Trail running at Mt Buller

Located an easy three hour drive from Melbourne, Mt Buller sits at the top of any trail runners bucket list. With more than 40km of smooth single track complemented by rugged fire roads, steep ridgelines and everything in between, Mt Buller allows runners to truly reach their peak.

The resort has 16 trail running routes that have been specifically audited and rated for trail runners, so you know what to expect from your mountain experience. These courses range from beginner trails that take in the fantastic sights of the alpine Village, through to 21km advanced trails that journey out into the alpine wilderness, so there’s something to suit all levels of runners. No matter which path you choose, you’ll enjoy varied terrain, pristine air and stunning scenery.

Use the Mt Buller Village as a base and enjoy a selection of great food and beverage outlets, information services, mountain hospitality and access to a variety of accommodation options starting from just $45 per night.

Accommodation

To book accommodation at Mansfield and Mt Buller visit mansfieldmtbuller.com.au.

Green Run Blue Run Black Run

Green Run

"An easy loop run that adds a very short climb to the Buller summit for big views."

DISTANCE: 5.9 km

TRAIL TYPE: Loop

COMBINED ASCENT/DESCENT: 267 metres +/-

RUN RATING: 15/45

START: Clock Tower in the Village Square

FINISH: Clock Tower in the Village Square

ESTABLISHED TRAIL NAMES: Summit Nature Walk

GEOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Mt Buller, Summit Carpark, Burnt Hut Reservoir

TRAIL HIGHLIGHTS: Summit view, fun singletrack on the south side of Baldy.

MAPS AVAILABLE: Mount Buller Walking Trail Maps

THE RUN

Beginning from the centre of the village in front of the clock tower, run up Athlete’s Walk, past Foodworks and later the ABOM hotel and onto Summit Road. Continue up until you see the Arlberg Hotel on your left. To your right there is a pathway that leads to a wooden shelter. Get off that boring bitumen and hit the dirt trails.

The trail sweeps around the northern flank of Baldy Summit, skirting above the Northside Discovery Centre (the trail hooks left just prior to reaching it, crossing a road) and Burnt Hut Reservoir before continuing on a slight, runnable incline and nice smooth trails towards the summit car park. There are some good vistas across the ranges including to Razorback Spur on a clear day. Hitting the Summit Carpark, look for the summit signs on an out and back run to the high peak of Mt Buller (1805m). Here you will take in more alps views in all directions.

From here it’s a downhill run all the way home. At the Summit Carpark, veer right to run along the southern side of Baldy, following the single trail (careful not to accidentally take one of the many criss-crossing trails heading down!). You will run on some mildly technical singletrack, crossing a dirt road below the Koflers building before running below a dam. This is a fun little section that gently descends as it winds across the southern face of Baldy. The Summit Nature Walk Trail will then spit you out near Skyline, opposite the Arlberg Hotel. Make your way behind the hotel to once again pick up the Summit Road (or you could run down the Bourke Street ski run – be wary of drainage ditches) before picking up Athlete’s Walk and the final dash into the Village Centre.

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Blue Run

"A run that mixes up a bunch of long technical sections testing all your bag of trail run technique tricks. Some decent climbs and some shorter, flatter rest zones for good measure."

DISTANCE: 9.5 km

TRAIL TYPE: Loop

COMBINED ASCENT/DESCENT: 380 metres +/-

RUN RATING: 29/45

START: Clock Tower, Mt Buller Village Square (Bike Buller MTB Map)

FINISH: Clock Tower, Mt Buller Village Square (Bike Buller MTB Map)

ESTABLISHED TRAIL NAMES: Village Family Trail, Gang Gangs, Split Rock, Village Family Trail, Copperhead, Snowgums

GEOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Corn Hill Road (turnaround); Blue Bullet; Tip Corner

TRAIL HIGHLIGHTS: Lots of fun, flowy, technical, singletrack including berms, dips, switchbacks and lots of features associated with MTB tracks; great views and alpine flora; huge amount of versatility to extend your run and several early exits for flexibility.

MAPS AVAILABLE: Bike Buller Guides & Maps Mountain Biking

THE RUN

From the Clock Tower, head over to the car park area located behind Cow Camp Plaza in the Village Square. Turn right onto Cow Camp Lane, which runs past the fire station, and at the give-way sign turn right onto the Avenue. After about 50 metres, drop left down a dirt access track that runs past Southern Cross Lodge. After 50m you will hit the Village Family Trail, essentially a wide, groomed, dirt maintenance trail. Turn left. After a few hundred metres, follow the signs veering left onto Gang Gangs.

