If you spend a lot of time in the mountains, you will have seen the crowding that has been building since the covid days. You will know those places that you used to have to yourself now full of people. The Buller summit ridge or Mt Higgi at sunset, the trails in and out of resorts, the vast numbers of people congregating around huts (like Federation hut on a prime weekend in summer). Its good and hard at the same time.

Good to see new generations enjoying and exploring the mountains. Hard because as humans we hate change. And the fact is that our wild areas are coming under pressure from greater numbers of people, many of whom don’t know the manners and behaviour that’s needed to care for these places.

If you know Chillfactor – a great long lived Australian ski magazine – you may have spotted this bit of wisdom in the 2026 edition. ‘No tradition. No generational knowledge. No culture of respect’. Its true but also not. There are always the ‘old hands’ to learn from. There is always willingness by people to listen and learn and share. But it is definitely true to say that we don’t have as a ‘mountain culture’ the generations of behaviour of respect that becomes the air the new comers breathe as they find their place in the mountains. Culture shapes and informs behaviour and we all have a role in crafting a mountain tradition that will allow us to ‘Build the culture, share the knowledge, and revere the mountain‘.

Cope hut, Bogong High Plains

This year’s edition of the print magazine of MJ (available in a mountain hut near you or as a pdf here) tried to drill into the theme of change and how we might be able to get better at looking after our mountains as new demographics and generations start exploring. It grew from a conversation about how we can cultivate Good Manners in the mountains.

When we produce and distribute the magazine, we always get some feedback, generally from people who have randomly found a copy in a hut, visitors centre, café or pub. But this year’s reaction was huge.

Because there was a story about feral horses, we heard from some of the pro feral crowd. But given that they are uniformly rude and abusive, its easy to tune them out. What was interesting was the volume of emails from people who shared their experience of either sharing skills with new comers or learning from old timers. So many great stories of unexpected nights around a fire in a mountain hut or yarns on the trail, or shared knowledge at the top of a run or chairlift. It felt to me like there was a lot of goodwill, a willingness to make room, and interest in learning when in new terrain.

Our politics are increasingly impacted by the politics of anger and grievance and a general dis-ease with the way the world is going. War, endless conflicts, insane leaders, hate and division seem to permeate all the news and spill out into the world. It’s good to be reminded that change can be managed well when people bring a willingness to listen, learn and share. This sort of behaviour makes our time in the mountains more enjoyable, and we need more of this approach in day to day politics and culture outside the mountains.