Slab Hunter | A Mountain Bike Trail Building Short Story

Trail building is one of the most overlooked parts of the sport. More times than not the builders are some of the most solemn and stoic figures that don't want any attention for their hard work. When this trail build was shared with me I felt it was something people could really find interesting and jumped on the opportunity to film it. The terrain on this mountain was truly one of a kind and that alone would have probably caught people's eye but partway through the project I felt it was maybe even more important to share the story behind the builder and the build itself. This trail was near impossible to film being on an extremely steep hillside with cliffs all around limiting my ability to shoot certain parts. I quickly realized what a challenge this would be having never created anything like this. None of the building is rehearsed. There's no "Can you do another take" like a riding video so capturing everything in real-time was a must. My goal was to show the essence of trail building. Why it's done, why it's so difficult, and the insane reward when you're finished.