Gang Gangs is a sensational, flowy singletrack that takes you on a gentle climb through snowgums to a ridge top before shooting down some fun and fast sections. It then crosses the end of a paved road and sends you further down another great run on some super technical terrain. This trail on its own would make a great training loop. You can shorten this course if you wish at the bottom of Gang Gangs by turning around before you hit Corn Hill Road and heading back up Split Rock Trail. But if you want that bit of extra distance (for the full 9.5km), run down to Corn Hill Road, crossing carefully, and pick up the singletrail veering to the left, keeping the MTB Intermediate Skills Trails to your right.

You are now on Picnic Trail, yet another bit of flowing singletrack that eventually pops out at a five-way intersection where you want to double back to your right to take the return leg of Picnic trail. This will pop you out through the Intermediate Skills Trail where you will again cross Corn Hill Road, run through the back of the Easy Skills park and pick up Split Rock trail to the left of Stirling Road. Split Rock is yet another feature-laden MTB track that runs you up to Village Family Trail. Hitting this, turn left and follow the graded, flat double track ahead as you skirt the Village above to your right.

Just after rounding the rear of the Mitre Ski Club, you will reach the end of a bitumen village road; continue on around and pick up the ski run heading uphill. There are singletrack switchbacks to follow. Rising to near the top of the run, it gets tricky with a lack of signage. Keep an eye out for the last building block on your high right, amongst trees. Once you have gone past it a little way, double back to the front of it on the high side. Directly across will be the top of Blue Bullet Lift. Run directly across the grassy ski run and pick up briefly Summit Road. In front of the Arlberg entrance, look across the road and you will see a wooden shelter. Beeline for that where you will then pick up signage pointing right to Copperhead Trail. And your last adrenaline patch on this pumped run begins.

Copperhead is all technical downhill running with lots of switchbacks. Use the berms to your advantage, running high and facing your torso in the direction in which you need to be coming out of the corner. This approach will maintain momentum. Watch your footing on the numerous rock-paved sections, which while flat, are still tricky underfoot. The decent is demanding: if confident, let yourself go, lean slightly forward and land on your forefoot to really bomb it down. There are sections of cross-face that flatten out to slow down and maintain control. This is an excellent section to practice downhill technique and worth coming back to repeat specifically given the proximity to the village.

As you get lower down Copperhead, there are several crosstrails leading off to the right and left – stay on the natural flow of Copperhead. The second cross trail you will see takes you to the right and the rear of a large building. If you’ve had enough downhill, this is an early exit point directly into the village at the Alpine Central Visitor Information Centre. Otherwise, keep on following the singletrack down.

You will come to a yellow and white gridded bridge – watch your footing. After this bridge you will meet up with a fire trail. The Copperhead single track trail initially runs along side this fire trail and then starts weaving back and forth over the fire trail for a way before darting off downhill to the left. When it does, you need to veer right, staying high on the fire trail.

30-40 metres in there is a singletrail leading off the double track to the right. Take it. Here, you will be on a MTB trail called Snowgums, with nice switchbacks on a constant uphill grade passing through signed sections called Deerhunter and Fanta Pants. You will then punt out onto the main sealed road leading to the resort. Stay on the left verge until you hit the hairpin called Tip Corner where you cross with care, picking up a trail directly opposite. Take the trail to the right of the yellow and black arrow road signage. 50 metres in there is a signpost ‘Walkway Village’. Turn right up this wide grassy trail.

This is the final climb back into the village. There is a singletrail hooking left at one point – ignore and continue on the double trail, which parallels the road below. You will come onto a gravel trail, turn right, past a bench after which you will reach a set of steel stairs. You will hit a road, turn right and keep on the lefthand walkway which leads you to the Village Clock Tower..

Brilliant. Remember that you are on shared use trails, so be aware of bikes coming from behind, give way and be sure to shout ‘bike on trail’ to any runners ahead.

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Black Run

"This Black Route stands out for being an exceptionally fun run on some amazingly well built single-track with great signage. The beauty of sweeping vistas to dense alpine forest are enough to stop you running, if just for moment to breath it all in. Additionally, there are countless ways you could link and modify the route, giving lots of room for “replayability”."

