RePete is a great new local initiative based in Canberra which aims to help make environmental best practice the easy choice when managing waste when travelling in the wilderness. RePete has launched their debut product, the ROW bags (recycling, organics, waste), which is a system of three reusable, lightweight and durable bags that enable optimal waste management in the backcountry.
You can read a background, and purchase the bags, here.
It’s 2019! A new year. Always a good chance to reflect on life. And what’s a good life without some plans for some new adventures? In any field of adventure, there are epic journeys which serve to inspire us. As a long distance walker, you might day dream about the South Coast Track in Tassie or the Australian Alps Walking Track, a backcountry boarder or skier may have their eyes on the western slopes of the Snowy Mountains, or a XC tourer may dream about doing the Kiandra to Kosci crossing.
If you’re a bike packer, then surely the ultimate trip in Australia is the Hunt 1000.
Its described as a 1,000 km journey by bike ‘through the rooftop of Australia along backcountry trails, across exposed high plains, through snow gum woodlands and among tall native forests. The trail links two of major cities (Canberra and Melbourne) with limited resupply points and some of Australia’s best high country campsites’.
The Hunt 1000 is envisaged as a 7 day bike packing ride. It is the brain child of Daniel Hunt.
In this story packed with great images, Adrian Davis shares his experience of riding the Hunt 1000.
You can read the story here.
Before the 2009 Black Saturday fires, the forests around Cambarville, to the east of Marysville in the Central Highlands of Victoria, were a paradise. The area was dominated by ancient mountain ash forest, with trees up to 85 metres in height, and Nothfagus dominated rainforest that was as fine as anything you could ever see in Tasmania. The Leadbeater’s Possum was rediscovered in the area in 1961.
This was once a location of a logging village and sits as an important ecological link between the Lake Mountain Plateau and protected water catchments to the south. While the 2009 fires didn’t burn the entire area, it has been greatly changed by those fires, with the loss of significant areas of rainforest and old growth ash.
Now, there are plans to allow logging close to the Cambarville area. This will further fragment this highly significant forest.
We know that climate change is already impacting on the mountains and ecosystems that we love. Tree and plant species are threatened, fire seasons are becoming longer and more intense, and winter snow is in long term decline.
There are two key take home messages from the data that is available:
To add to the body of knowledge we already have, the recently released Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO’s state of the climate report points to a long-term increase in the frequency of extreme heat events, fire weather and drought in coming years.
Continue reading “BOM/ CSIRO state of the climate report – (another) wake up call”
Snow news website Snow Brains is reporting that Vail Resorts is planning to buy Victoria’s Mount Hotham and Falls Creek ski resorts for about $120 million to ‘expand its global offering of resorts’. The original story appeared in the Australian Financial Review.
According to Snow Brains, ‘The company sees the southern-hemisphere market as a way to tap the fast-growing market of Chinese skiers that has the potential to supercharge the global skiing industry’. Continue reading “Vail resorts to buy Hotham and Falls Creek?”
Climate science makes it abundantly clear that winter as we know it is coming to an end. Despite the evidence, the global community – as a whole – continues as if everything is fine. The climate change negotiations that have been underway in Poland had progress blocked by key oil producing nations and those led by climate deniers, like Saudi Arabia, the USA and Russia. Yet there was barely any reaction from the community as vested interests put their profits ahead of the planet.
Denial does not make the problem go away. The evidence keeps building up, like this recent work looking at climate change impacts on ski resorts in the USA.
Continue reading “Climate change impacts on ski resorts in the USA”
The Alpine Quest Adventure Race is a navigation-based team event to be held on Australia Day weekend (Jan 25 – 28) for teams of four, who need to stay together the whole time.
It consists of kayaking, mountain biking and trekking legs with some ‘additional challenges’. It will happen out of Falls Creek resort in north east Victoria.
Another year has flashed by. Hard to believe its almost the end of 2018! Between life, work, family and mountain obsessions, I’ve been finding it hard to keep on top of all the mountain-related things that are happening around the country.
I’m VIC based, and so Mountain Journal tends to be VIC-centric. There is so much going on in Tasmania, especially with the threats to world heritage areas as a result of the development of commercial tourism. And there are so many events across the Alps that I just can’t cover them all. Coverage of the NSW Alps tends to be patchy (and big thanks to people from north of the border who are sending news items through).
So, this is an invitation for you to send content. If you’re organising something or aware of good events that are happening, please send them through.
The interviews and profiles are always popular and I would welcome additional offerings (check here for some recent profiles).
Stories covering environmental politics (for instance the recent Save Kosci walk) are wildly popular, so please send in items, as are stories on positive sustainability initiatives being taken by businesses in the alpine areas.
Check the About section for further details on contributing.
Thanks. Hoping you have a great summer.
The Victorian Mountain Tramping Club is a legendary presence in the Australian outdoor community. It recently celebrated it’s 70th anniversary. Many clubs are aging, and in a refreshing move, the VMTC appointed 29-year old Susie Hale as its new president.
Earlier this year, Susie completed a 153-day solo trip on the 4,280km Pacific Crest Trail which she completed in 153 days. Other major accomplishments on her impressive walking CV include leading a VMTC group who completed the Australian Alpine Walking Track in 42 days.
There is a profile on Suzie and what inspires her, which is available here.
More than 600 people joined sections of the 36 day walk from Sydney to the summit of Mt Kosciuszko which aimed to raise awareness about the negative impacts of feral horses in the Kosciuszko national park. The walk finished on December 9. The five people who did the whole walk from Sydney were joined on the final day by 178 people, walking from Jindabyne, Thredbo or with the main group from Charlotte Pass.
Continue reading “‘Save Kosci’ walk finishes at Mt Kosciuszko”
Evidence about the impact of climate change on our country’s distinct flora and fauna is beginning to emerge. This is not ‘new’ news, this information is already widely available if you care to look for it. What is astonishing is that this growing body of information about the impacts of climate change on the land where we live doesn’t seem to compel more people to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Here are some recent examples of how climate change enhanced fire seasons are impacting on mountain environments:
In Tasmania, research has confirmed the trend towards more extreme fire seasons. It suggests that we reached a ‘tipping point’ sometime around the year 2000 and that, since then, there has been an increase in the number of lightning-caused fires and an increase in the average size of the fires, “resulting in a marked increase in the area burnt”.
As temperatures rise and the world’s climate rapidly changes, many plants and animals may not be able to relocate fast enough on their own, and habitats and species could be lost. In Australia warmer temperatures are expected to increase the length and severity of bushfire seasons, which will also cause changes in the distribution of many mountain species.
For instance, increased fire frequency may lead to the loss of alpine ash forests, unless there is human intervention aimed at keeping the species viable in the wild.
Now, a new article from Professor Ary Hoffmann, Nicholas Bell and Dr James Camac, at the University of Melbourne, looking at how we monitor the impacts of climate change on Australia’s terrestrial ecosystems has additional concerning news.
The ‘eco tourism’ development planned for Lake Malbena will introduce ‘helicopter tourism’ to the central plateau of Tasmania. Approvals have been ‘waved through’ by the federal government, despite three official expert bodies lashing the proposal or calling for it to be rejected.
The decision threatens to open the floodgate to a host of other private tourism operations proposed for the World Heritage-listed area.
In a new development, the senate has called on federal Environment Minister Melissa Price to conduct a full assessment of the Lake Malbena development, including public consultation.
Continue reading “Senate calls for a full assessment of the Lake Malbena development”
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