Parks Victoria reports that a species of wattle not previously found in Victoria has been discovered in the north east, in Mount Lawson State Park near the New South Wales border.
Acacia linearifolia is a wattle with very narrow, long and straightphyllodes or leaves. Local Parks Victoria Ranger Kelton Goyne discovered about six trees of this rare wattle in March this year when looking at planned burning options in the park.
Mountain Journal has previously reported on this impressive film project. The Little Things is a snowboard film featuring the “stories of riders who are inspiring for their environmentally sustainable initiatives and lifestyles”.
They have carried out a successful crowd funding project and have two trailers available. The following update comes from the producers.
Just a reminder that the NSW Splitfest DownUnder will be held over this weekend (29th – 31st of August) in the NSW main range.
Register here.
We will be holding the Friday night entertainment at the Banjo Paterson Inn, starting @ 6pm.
1 Kosciuszko Road Jindabyne Snowy Mountains New South Wales 2627
There will be all the usual trimmings, T-Shirts, give a ways, raffles and loads of fun. Some of the prize categories include worst DIY job, most inventive Splitboard design etc. etc.
You have the option to stay in Jindabyne, camp in the National Park or my favorite camp on the peaks.
There will be rental gear available to those who need it. Jump on board and meet some new touring partners, the more the merrier!
Full details here.
The Mt Hotham Draft Master Plan has been released for public comment until September 12.
It maps how the resort management would like to see the ski resort develop in coming years. It proposes the creation of a series of ‘activity hubs’ in different parts of the resort, including a substantial increase in the footprint of infrastructure on the south eastern side of the resort in the snow gum forests that stretch towards the township of Dinner Plain.
There are some worrying suggestions in the plan relating to a potential expansion of ski runs and associated infrastructure into three new areas adjacent to the existing resort. All of these (identified as ‘areas to be investigated’) would see destructive development in sensitive alpine environments.
The inaugural Snowy Mountains Stomp snowshoe race is on at Perisher tomorrow.
Saturday August 23, Perisher Valley, Kosciusko National Park
It will be a day of snowshoe running in the Kosciusko National Park. Two events are planned:
The Stomp: 6km (approx.)
The Longer Stomp: 15km (approx.)
Both events will be on marked courses and mostly on marked trail. Not flat but not over-the-top steep, courses will be designed to be runnable by the fit and walkable by those wanting a challenge up in the hills.
Snow shoe hire will be available.
For more info, and to register, check here.
[Image: courtesy Wilderness Sports]
Saturday 23/08/2014 at 11:00 am
Southern Tasmanian Badminton Association
101 Cascade Rd, South Hobart
Come and hear what the boundary change to the Pinnacle Specific Area really means and how it will affect the mountain. Learn how to make your submission to the Wellington Park Management Trust most effective.
The Facebook page for the meeting is available here.
For background information on the cable car proposal, please check here.
Organised by Respect the Mountain.
This is impressive. A remarkable group of climbers have joined together to express their opposition to the proposed cable car development on Mt Wellington/ kunanyi in Hobart. There are some real luminaries of the climbing world signed on, and this will help bring international attention to this ridiculous project.
Continue reading “Global rock climbers alarmed at cable car proposal”
Two plans were proposed, Whites River Hut or Burrungubuggee Hut. We went for the Burrungubuggee option as it seemed like more of an adventure! Our main objective was to ride some virgin snow in a remote part of the KNP.
When people think of ski touring in the Snowy Mountains, its more than likely they will imagine the Main Range area around Kosciuszko itself, or the high plains that extend up to Mt Jagungal. But there is a lot of alpine and sub alpine country to the north of these iconic areas. With elevations dropping off as you head north, it can be a rare thing to have sufficient snow nowdays to travel by ski into the northern sections of Kosciuszko National Park.
But with 2014 being the fantastic season that it is, there has been plenty of opportunity to ski in some of the lower elevation mountain regions across SE Australia.
This trip report from Andrew Stanger is of a ski tour to Four Mile Hut from near the Selwyn ski resort.
You can read it here.
This survey, for Parks Victoria, is now at least 6 months old but is still open for comment. Depending on how many spots you want to nominate as being precious, the survey takes about 15 minutes.
The following comes from the PV website:
“Public lands in Victoria comprise national parks and reserves, state forests, marine parks, and other public lands. What do you value about these places? What changes would you like to see? We need your help!
In the first part of the survey, you will drag small icons onto a map of Victoria to identify places you value and your public land preferences. The second part is a short, simple questionnaire. We really value your input to help manage our public lands now, and to plan great public lands for the future!
The questionnaire will take you less than 5 minutes and the mapping activity takes most people around 10 – 15 minutes, depending on how many icons are mapped at each location and how many locations are mapped.”
Anyone who has hiked and skied the mountains between Buller and Stirling, and from The Bluff to Howitt and Cobbler and is over 30 probably knows the wonderful maps of Stuart Brookes.
Stuart has produced maps of the Alps and other popular walking areas since the late 1940s. As a teenager on my first walking, snow shoeing and skiing adventures in the area around the Howqua River, I fell in love with Stuart’s black and white map ‘Watersheds of the King, Howqua & Jamieson Rivers’. It had basic landform details shown through shading and all the features that a walker needed: good campsites, places where you could get water on the high ridges, routes and cairned trails rather than just the marked roads. I would get a new version every couple of years, and later versions were in multi colour and had contours. But they still had a sense of richness that are rare in modern maps. This was country that Stuart knew intimately and the maps evoked a rich sense of place.
Continue reading “A half century of change in the Central Alps”
I love this story. As a climber I have spent weeks at a time living in the camp at Arapiles in western VIC (The Pines is always an entertaining place). Lifer climbers (as opposed to weekenders) are great at dossing out and living cheap. From the stone hut in the car park above Buffalo Gorge, to roadside camps in the Grampians, there are dozens of established, and well known, camping spots in the climbing world where you’ll often find other climbers.
I know of fewer such spots in the back country skiing world. Known campsites accessible by road where you can park yourself for a while without too much hassle.
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