The increase in the practice of mountain biking (MTB) causes conflicts between cyclists and hikers (due to the danger posed by their appearance at high speed) and complaints from environmental organizations, which warn of the fragility of the summits and the erosion that provokes.
In Aragon, the controversy has arisen with an even more extreme modality, the
helibike
, which consists of taking athletes on their bicycles to certain peaks by helicopter and then descending large slopes on wheels.
Altituderides, the only company dedicated to this business in Spain, operates with a 2017 license from the Government of Aragon and currently its activity is limited to the Punta Suelza (2,900 meters)-Bielsa route, although the authorization allows them to descend on other routes. three more places in the Aragonese Pyrenees, in the regions of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza.
The controversy, which has reached the courts, focuses on whether this type of sports practice should have further studies on the environmental impact it causes.
The Government of Aragon has launched a working group to check whether or not there are environmental impacts and Jorge Pueyo, deputy of Sumar, has registered a question in the Congress of Deputies in which he proposes that the Spanish Government address the prohibition of this sports practice to “protect the fragile high mountain territory.”
In the midst of the administrative and judicial imbroglio, a nature protection agent from Aragon, who reported the company's activity, faces a file.
Altituderides advertises the descent on its website as a “unique experience in Spain of flying over the Pyrenees and descending 2,000 meters of altitude along an endless path, from the rocky and rugged peaks to the bottom of the valley, crossing meadows, rocks, forests and rivers".
The owner of Altituderides, Pablo Irigoyen, assures that his business is legal and is “authorized, with permission from Civil Aviation [which depends on the State], a license and, furthermore, the judges have agreed with us.”
In total, between 150 and 200 people rise for three months a year and as for the erosion they could cause, Irigoyen responds that it is a “laughable” number of people and that, in any case, “they would be similar to those caused by other cyclists who use the same paths and who are often taken on off-road vehicles.”
However, the opinion of the Nature Protection Council of Aragon - a consultative body in which everyone from businessmen to unions, including public administrations - recommended that this sport be subjected to an ordinary environmental impact assessment.
The report specified that there could be disturbances to protected fauna such as the capercaillie, the bearded vulture, the gray partridge, the ptarmigan and to a lesser extent the Egyptian vulture.
The plant formations would also suffer due to trampling and the same would happen with the relief and landscape, due to an increase in erosive processes, because although in low areas well-designed tracks or paths are used, in the elevated parts, in many cases they are paths that are not very good. or not at all marked or signposted.
There could also be potential annoyances with the increased noise level with helicopter flights.
The council detected positive impacts related to the increase in visitors to the area.
Helicopters and bird breeding
“Conservationist NGOs have always seen it as an unsustainable activity that, in any case, needs to be adequately evaluated environmentally,” says the secretary of the Foundation for the Protection of the Bearded Vulture, Juan Antonio Gil.
The arrival of helicopters in the summer months, starting in June, disturbs the breeding of birds and contributes to the overcrowding of these areas of great natural wealth.
Gil points out that "the problem comes from the origin, with the first license, and there is a main person responsible who is the service of the Government of Aragon that authorized this activity that was not adequately evaluated."
He warns, at the same time, that “we must address the issue of cycling as a whole and other sports, because it is necessary to live and coexist.”
In September 2017, the company obtained an authorization, with no expiration date, granted by the Provincial Service for Rural Development and Sustainability of Huesca of the Government of Aragon.
But the competent body for this was the Aragonese Institute of Environmental Management (INAGA), which requested an ordinary Environmental Impact Study (EIA) from the company in 2020, which implies a much more exhaustive examination of the activity.
INAGA even opened a sanctioning file against the company for having carried out the activity without this report, which carried a possible fine of more than 200,000 euros.
Altituderides then filed an administrative dispute against the INAGA resolution before the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon (TSJA), considering that the license they had was valid and in order.
The judges ruled in favor of the company, because it has not been annulled nor is it subject to renewal.
In the midst of all the conflict, and while the regional Executive recognizes that “they are peculiar companies and that there is no regulation,” a file has been opened against a nature protection agent, who denounced Altituderides in the midst of the legal imbroglio for continue with the flights and the climb of cyclists.
Now it is Altituderides who accuses him of an alleged persecution.
“It's the world upside down, because he was only fulfilling his obligation upon receiving the information that the activity was illegal,” says his lawyer, José Manuel Marraco.
The agent would have encountered, adds Marroco, the initial error that came from the public administration: “The way in which the license was granted, on a simple sheet of paper and without an expiration date, has generated contradictory information.”
Antonio Villoro, head of the Professional Union of Forest Agents of UGT Aragón, also maintains that the lack of determination caused by the Administration, in which they first consider the activity legal and then illegal, has led to the opening of the disciplinary file against the agent.
“The control of the activity can never be the responsibility of a single person, it makes no sense,” he explains.
He advocates for regulation of
helibikes
and other tourist-recreational mountain activities to avoid these cases.
Javier Escorza, president of the Association of Nature Protection Agents of Aragon, defends the actions of the registered agent.
Escorza maintains that the helicopter is a “very disturbing medium, because you fly low, but also when landing, especially in these mountain areas, and then come the hard descents, which are also done by other cyclists who do not go up that way.” half".
“Of course we have to regulate, but with head and with more dialogue, since there is no one left over here,” Rafael Bergua, president of the Zona Cero business association, a group that was created 13 years ago and in which more than 100 companies participate. tourist attractions in the Sobrarbe region, where
helibikes
are carried out .
According to his estimates, the area registers between 80,000 and 90,000 overnight stays per year for cyclists.
“The territory is so large that we have never had a serious problem between bicycles and hikers,” he explains.
They have recovered 1,200 kilometers of trails that were abandoned.
He recognizes that this sporting practice is eroding, “but what is most eroding is abandonment.”
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