Back in the depths of time, I used to organise an annual World Telemark Day get together at Mt Hotham on the first Saturday in September. It happened for 5 or 6 years and eventually some friends convinced me to shift it over to Falls Creek because of the strong tele community there.

In moving it over, the world tele day gathering became the first Victorian backcountry festival and it happened over the weekend of September 1 and 2, 2018. Eight years later, and having survived the lockdown years, when we were forced to take the festival online, and some grim winters of limited snowpack, the Victorian backcountry festival has grown into an enduring and well supported annual event. It has now become the Australian backcountry festival, and will happen in and around Mt Hotham resort in late August 2025.

If I have used one of your photos here, please feel free to let me know so I can credit you. cam.walker@foe.org.au

And if you have a personal reflection from attending the festival, I would love to include them in this post: please feel free to email through.

2018

In deciding to bring the day to Falls Creek, it seemed obvious to collaborate with the Windy Corner Nordic shelter, which is the gateway to backcountry exploring because of its location in the top car park at Falls, near the road onto the Bogong High Plains. Given their interests, and the rise of split boarding around that time, it also made sense to expand the event into a two day backcountry festival.

The original pitch for the weekend was Celebrating World Telemark Day and all things backcountry – tele, split boarding, cross country, snow shoeing & alpine touring.

Our vision is to host a grass-roots gathering at Falls Creek for backcountry skiers and riders of all abilities.  If you’re interested in any form of human powered adventure in the backcountry, you should be there. Beginners to advanced, all are welcome.

The first year was pretty ‘organic’. I put out a call to friends and contacts to lead tours and workshops. We had a ‘please don’t sue us if you get hurt’ approach, and we managed to pull off a good program of tours, plus clinics and workshops, despite some low visibility over the weekend. Peter Hull, a well known tele skier who used to operate the Sweetwater Brewery in Mt Beauty, suggested an outdoor ‘tailgate’ bar and donated a keg of beer, with all proceeds going to Disability Wintersports Australia and that turned into the key social event of the weekend. Resort management provided the fire pit for the bar, Jimmy Naylor organised the tunes, and early versions of Mountain Safety Collective (MSC – then Mountain Sports Collective) maps were sold.

The gathering at Falls Creek became the first Australian backcountry festival.

It also saw the inaugural Australian backcountry film festival.

The film festival was introduced by film maker Stephen Curtain, who made the great Australian telemark film Winter Dreaming. Matt O’Keeffe, head of Falls Creek ski patrol, talked about backcountry safety, Tamara Hutchins from Melbourne Girls Outside, talked about breaking down barriers to adventure, and empowering women in the outdoors to realise that adventure is an attitude, and Two-time Olympic skier Katya Crema shared her experiences of transitioning from Olympic ski cross racing to being a backcountry enthusiast. Simon Murray from Mountain Sports Collective and Josh Fletcher from Protect Our Winters also spoke.

We showed the following films:

•     Mount Townsend 2209 – Australian Freeride Story, by Lachlan Humphreys
•     Hunt for White October. The third instalment in Mike Garrett’s end of winter films.
•     Out of Reach by Richard Snowdon
•     On top of Australia by Tim Eddy
•     Feathertop – the Queen of the Vic Alps. This was a short re-cut of Stephen Curtain’s wonderful telemark ski film Winter Dreaming about skiing the eastern face of Feathertop.
•     My Wild Home by Hayden Griffith. ‘We ventured deep into the Aussie backcountry with pro skier Coen Bennie-Faull to discover what fuels his fire’. It is a lovely homage to Coen’s dad.

‘You can’t be what you can’t see’.

I feel keenly aware of the fact that many of the prominent people in the BC scene have tended to be men. I wanted to have strong women as keynote speakers at the festival and was lucky enough to have Olympic skier Katya Crema and Tamara Hutchins from Melbourne Girls Outside speak at the film festival and also at a session held in the windy corner shelter.

The afternoon session focused on women in the backcountry, the need for leadership and support networks so more women can find their place in the outdoors, and the barriers that still exist to full participation. This led to a great conversation with the people who were present.

More than 200 people attended over the two days, with more than 20 sessions and tours being held.

