When snowboarding’s super stars like Shaun White, Louie Vito and Mark McMorris perform insane freestyle tricks in the halfpipe, it’s a soaring, exploding sight to behold. One crew is responsible for designing and building these progressive snow sport venues that allow them to take flight. Chris “Gunny” Gunnarson and his team at Snow Park Technologies (SPT) build some of the most innovative projects on snow.
Mountain Movers, which aired in the United States in Spring 2013 on the National Geographic Channel and is currently running under the title of “Les Boss De La Montagne” on Canada’s French-speaking ICI Explora, is an adrenaline-packed series presented by Chevrolet, which goes behind the scenes to show viewers how these world-class, high-intensity snow competition courses are constructed. Bundle up as the hazards of winter weather, avalanches, heavy machinery and big personalities present constant challenges. But when metal, wood and snow are finally transformed into something Mother Nature never dreamed of … it’s epic.
Gunny is the creator and owner of SPT and an iconic, highly respected name in the snow sports industry. At a young age, he became interested in the infrastructure necessary to fuel his snow sport passion and was fascinated with the concept of moving tons of snow to create winter works of art. In the 16 years since SPT was born, Gunnarson and his crew have designed and built more than 250 competition courses, including all of the Winter X Games in the United States and Europe, the Burton U.S. Open and the Winter Dew Tour. When reality TV producer Jason Carbone met Gunny, he knew that he had to capture the real-life drama of his world, battling the most extreme weather that Mother Nature can dish out to create the pulse-pounding competition courses for the world’s most popular action sports events.
Working in the most remote locations under extreme conditions, Mountain Movers profiles the SPT crew’s every move — from battling with avalanche control to building a halfpipe in blizzard conditions. In each episode, we’ll see passion and craftsmanship at work. No one understands how to move and shape snow like this team.