BUTLER TWP — Just as the world's best athletes gathered in Sochi, Russia, for the Winter Olympics, Butler County's snow sport enthusiasts held their own competition.

Hundreds of people gathered Saturday at the Butler Township Park for the second annual Butler Winter X snowboard and ski competition and community concert event.

While a couple dozen riders signed up for the “big air” and “rail jam” competitions, the majority of attendees were simply looking to have some fun in the winter by casually snowboarding, skiing, or sledding down the massive hill.

“This is a total community event,” said Bruce Bryner, the lead organizer.

Bryner, who has been snowboarding at the park for 15 years, said he created Winter X because he would like to see the site become more widely used by the community.

“We want to bring exposure to the park and to the sport,” Bryner said. “That's the primary goal, and I think it's a real cool event to do that.”

About 15 volunteers transformed the hill behind the dek hockey rink into a full-fledged course, featuring several rails, boxes, picnic tables, and a big air jump.

Riders took off from a 20-foot high snow mound made possible by a donation from Wiest Asphalt Products and Paving that delivered 50 tons of snow to the event.

Kim Spryn of Butler said the second year of the competition easily topped its debut.

“It's much bigger than last year,” Spryn said.

One of the biggest changes was the addition of skiers into the contest.

“There were a lot of people last year saying that it should be open to skiing,” she said. “So we opened it up to them as well.”

Spryn said the event even drew riders from outside the county, including Jefferson Hills and Fox Chapel.

“A lot of it comes from word-of-mouth at board shops,” she said. “We also used a lot of Facebook.”

The heavy snow that blanketed the county last week was a burden for most residents, but it made for great conditions for snowboarding and skiing.

“It's pretty ideal this year,” said Chris Jolly of Butler, who was snowboarding Saturday.

Jolly was one of the numerous riders who helped build the course using shovels and a snow blower.

“We worked on it for the past four days,” he said. “I'm super sore and bruised up.”

Jolly joked that the course could've easily been made with professional machinery.

“It probably would've only taken an hour or two,” he said.

Jolly, who was introduced to snowboarding in high school by his best friend, said the sport is becoming increasingly popular in the county, adding that a new board shop, Nice Guys Skate Co., is even set to open in the city this year.

Seeing the sport grow and become more popular made the hours of shoveling snow pay off.

“We're really hoping to get more recognition for it,” he said. “This year is better than last year, and next year will be even better than this.”

The competitors, battling for a variety of prizes including new board decks, likely were inspiring to many of the children watching their skills.

Township resident Bryan Worsley and his 9-year-old son, Parker, were impressed by the showing put on by the competitors.

Parker, who began snowboarding this year, said he wasn't quite ready to do the spinning tricks the older riders displayed.

“Maybe someday,” he said.

Bryan Worsley said his family lives behind the park so his son is able to snowboard down the hill often, but he was happy to see so many people gathered at the park.

“We just came to see what was going on,” he said. “It's pretty impressive.”