For the past six years, Mountain Journal has co-hosted the Australian showing of the Backcountry Film Festival (BCFF). The BCFF is a celebration of human powered outdoors adventure, with a strong focus on snow sports – skiing, splitboarding and snow shoeing. This season features 11 films over one evening (see here for dates and full details for the shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra).

In Melbourne, we have – in addition to the BCFF – a short film made at the end of the 2016 season. It follows Charlotte and her dad Mike as they make a late season foray to Mt Loch, in the Victorian High Country. The festival will screen on tuesday May 30th at Melbourne University.

When the lifts stop spinning in September, Hotham becomes an overnight ghost town.

But from the highest winter road in Australia lies a backcountry bonanza, with lines only as limited as one’s imagination and fitness. With a plethora of terrific camping spots, it’s the perfect place to introduce kids to backcountry skiing, especially as a hasty retreat back to the car is always a possibility. The days are warmer and longer, and the spring corn can frequently be sublime.

It’s no secret that kids love camping, and the evidence of the benefits of nature for their development is compelling. Learning to climb with skins improves their skiing and snow-craft, and basic themes of safety can be introduced.

In October 2016, a freak Southern Ocean “cyclone” brought floods and buckets of spring snow well after everybody had packed up and left for the beach.

And so the Hunt began…

Charlotte Garrett will introduce this lovely 5 minute film she made with her dad Mike.

The Melbourne show will be held at Melbourne University from 7pm on May 30. Full details available here.