Falls Creek Cross Country (FCCC) was our host and generously provided a range of clinics and tours. The Windy Corner Nordic shelter was our base, with additional ‘optics’ provided by the expedition tents that were set up by The North Face and a tent full of demo gear provided by Bruce Easton of Wilderness Sports. Bruce deserves credit for attending all the in person festivals since then, often driving from Jindabyne overnight, running a stall all day, then driving back overnight at the end of the weekend. There were so many people who donated time and skills, Resort Management was very generous and supportive, and Simon Murray designed our ‘mascot’ (spirit animal) for the festival: Barry the Mountain Pygmy–possum, Burramys parvus, Australia’s only hibernating marsupial.

Avalanche safety workshop

Ski/ ride hard. Do good.

My intention in setting the festival up was to show that we can have low impact events and that care for the environment is a cornerstone of backcountry culture.

After the festival, a four day trip up Mt Bogong happened, to allow for intermediate skiers and riders to test their skills and get some good snow camping experience in. From memory Daniel Sherwin led this trip.

ABOVE: The village at Windy Corner

2019

Feedback from participants at the 2018 event was that we should hold the 2019 festival at Mt Hotham. After the Falls Creek festival, we came up with the idea of holding a festival that might move each year (Mt Stirling was canvassed as another possible location). But after 2019, it felt like the festival had found it’s ‘spiritual home’ at Hotham and has been based there ever since. There is a report on 2019 here.

Hotham is the perfect spot because of the amazing terrain, ease of access and strong backcountry community, both on the mountain and down valley in Bright and Harrietville. Close to 400 people registered. We had 31 tours, skillshares and workshops, an extended speaker’s program, a Protect Our Winters info and film night, and inspired by the original tailgate bar, there was also a ski-in outdoor bar at Village Lookout in the Christmas Hills.

This time, many dozens of people volunteered their time. From Resort management and the lift company to snow groomer Greg O’Donohue, and the venues, everyone was so supportive – especially Sooty, Darren and everyone at The General, Marty at The SnowBird, and Mark at Blizzard Brewery.

ABOVE: Ash Peplow Ball

The summary of ‘thankyous’ that went in the follow up email to participants from the 2019 festival shows the scale of good will that people brought to the mountain:

The people who pitched in to help, especially Buff Farnell, Kelly van den Berg, who brought in so many skilled tour leaders, and Merrin Jokic, who MC’d an epic afternoon of speakers. Rupert from Bright Brewery, Mel and Luka from Crepe Collective and Steve Belli did the food and drinks at our outdoor bar. The bar itself was a work of art, a product of much digging by my partner Natalie, Dave, Peter, and my brother Mitch, Kyle, Simon and his crew. (From memory Simon stayed on after the end of the formal part of the evening, and made sure the late night drinkers got back to the village bus safely).

Many thanks to everyone who presented as part of the speakers program: Bill Barker, Georgina Boardman, Melissa Clarke, Lisse Dunser, Buff Farnell, Josh Fletcher, Mark Frost, Bev Lawrence, Tim Macartney-Snape, Simon Murray, Ash Peplow Ball, Ted Suurkivi, Kelly van den Berg, and Mia Walker.

Thanks to Josh from POW and Stephen Curtain for his film making workshop and Patagonia for allowing us to screen their beautiful film Treeline.

Dave, Pieta and Luka from Alpine Access ran avalanche courses as the training partner for the festival. Big thanks to Peter Campbell and all the Bush Search and Rescue crew, Jason Ball from Vic Police SAR, and Rolf Schonfeld for his endless commitment to snow and avalanche safety.

A deep bow to head of ski patrol Bill Barker who provided impeccable advice on conditions and inspiring presentations at The Genny. Simon Murray dug snow pits and did most of our graphic design. Chris Hocking and Drew Jolowicz provided amazing sidecountry images. David Flanders was our rego desk guy and podcast interviewer extraordinaire.

Of course, the tour leaders, who brought incredible skills and knowledge and donated their time and insights and were all amazing. Thankyou to:

Amine Yasmine, Cari AhSam, Daniel Sherwin, Dave Herring, Glen from Traverse Hotham, John Banks, Kelly van den Berg, Kyle Boys, Lisse Dunser, Louie Dalzell, Luka Panik, Luke Riddle, Lyndell Keating, Mia Walker, Michael, Narelle Watters, Peter Campbell and the team from Bush Search and Rescue, Peter Mart, Peter Robinson, Pieta Herring, Richard Hocking, Rolf Schonfeld, and Steve Curtain.

And you – the backcountry community, who showed up and pitched in. It really was a fantastic and inspiring weekend.

ABOVE: the ski in outdoor bar at Village Lookout

Apart from being a wonderful community event, 2019 was also the best year (so far) for the snow, with some fantastic conditions.

