You come around the corner at Buller at Tirol car park and it's green. All grass. Summer vibes in the middle of winter… It's grim. But you’re still stoked to be there!
You get up to the village, slap some high fives with the crew, grab a coffee, and already start to think, it’s just good to be here regardless of the snow. Then you head over to Gliders & see what Nick Jack, Jai, Broders and the crew have actually managed to pull together. Four features. A park. In the middle of nothing. And you’re like, man, how sick is this? These guys had basically nothing to work with, and they built something rad anyway.
That’s what was glaringly obvious last weekend: the conditions are rough — there's basically been no snow — but crew are still there, frothing. Me being one of them, still! New faces I’d just met, old heads I've known for years, everyone just hanging, pushing tricks, bailing, getting back up, going for beers after. The whole deal.
Here's what I realised: that's what keeps people coming back to Australian snow. Not the conditions — we all know they're not as good as the Northern hem. It's the people. It's the fact that everyone who shows up knows exactly why they're there. Riding and being a mountain person matter to them. It’s who they are. They'll drive four hours to ride four rails in the middle of grass because they're passionate about it. They love it. And when you're on the hill with that crew, none of the other stuff matters. Different jobs, different backgrounds, different everything — but you're all just skiers or snowboarders, all stoked, all there for the same thing.
And honestly? Now more than ever, I think that's something we need. Everything's heavy right now — the economy, the noise, all of it. But you don't take that up the hill. You leave it behind. You're present. You're thinking about the last bail, the next trick, the people around you, the views. You're just there, in the moment, with your crew doing something you love.
That's the circuit breaker. That's why it matters even when conditions aren't the greatest.
So if you've been thinking about heading up, if you've been waiting for a better time or better reasons — just go. Conditions won't be perfect, but that's not really why you're going anyway. You're going to remember why you love this. You're going to feel better. You're going to be present again. And you're going to be surrounded by people who get it. Who get you.
That's enough. That's everything, actually.
See you on the hill.
- Mitch
