Since its early beginning, Falls Creek’s annual Ski de Femme has evolved into a very popular day. In 2018, it will be held on August 11.
As we all know, resort riding and skiing is an energy intensive recreation. While resorts have generally been a bit slow off the mark to reduce their greenhouse emissions here in Australia, there are some heartening developments happening.
One example of leadership comes from Thredbo resort in NSW.
Continue reading “Thredbo to offset all of its lifting and snowmaking electricity”
Community energy gives local towns and regions power over how they generate and consume electricity. Locally generated renewable energy will create local jobs, cleaner energy and allow the community to control where their energy comes from.
Come find out how community energy can benefit Bright and our region. Three great speakers who are leaders in this field will outline what community energy is and how we can benefit from it.
Bright, August 2.
There are many good reasons to love Mountainwatch. From the snow season forecasts from The Grasshopper to the ‘every snow cam you need to see in the one place’ coverage of resorts, to lots of snow community news, there is always lots going on.
I recently spotted this post from Chris Booth, who asked five ‘snow personalities’ about what would make skiing in Australia better. The response I liked best was that we should tow Australia 15 degrees south towards Antarctica.
Continue reading “Boothy’s Blog – 5 Ideas to Make Skiing in Australia Better”
Toolangi (to the east of Melbourne) is home to the tallest flowering tree on earth – the Mountain Ash. A wet forest home to unique and gorgeous wildlife including Leadbeater’s possum, marsupial gliders, owls, wombats and wallabies.
For seven years community and friends of Toolangi have fought long and hard to have our voices heard about the logging of Toolangi State Forests.
Join the day of action to protect the forests – 12th of August.
The news is really scary at present. Here are a couple of examples:
- Climate change has helped melt nearly a fifth of Colombia’s mountaintop glacier cover in just seven years
- As a record-breaking heat wave scorches Sweden, dozens of wildfires are raging in parts of the country. At least 11 fires within the Arctic Circle. As one researcher put it: “This is definitely the worst year in recent times for forest fires,”
- Meanwhile many places in the Northern Hemisphere have witnessed their hottest temperatures ever recorded.
Closer to home, research recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change describes a series of ‘sudden and catastrophic ecosystem shifts’ that have occurred recently across Australia. These changes, caused by the combined stress of gradual climate change and extreme weather events, are overwhelming ecosystems’ natural resilience.
While coverage of this research has tended to focus on the impacts on the Great Barrier Reef, other examples – about Gondwanic forests in Tasmania and Alpine Ash forests in the Australian Alps – should be a wake up call for people concerned about mountain environments.
Continue reading “‘Ecosystem collapse’ threatens Alpine Ash and Pencil Pines”
Chris Davenport is a Protect Our Winters POW board member and is widely regarded as one of the premier bigmountain skiers in the world today. Among his many mountaineering achievement Chris was the first person to ski all fifty-four of Colorado’s 14,000 foot peaks in less than a year. He has also guided and skied on Mt Everest. This month he visits Mt Buller for the first time.
Chris is visiting Australia to spread the word on “why we need winter’ and will speak at the Mt Buller cinema on Tuesday 24th July 2018 at 7pm. The talk will be followed by a screening of the new Teton Gravity Research film ‘Rogue Elements’ in which Mt Buller’s own Mitch Reeves features.
Continue reading “Protect Our Winters at Mt Buller with Chris Davenport”
Some significant announcements from Thredbo resort:
- Thredbo Announces 100% of its lifting and snowmaking electricity will be offset for winter 2018 thanks to a unique partnership with Arnhem Land Fire Abatement Project (ALFA)
- POW Australia to launch with a Hike to Kozzie and an information night lead by international free-skiing legend and POW board member Chris Davenport in Thredbo
- To support National Tree Day (Sunday 29 July) Thredbo will be encouraging all guests to offset their journey emissions by matching all guest tree purchases / donations over the weekend thanks to Thredbo’s vehicle offset partnership with Greenfleet
Thredbo, Protect Our Winters and Chris Davenport present a day of raising awareness around POW and the importance of protecting our beautiful and unique environment.
You can join a hike to the summit of Mt Kosciuszko on friday 27 July at Thredbo, followed by a discussion night with Chris.
An Australian chapter of Protect Our Winters (POW) will be officially launched this week, with a visit from pro skier Chris Davenport. Chris is a POW board member and will be visiting Thredbo and Mt Buller as part of his trip.
Chris will speak at Mt Buller on July 24 and at Thredbo on Friday July 27. There will also be a ‘Hike for POW’ to the summit of Mt Kosciuszko during the day on the 27th.
The following media release comes from POW Australia:
Everywhere you look, wild nature is in free fall. Climate change poses an existential threat to winter snow and the mountains we love. Horses and deer are causing devastating impacts on the high country. The Tasmanian government keeps pushing ahead with plans for commercial development in the World Heritage that the community spent decades working to protect. In the Daintree in far north QLD, hunting dogs are devastating the cassowary population. It’s the same story everywhere.
Yet we continue with ‘business as usual’ politics. The federal government continues to dither on energy policy, hamstrung and blocked by the climate deniers in its ranks. It often feels hopeless.
What we need is for people to get off the fence and get active. As Forrest Shearer, the prominent snowboarder and activist says, the main thing is to ‘show up’ – to get off your butt and get active – where you can, using the tools and points of influence you have. I regularly bemoan the lack of leadership from within the outdoor community. It is the landscapes we love and enjoy in our climbing, riding, walking, skiing and paddling that are being impacted. Yet vocal leadership on issues that matter continue to be few and far between in the ‘outdoor sector’.
So you have to acknowledge it wherever it happens – including the outdoor media.
Mountain Sports Collective has released the definitive skiing and riding guide to Mt Bogong. This is a first edition which will be refined through feedback from users.
It is available for $15 from MSC.
Continue reading “MOUNT BOGONG / A map and topo guide to Ski Touring and Mountaineering”
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