Australia – Buller’s Quiet Side, Far From the Maddening Crowds
Mountainwatch | Chillfactor
This story first appeared in Chillfactor Magazine. All photos by Tony Harrington, words Watkin McLennan
When it’s on it’s on and this day was on like Wayne Wong. On Sunday August 20, 2018, Mt Buller had received 48 hours of cold snow from the Southwest, most of it falling on the Saturday night. People launched into Bull Run Bowl before lifts opened, and the usual lift-line symphony broke out – cheers from the line, laughter from the lift and high-fives kept the beat. Everyone was out there experiencing Buller at its best.
Jock Gunn, Coen Bennie-Faull, Oscar McLennan and photographer Tony Harrington knew not to compete with Bull Run’s Symphony. Instead they dived into Buller’s less visited corners. Corners with mythical names like “The Wooly Butts” and “Far Skier’s Left”, these three Buller locals and one Hotham ring-in (Coen) found quiet chutes and tree-runs muted by 40cm of sound-dampening powder. They found the Buller that existed before Buller became Melbourne’s Mountain.