ABOVE: a keen crowd upstairs at The General

We tried to offer a range of beginner and intermediate courses, covering everything from snow shoeing to ski mountaineering. There was self rescue and first aid, navigation and snow camping. After a warm and sunny week, Saturday morning saw the return of winter and considerable avalanche risk, so many tours ended up going ‘south side’ into places like Women’s Downhill rather than onto the higher peaks. Amine from LetsSplit led another successful splitboard outing and with better conditions on the Sunday, there were trips out to the Workshop Chutes, Dargo Bowl, Eagle Ridge and Mt Loch. Traverse Hotham provided a great range of cross country trips as part of the festival program.

Daniel Sherwin and Kyle Boys led the three day trip out to Feathertop which started the day after the festival.

We also had a strong presence from a number of outdoor brands. The North Face put up their expedition dome, Wilderness Sports made the journey from Jindabyne, and Everest Sports and Snow Sports and Travel and Mammut were also on board, offering a wide range of demo gear and products.

2020

Then, of course, covid happened. While we had done a lot of planning, we had to take the very hard decision to cancel the event. We tried to keep the dream alive, turning the festival into an online event.

Anne Chiew did a fantastic job of pulling the program together.

We offered the festival as a ‘relaxed Sunday afternoon full of free backcountry speakers, seminars and workshops’ and was held over Zoom. There were three parallel streams, finishing with a screening of the great Australian backcountry film The Western Faces. Topics included Snow kiting, an intro to splitboarding, cross country skiing, the first bicycle crossing of the Antarctic continent (!), navigation skills, Backcountry skiing and peak bagging in Norway, and snow nerd topics like ‘a walk through of weather phenomena that creates snow in Australia’.

2021

Covid restrictions forced the organisers to cancel the 2021 event for a second time. So we created an ‘on-demand’ pack of films and talks so we could all (remotely) watch over the weekend of the festival: September 4 and 5.

Content included:

•     Kakapo Crest film, featuring a talk and instagram Q&A by Olivia Page,
•     The Purple Mountains film – featuring legendary snowboarder Jeremy Jones
•     Lights of Ladakh: cycling in the Indian Himalayas – film trailer by adventurer Kate Leeming
•     Staying safe at altitude – a talk by Jeannette McGill (including a recap of a Mt Kilimanjaro rescue)
•     Backcountry skiing in Iran – a film and talk by Hamid Shafaghi, who then went on to become a regular tour guide at later festivals

The organising committee had organised an entire festival, and were forced to cancel the 2021 festival one week before festival weekend. This was Anne Chiew’s first year convening an IRL festival with a supportive team of volunteers and committee members, and we had a full Hotham festival ready to roll out. All the speakers and workshops were lined up. The venues all booked.

It was also the first year we were rolling out Simon Murray’s tour program. In the past the festival relied on volunteers to put their hand up to lead tours which included their own route planning, attendee management, safety checks, etc. It was an inefficient system and didn’t attract many tour volunteers. We don’t blame them, it’s a lot of responsibility for a volunteer role. Simon Murray had a vision to centralise it and Anne Chiew helped execute the idea. The CEO and COO. And in 2025, it will be the 4th year we are running the Simon Murray tour program, each year growing in volunteers as everyone wants to be a part of the well oiled machine.

Technically we could have gone ahead with the 2021 festival as the covid restrictions were only applied to Metropolitan Melbourne. Regional Victorians were free to attend the festival and come up to Mt Hotham. However with government extending the lockdown another week, the committee had to make the hard decision to cancel one week before festival weekend because we wouldn’t have the attendee numbers, and lots of the core volunteers needed to run the festival, including tour leaders and speakers, were based in Melbourne. The team was devastated that all the work and volunteer time organising couldn’t go into fruition. After the devastating cancellation, Anne didn’t have the energy to pivot to an online film festival. That’s when Tim Scott graciously put his hand up to pull together an online offering at the last minute.

You can read more here.

ABOVE: when we were still hopeful the festival would go ahead. This image is from the Girls who Split tour at the 2019 festival.

2022

Back in real life!

As the profile of the festival grew, there was solid support from the Mt Hotham community, and a team developed to organise the festival. Anne Chiew stepped up as festival convenor, with the support of Brendan Sydes, Peter Robinson and Peter Campbell and myself. Simon Murray took on developing the tours program, and others such as Simon Wright and Simon Head, took on organising specific aspects of the festival. Simon Murray turned a program of ad hoc tours into a fantastic program.

