Video: How They Built a World Class Jump Trail in Queenstown, NZ

HUCK YEAH!

Queenstown Mountain Bike Club’s latest achievement in GSD (Getting $#!T Done).


The Vision
For years, riders in Queenstown kept talking about how epic it would be to have a world class jump trail on their doorstep. How do we achieve this? 2 lines off each jump - big senders for advanced riders and mellow jumps for intermediate riders. You can mix it up between the two lines on the way down making it perfect for progression. The jumps are designed so that the riders will float off the take off and can land as far as they can without any major consequences, if you want to improve your jumping skills this is where it's going to happen.


The Plan
The Queenstown Bike Park with its Gondola access was the obvious location, Local council permission was sought (reserve land) and a budget was set. Profits from the clubs local DH series were set aside, some local GC’s got in on the fundraising gig and an awesome $10,000 donation from Gondola operator Skyline MTB meant all the stars aligned and the digger bucket dropped at the start of August.
To keep the costs down, the plan was to have a digger initially spend approximately 3 weeks cutting and shaping the line, before the awesome army of QMTBC’s volunteers would go in to hand shape and buff it up good to go.


The Build
QMTBC’s Fraser Gordon managed the project, with Calum Wilson in the digger and Kepler Rek on the ground. Being August, (Southern Hemisphere) Mother Nature and Winter decided to throw her toys and give the boys everything from heavy rain, snow and freezing temperatures. It also soon became apparent that the original 7 ton Digger that started cutting the line wasn’t grunty enough to blow through the numerous tree stumps & bedrock being exposed. The call was made to bring in the heavy artillery in the form of a 20 ton digger and Wilson Contractors came to the party at short notice with the big girl on site the next day.


The build schedule was now on the back foot, so Calum and Kep committed some huge volunteer hours in the name of GSD, never finishing before midnight on the hill in the 3 days the big 20 tonner was on site (Calum ticking up 37 running hours in the machine in 3 days!). The result was worth it though, a huge wide corridor with big tables ready to shape.


Finishing Touches
The QMTBC Vollie army then came in to finish it off every Saturday morning, rain, hail or shine - up to 25 crew were there on the tools.



Testing began with chief test hucker Joel ‘Runga’ Tunbridge throwing it down at the end of the digs no matter what. With the budget now at zero and some critical adjustments to be made, local contractors Shane Mitchell, Tom ‘Extra Mile’ Hey and Joel Lamason each offered a 1.8t mini diggers free of charge for a 3-way mini digger party one Saturday morning and the final piece of the puzzle was complete.


Finally it was sculpted, groomed and ready to ride. The signage went up, the official sign off was granted and Huck Yeah was open!


A massive shout out to all the legends and GC’s that went above and beyond to see this project through. If you see them at Atlas Beer café next time you’re in Queenstown, shout them a beer in the name of Huck!

Photos By Callum Wood
Video By Interrobang Motion Pictures

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MENTIONS: @interrobangmotionpictures / @callumm

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