The Burton Stash

The Burton Stash is well known and loved to Avoriaz locals and visitors alike. For those of you who aren’t aware, The Stash in Avoriaz is a giant ecological snow park.

The park is a 100% natural playground to allow all the fun of shredding without the guilt of environmental impact. The American snowboarder and founder of Burton Snowboards himself, Jake Burton, designed the park. Burton’s philosophy is to create a specialised area, which caters for a mixture of both freestyle and freeriding while also conveying the important message about environmental protection.

Even the signs that will direct you to the stash are designed to be ridden and are carved by Bob King, the renowned chainsaw artist. The Stash does not use metal or plastics but instead relies on wood, trees, dirt and rocks to create the natural park. Avoriaz, with its brilliant reputation as a snowboarding centre and having an excellent park crew was Burton’s first European choice for the exciting project. There are now Burton Stash sites situated in The United States, Austria and New Zealand.

The Stash has a vertical rise of around 1500ft and is almost a mile in length. It is the perfect location for development, as Jake Burton stated; “The Stash was born from absence”. The Stash provides a place for both parents and children who both have an interest in freeriding to spend time on the mountain together. In the stash you can enjoy being in the heart of the forest while appreciating the safety of secure terrain.

Three slopes of varying degree join up half way down and lead to a cabin hidden in the middle of the pine trees. The cabin is the place to share messages about how you can responsibly limit damage to the environment.

The Stash is also great for perfecting wide turns in powder owing to the large expanse of un-groomed snow which winds in out of the trees in the Lindarets forest. There are many hidden modules to The Stash and it’s necessary to ride it several times to discover the entire splendor it has to offer.

It is always the goal of both Avoriaz and Burton for the The Stash to target parents and their children from intermediate to advanced level to enjoy riding backcountry and freestyle together. But don’t be put off, The Stash is there to be enjoyed by everyone who has an appreciation of brilliant snow playgrounds set in natural terrain.