While our heart has always been volunteer based and community orientated, we have worked hard to ensure a professional approach to the tours program. In 2022, More than 20 people offered their time and skills as tour guides, and in late August we held an induction weekend for the guides, where we did an assessment of skills, then went on a wonderful day tour over Hotham and along the Razorback, skiing and riding ‘firm’ (icy) south facing ridges and gorgeous spring like slopes on the eastern side of the Razorback.

The organising committee invested heavily in safety gear, including sets of radios and survival and recovery gear.

A reflection from Alicia Crossley

‘The outdoor bar setting, snow scene & vibe 3 Sept 2022 was sensational. Casual, fun, welcoming and inclusive. I chatted to young and old alike around the fire and in lineups for drinks and crepes, xc skaters, snowshoers, telemarkers, tourers, snowboarders, resort skiers…everyone there to celebrate all things snow and a love of being in the alpine environment. Everyone had gotten up to something different during the day that piqued their interest then came together that evening to share experiences, learnings, laugh, engage and plan future adventures. It was a standout evening & cheers to all, who behind scenes, made it happen, the planning, extensive setup & build and the packup.’

All images below by Alicia.

ABOVE: View from Hotham to Feathertop 3/9/22

ABOVE & BELOW: Speaker sessions 3/9/22

IMAGES BELOW: Outdoor bar, fire pit seating circle, igloo & evening scenes at bar & night lights of Hotham 3/9/22

BELOW: Igloo the day after 4/9/22

2023

Despite sad snow conditions, the festival went ahead over three days. Alex Abrahams stepped up as festival convenor, ably supported by Anne Chiew, and many of the regular guides and organisers were there.

It had all the usual components of the festival that we know and love – the tours program, workshops, the demo village, speakers program and the outdoor bar on the hill top at Village Lookout. Instead of igloos and snow furniture, the outdoor bar saw people lounging around on the grass while the sun set over Mt Hotham. This year we had two festival hubs – The General, plus the Last Run Bar, above the Corral car park. And we also had the guys from Terra Rosa, who ran a repair cafe over the weekend.

There were two sessions for the speakers program at The General – one on ‘mobilising the outdoors community’ and one focused on building backcountry skills, and the weekend finished with a dinner and talk at the Last Run Bar, featuring adventurer Huw Kingston.

2024

The 7th VIC backcountry festival happened in and around Mt Hotham over the last weekend of August/ early September. The snow situation was even more dire than in 2023, with the organising committee developing multiple contingency options as the snow pack disappeared in the lead up to the festival.

While the tour program was savagely trimmed due to the lack of snow and terrible weather conditions, those who braved the elements and made it to Hotham had a great time. There were new sponsors, and while The General was our base,  as usual, there were also events at the Moth and Miss Marys in Hotham Central (a new venue for the festival). Evan from Terra Rosa was back with the repair café, and there were nature walks from Protect our Winters and Friends of the Earth, plus a session on the art of backcountry coffee.

Ryan Miles did a remarkable job as festival convenor, supported by many of the regular team and newer members of the committee. Amber Deveridge did an amazing job of finding a huge number of prizes to raffle, Anne Chiew was working behind the scenes, Gavin Bufton organised the demo village, Megan Li did a wonderful job on communications, and Jessica Wu and Simon Murray organised the tours program. As always Brendan Sydes was our legal Go To guy who assisted with things like the insurance policy.

ABOVE: preparation for the tours. Simon Murray and Peter Campbell.

Anne Chiew and Kelly van den Berg at the final session, The General

There were social events each of the three nights and the Sunday afternoon saw Kelly Van Den Berg and Anne Chiew MC a memorable wander through the years as we celebrated the people of the Hotham backcountry. Speakers at that session included Bev Lawrence, the long term environmental manager at Mt Hotham, who reflected on the changes she had seen during her 50 year connection to the mountain. Buff Farnell and Bill Barker shared images, and Stephen Whiteside talked about some of the early history at Mt Hotham before the resort was built.

ABOVE: survival shelter workshop

As we know, 2024 was an especially grim winter for snow, with many resorts closing up shop early in the season. This was the case with Mt Hotham, with resort operations finishing the week after the festival.

Further information

Check the festival website for announcements on the 2025 festival program.

See you at the 2025 festival – details here.

Images – search for #vicbackcountryfestival