Mt Buller Sky Run – Spectacular & Tough

It’s only a few weeks until the Mt Buller Sky Run. Being held in the stunning Victorian High Country, the tough yet spectacular will test the best runners in the country. We caught up with race director Paul Ashton to find out more about the race and what makes it such a unique event.

What makes Mt Buller Sky Run so special?

The Mount Buller Skyrun  combines great Alpine running only 2.5 hours from Melbourne based in and around an Alpine resort with all the facilities one would expect; accommodation, restaurants, coffee shops and great trails with stunning scenery. The run borders on spectacular wilderness areas giving views of areas with evocative names such as The Crosscut, Saw, Hells Window, Terrible Hollow as well as views of the Bluffs and Mount Howitt, Mount Speculation and Mount Buggery.

Add to that the social side of the event, a pre run social dinner and briefing on the Saturday night and post run the opportunity to sip cappuccino and coffee, munch on muffins, chat about the race and see the presentations in the shelter of the village square. 

Then there is the historical side of the event as the run takes in Craig’s Hut, from the film the Man from Snowy River and the historic Klingsporn Track – the original 10km path up to Mount Buller that avid skiers took before the road was built.

How would you describe the course?

It’s tough 45km run with 20km being run over 1500m on a mixture of technical trails and fast fire trails, an awesome quad busting 14km descent from Mount Stirling to the Delatite River that is fast and steep with 14 river crossings, and then a killer 1200m climb over 10 km up the Klingsporn Track to the summit of Mount Buller before finishing on a downhill dash to the finish line. That said its also fun – if you like that sort of thing. It offers great scenery, especially along the ridge from Mount Buller to Mount Stirling, both around 1800m above sea level

What’s your favourite part of the course?

The best parts of the run for me are the ridge run, stunning scenery out from Buller to Stirling, Craigs hit with its views over the Cfrosscut Saw and then the river crossings of the Delatite River. Its a run offering amazing contrasts in scenery.

As a race director, what’s the greatest challenge you face in organising the event?

Ha – that’s easy! 2 things – marking the course to ensure no one gets confused and goes the wrong way. We have over 200 marker flags and directional arrows at junctions to ensure that runners can focus on running and getting enough volunteers to support the runners at checkpoints. We are lucky in that Alpine Search and Rescue provide S & R support to the run and have a “flying squad” on mountain bikes who follow the runners down the mountain.

We hear you have rather unique trophies for the winners. Can you tell us about them?

For the last two years in our runs we have moved away from traditional trophies to a laser cut iron range of native Australian wildlife mounted on a wooden base. This year for the Mount Buller Skyrun, the trophy is a laser cut Koala – he joins the Kookaburra for the Razorback Run and Wombat and Lighthouse for the Prom Run.

What else is on offer at Mt Buller for those attending

Mount Buller offers a variety of attractions for those coming up on a weekend stay, the wineries in the Yarra Valley, Healesville wildlife sanctuary, Mansfield and its wide country streets and shopping, camping at Mirimbah and easy walks on the mountain for non running family members