DISTANCE: 14.5 km

TRAIL TYPE: Loop

COMBINED ASCENT/DESCENT: 570 metres +/-

RUN RATING: 35/45

START: Clock Tower, Mt Buller Village Square (Bike Buller MTB Map)

FINISH: Clock Tower, Mt Buller Village Square (Bike Buller MTB Map)

ESTABLISHED TRAIL NAMES: Village Family Trail, Gang Gangs, Intermediate Skills Trail, Picnic Trail, Corn Hill, Silk Lane, Misty Twist, Corn Hill, Picnic Trail, Easy Skills Trail, Split Rock, Village Family Trail

GEOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Corn Hill Road, Howqua Gap, Corn Hill Summit, MTB Skills Park.

TRAIL HIGHLIGHTS: Awesome, technical, super fun singletrack berms, dips, switchbacks and lots of features associated with MTB tracks. Great scenery and alpine flora to experience up close. Loop track with a huge amount of versatility to extend your trip.

MAPS AVAILABLE: Bike Buller Guides & Maps Mountain Biking

THE RUN

From the Clock Tower, head out to the car park area located behind Cow Camp Plaza in the Village Square. Turn right onto Cow Camp Lane, which runs past the fire station, and at the give-way sign turn right onto the Avenue. After about 50 metres, drop left down a dirt access track that runs past Southern Cross Lodge.

After 50m you will hit the Village Family Trail, essentially a wide, groomed, dirt maintenance trail. Turn left. After a few hundred metres, follow the signs veering left onto Gang Gangs.

Gang Gangs trail takes you on a gentle climb to a ridge top before it shoots you down some awesome single track before crossing the end of a paved road and then sending you down another great stretch of technical terrain. This little trail by itself would make a great training loop.

At the bottom of Gang Gangs, cross Corn Hill Road into the Skills Trail and take the left hand junction up onto Picnic Trail. After 300m or so you will hit a confusing junction where you’ll need to take the CENTRE trail (#8) along Corn Hill trail toward Howqua Gap. This will turn into the Silk Lane trail (#9) marked by a large, obvious trail marker complete with a large map, followed by signs through to Howqua Gap.

Follow Silk Lane (#9) trail toward Howqua Gap, turning right at a #9 sign post pointing toward a trail that shoots off on a tangent about 750m before Howqua Gap. This is the point furthest from the Resort. You will immediately see a trail on your left, but ignore this and continue on, almost doubling back on yourself. There are plans to continue the single track on the Northern (Left Hand Side) of the Silk Lane Road, but for now we’ve elected to take this slight shortcut.

Follow Silk Lane (#9) up some flowing single track and switchbacks before it levels out and takes you toward the Corn Hill Summit and Misty Twist Junction. Along the way you will come across “Medusa” a series of a dozen switchbacks that are sign posted and feature a picnic table and rock bench at the top of the climb. These both afford great views off to the south in clear weather.

Not long after, take a hard left onto Misty Twist (#10) trail, which will send you most of the way down to Corn Hill road before climbing back on itself. Like the name suggest, this is a fast, windy, awesome section of single track well suited to technical runners looking to work on their turning speed. After crossing the road you will climb back up to Corn Hill summit and return to Corn Hill track.

The section of Corn Hill track back to Picnic trail is some of the best running in the park so make sure you tighten your shoelaces and take a few deep breaths. Fast, technical, challenging with great opportunities to practice linking turns, dynamic stride lengths and even some fun jumping and rock hopping.

Once you hit the unction again, continue along the left-central trail (not the road to the left or the trail to center-right that you ran in on earlier), which will take you down the Intermediate bike skills trail, across the road and (keeping left) behind the Easy Skills Trail. Climbing out of the MTB Skills park on Split Rock you will get a nice steady climb up limited switchbacks before hitting a flat section of boardwalk through a beautiful copse of trees. Finally, you will return to Village Family Trail, pass some monkey bars (for a bit of Obs Course fun!) and return to the Village Square Clock Tower the same way you started.

This run is almost exclusively on multi-use trail, so be aware that mountain bikes will likely be on trail. Be courteous and give way and be sure to call out ‘bike on trail’ to runners ahead.