Chainslap recently posted a feature story on Mt Buller’s Australian Alpine Epic Trail, including photos taken during the Chuck Ibis Down Under tour, April 2015.
I had a blast working on the Australian Alpine Epic Trail as part of the World Trail crew. Likewise it was a bunch of fun organizing Chuck’s first visit back to Australia in 30 odd years! As you’d expect, I’m stoked to see a few more pics from that trip, taken on that trail, out in the wild.
Photographer Timothy Arch snapped some great pics as we descended Mt Buller’s Alpine Epic, featuring, as luck would have it, the most memorable section of the build.
I don’t think anyone expected the trail crew to get the digger past the rock cliff in the foreground, above, but after many hours of sledge hammer, crowbar, machine and rock work we did! Just as well, otherwise the majority of the descent would have been built in reverse from the bottom back up to the rock cliff.
Following our minion victory at the rock cliff we thought the rest of the build would be relatively easy, but the section of trail immediately following the rock cliff proved to be even tougher. A field of massive, awkwardly shaped boulders lay just beneath the surface making it very difficult to find an alignment that worked within the trail corridor. We hung in there, and after a run of 0-50 meter days we’d finally traversed the rocky slope and were on our way again.
Here’s a timelapse I shot during construction of the section of trail shown in the pics. A LOT of rock was needed to create a bench for both the machine, and riders.
Not that you’d be able to tell when you ride it these days. It’s such an idyllic section of MTB trail!
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