Build it and they will come

Build it and they will come > scroll down for the video!

Mt Buller Park did just that back in July when Grooming Manager Mike McCloy and the crew set the stage shaping a monster hip on the Summit.  The sharp-edged XL feature was the centrepiece for the new format Burton Cattleman’s Cup.

The Mt Buller Park crew were fired up to be building something awe-inspiring on the summit again.  Word spread and riders jumped in on the new-format Burton event tobe first in line to hit it.

“The new format for the Burton event was an opportunity for us to break away from the confines of the Cattleman’s staircase, get out on the mountain and completely change up the features for the competition.  The whole team here on Buller collaborated to design and implement the build. We were pretty stoked on how both the hip and the rail set turned out,” said Mikey

Billy Hayman races back to the top for another taste as the sun comes up - [Ryan Pappas]

Park Supervisor Tyson Pollard explains the backstory, “After 14 years of Cattleman’s being all about the stairset in the Village we worked with [Paul] Colby to explore a new direction for the event that offered different elements to involve more participation, while still having something big and challenging to drive progression - which is where the big hip came in.  Our role was to build something, put the pieces in place and then let the snowboarding happen."

Burton brought Valentino Guseli from Thredbo and Billy Hayman from Perisher to get amongst it. 

ICYMI Val took out first place and went home with a dainty piece of Cattleman’s china to add to the collection of trophies in his pool room.   

After Day 1 of the Cattleman’s Cup hip session the stoke levels were sky-high as riders took in 360 degrees views from the course and soaked up the t-shirt weather. 

A spontaneous plan for a sunrise session quickly sparked and grew as Val, Billy and Tom Dewy plotted with the camera crew to squeeze more juice out of the feature while the conditions aligned so perfectly.    Colin Clarke, Joel Rosella, Andrew Bibby and Ryan Papps set their pre-dawn alarms.

The early start paid off, stars were out and a faint red glow over the back of Mt Stirling promised a perfect day.

“It’s pretty cool waking up before the sun comes up.  You get up the hill and it’s all dark, and then there’s moment where you see the sky starting to light up… there were a couple of clouds that day that created the perfect canvas for the sun to paint those beautiful colours on.”  ~ Val

Skidoos fired up and the crew missioned up to the summit ahead of the dawn. 

Take 3 minutes and 22 seconds of your day and enjoy >>> 

If you are too impatient you might want to jump straight to 2.55 secs. In. Sane.