The pandemic has thrown yet another spanner in the works for Victorian skiers and riders. With the authorities struggling to keep a lid on infections in metropolitan Melbourne, the premier has now announced stage 4 restrictions for the metro area, and stage 3 (stay at home) restrictions for the rest of the state until at least September 13.
This means that basically all resorts and mountain areas are closed.
Continue reading “Stage 3 and 4 lockdown impacts on VIC resorts”
Last September, outdoor and mountain communities joined the student’s strike for climate in unprecedented numbers. A highlight for me was the colourful gathering that happened at Mt Hotham, demanding action on climate change.
On September 25, school strike for climate are organising another day of nationwide actions and they would welcome your involvement.
Continue reading “SEPT 25: Join the School strike 4 climate”
Over June and July 2020, Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) hosted Australia’s first virtual bushfire and climate change summit to coordinate a national response to the Australian climate and bushfire crises. The 2020 National Bushfire and Climate Summit brought together hundreds of participants from across the country, and the world, to share their experiences, and to formulate recommendations to address the worsening risk of devastating bushfires fueled by climate change. The Australian Bushfire and Climate Plan is the culmination of that effort.
The Plan provides a broad plan and practical ideas for governments, fire and land management agencies and communities to help us mitigate and adapt to worsening fire conditions. The plan’s 165 recommendations include many measures that can be implemented right now, to ensure communities are better protected. There are a range of proposals specifically around aerial support for fighting wild fire.
Continue reading “Increased air capacity needed to fight the fires of the future”
Community members from Warburton in the Upper Yarra Valley have been attempting to stop the proposed logging coupes on and surrounding Mt Bride.
They say that “logging this area will reduce water security as the proposed coupes are within water catchment areas and it has long been recognised that logging has a negative impact on water yield”.
They also say that the coupes will increase fire risk, “as the micro climatic conditions will dry out the understory and the regrowth saplings will create more fuel”.
Some locals have been holding an annual ‘Walking the Mountains of Home’ journey up the local peaks. The Upper Yarra is blessed with gorgeous forested hills that rise steeply from the River. This tradition is about deepening connection to place and been happening for half a decade: ‘On the morning of each pilgrimage, we began by visiting the Yarra where everyone collected a river stone. We each carried our small token to the summit. Over the years, we are very slowly shaping a cairn. This is a place we visit annually, to remember the long legacy of love of this place by the first peoples, and to renew our commitment to learning about and caring for this country into the future’.
This year, because of the threat posed by the logging, the walk climbed Kurrunganner /Mt Bride. Local Maya Ward reports:
Continue reading “Walking the Mountains of Home – Kurrunganner /Mt Bride”
Expedition Climb8 is an all-female 800km winter traverse of the Australian Alps, for climate action.
They started their journey on 5th July in Brindabella National Park in the ACT and intend to finish at Mount Baw Baw in Victoria, 8 or 9 weeks later. ‘We aim to be the first winter team to summit all 28 named and unnamed peaks and knolls above 2,000m in the Kosciuszko National Park and the highest 10 peaks in the Victorian Alpine National Park’. They have had some very difficult conditions and injuries, but keeping on moving. They are almost 4 weeks into the trip.
They are currently getting close to the VIC/NSW border.
The 3rd Victorian backcountry festival is planned for Friday – Sunday September 4, 5 and 6, 2020 in and around Mt Hotham. Sure, with the pandemic, everything is up in the air, and lots of things could happen between now and September. But we are planning in the hope it can go ahead.
Continue reading “Full steam ahead for the 2020 VIC backcountry festival”
After two great winters, we all knew 2020 was unlikely to be awesome snow-wise. But some of the early forecasts were for a ‘slightly better than average’ season. Then the snow started. We always get early winter snow in the alps, but this year it seemed more consistent. When we got that burst in late May I wondered if this was our base and it would indeed be capital letters Awesome ™
Sadly, June was different. NSW has fared better so far than Victoria, but this probably isn’t one of the winters we will reminisce about in 20 years’ time. But we will be talking about the COVID-19 lock down.
Chillfactor magazine just came out. Chillfactor – in its 21st year – is a mountain institution that has seen both fantastic and some pretty ordinary winters, and has always celebrated a broad cross section of Australian mountain culture.
Last summer’s fires devastated huge sections of Eastern Victoria, and disrupted regional economies in the east of the state.
They burned 1.4 million hectares, much of it forested public land. They destroyed more than 50% of the habitat for 185 rare and threatened Victorian plants and animals. They pushed already critically endangered species like the greater glider, smoky mouse, others perilously close to extinction. They also impacted large areas of Alpine Ash forest, which the government now intends to log.
We rely on healthy ecosystems for our survival. Victoria is the most cleared state in the country and natural ecosystems have faced centuries of land clearing, logging, invasion of invasive species and other threatening processes. The mountains that we love are already under threat from climate change: as fire seasons become longer and more intense, and as winter snowpack declines.
Now the Victorian parliament has announced an Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline. This is an important opportunity to show that the community wants to see ecosystems restored and species protected from extinction.
Please read on for ideas on how to write a submission to the Inquiry.
Continue reading “Parliamentary Inquiry into tackling the extinction crisis in Victoria”
Mountain Journal has previously reported on the planned walking track through the Tyndall Range in western Tasmania. The TAS government wants to see it developed as the next ‘iconic walk’ in the state. This will mean considerable walking track development in what is currently a remote and undeveloped area, and could bring up to 10,000 people a year into a delicate alpine environment. As stated by the Tasmanian National Parks Association (TNPA), ‘construction of any hardened track on the Tyndall Range and Plateau would mar the landscape and destroy its wild and natural character’.
This is an update on the status of this proposal.
Continue reading “What’s happening with the Tyndall Range walk proposal?”
Western Faces is a new film featuring a fantastic line-up about a trip to ski and explore the western faces of the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains.
“Australian mountaineer Tim Macartney-snape, freeskier Anna Segal and Freeride World Tour rookie Michaela Davis-Meehan, are set to explore some of the steepest faces in their backyard. With New Zealand freeskiers Fraser McDougall and Hank Bilous along for the ride, they’re slogging deep into the backcountry to find freeride terrain that will have their Kiwi-counterparts do a double-take”.
The digital launch will happen on Thursday July 16.
With the announcement that Mt Hotham and Falls Creek lift operations will be closed ‘until at least 19 August’, and other resorts about to make announcements, the season has suddenly changed (again).
Here’s what’s known as at July 12.
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