The word tepetl comes from Náhuatl, a living language spoken by Nahua peoples of Mesoamerica since pre-Hispanic times. In Náhuatl, tepetl means hill or mountain.
In Nahua thought, mountains are living entities and sacred spaces, essential for understanding the relationship between people, the land, and what lies beyond the visible. They are places where forces and deities dwell, recognized as sites of origin, protection, and balance. Mountains gather water, mist, wind, and fire; the fertility of the fields and the continuity of life depend on them.
Every cerro has a protective spirit, and for this reason it is treated with respect and care. These are places where different layers of the world intertwine, where nature is not understood as a resource, but as a presence with which one lives.
Beyond the spiritual, mountains play a central role in everyday life: they mark paths and territories, serve as reference points, shelter, and defense, and provide essential natural resources for life itself. They are — and continue to be — guides within the landscape. Tepetl is born from this understanding. We chose this name to honor the importance of mountains, to recognize their strength and memory, and to approach them through cycling with respect, gratitude, and admiration. Tepetl is a living archive to navigate the mountains.
Mission
To map the unmapped.
To think beyond the established route.
To gain deeper insight into the surrounding natural environment.
To provide a space to amplify local knowledge, stories, and traditions.
To archive and curate routes and segments highlighted by the community.
To foster a community that enjoys cycling as a way of moving through and understanding the territory, beyond competition.
To celebrate nature, mountains and the communities that inhabit them.
To provide resources to empower individuals to explore with autonomy and confidence
To build bridges between cycling and knowledge of the land.
Vision
To be a collective, living archive of cycling routes, where respect and mindfulness of the territory are at its core. Attention to detail is given to compiling local knowledge, the history of place and it’s inhabitants, and celebration of local voices on the ground.
To create a network of route builders and local knowledge repository with replicable decentralized structure across different regions.
Through curation and bringing more people closer to route-making, Tepetl prioritizes enjoying nature with mindfulness, respect, and admiration, with a powerful open-source backbone.
To become the space for sharing guides, routes, advice, and lesser-known segments, told by those who live in these places and ride them, valuing local knowledge, creativity, and a respectful relationship with the land.
Tepetl seeks to strengthen a community that crosses paths between cycling, memory, landscape, and people. It embodies adventure as a means of deeper investigation and care of, and in service of the natural world we adore.