and Save the Lake to fold environmental stewardship into everything they do.
Seeing Maurizio go from a key figure in that award-winning crew to an individual award winner in his own right – now backed by a Master’s degree and a growing portfolio of funded projects – is exactly the kind of trajectory the Trail Advancement Award hopes to encourage in the next wave of young trail advocates. It’s a clear signal to anyone starting out in trail building or advocacy: consistent, community-focused work adds up, and there’s a real path from digging trails on weekends to shaping regional trail policy.
What’s next
With the Trail Advancement Award scholarship, Maurizio will take his practical experience and academic grounding into the Trail Building Management program at Fagskolen Viken, deepening his knowledge of sustainable trail development, monitoring, and maintenance. His longer-term ambition is bigger than any single trail: he wants to help build a complete, sustainable trail spectrum across the Lake Como region, working with municipalities, landowners, tourism bodies, and even struggling ski resorts to reimagine the area as a year-round outdoor destination – one resilient to a changing climate and built on genuine collaboration between stakeholders.
Congratulations to Maurizio and the whole North n Line crew. Take Care of Your Trails, and IMBA Europe looks forward to seeing where the Monte Melma MTB Project – and Maurizio’s advocacy work more broadly – goes from here.
The Trail Advancement Award is funded through H+I Adventures’ 1% for the Planet contribution to IMBA Europe. Learn more about the award here.