Julia - the female shaper from the Home of Lässig

Bike - check. Protectors & backpack - check. Julia takes the very first cable car of the day up to the Kohlmais summit for the first descent of the day. Being the first on the mountain, together with the first rays of sunshine, has something magical about it. This first ride means eyes & ears open for Julia. Before the first guests can sweep down the trails, she checks the route with a trained eye. "Everything has to whistle on the trail" she says.

It will not be a flow ride on this day. Julia removes debris and a few branches from the trail, puts up new fences, checks the jumps and curves. Here and there she also picks up rubbish and leftover packaging, which makes her a little pensive. However. The trail is her baby, and it has to be cleaned up. When we reach the bottom, the track is cleared for the upcoming bike day. 

We enjoy the sunshine for a short while and then it's off to the office. That's actually how it all began, because Julia has been the right hand in the office of head shaper Roland Hofer at Shape Syndicate since 2018. As the "female brain" in the office, she coordinates all projects together with Roland, is responsible for personnel planning and you could say is the fairy godmother who pulls all the strings in the background. Four years later, it's hard to imagine the team without her. Since 2022, she has also been rocking the trails and has been working with the guys several times a week on track construction.

And yes, they are all colleagues, because Julia is the one and only female shaper in the team. She describes the work on the trail as beautiful and especially panoramic and varied in autumn. On top of that, you improve your fitness, knowledge and downhill skills. But you mustn't forget that trail building is a back-breaking job in all weather conditions. Now in autumn, it's time for the shapers to winterise everything and prepare the trails for the next biking season. For Julia and her colleagues, the work often feels like being on a construction site, only with the very special and creative-casual shaper lifestyle. 

The crew would definitely be happy to have more female shaper colleagues, even if the job on the mountain brings challenges, such as working with the vibrating plate. The team helps each other with particularly physically demanding tasks. As a female shaper, Julia brings a certain sensitivity and a special calmness to the team. Aesthetics and a beautiful overall appearance of the trails are especially close to her heart. "Waseln" is her speciality. More precisely, the transplanting of vegetation bricks, because what was previously worked on by colleagues with heavy equipment is replanted at the edge of the trail during the fine-tuning. The eye travels with you.

With so much multitasking, moments of smiling, the big and small challenges and the Alpine panorama, the body knows what it has achieved after a day. Especially as a female shaper, you can pat yourself on the back, straighten your crown and - what else - get ready for the next project on the mountain. Then nothing can stand in the way of winter and the coming bike season at the Home of Lässig.