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Perisher Volunteer Ski Patrol struggles to survive

Ski patrols – both paid and volunteer – are essential for ensuring mountain safety in the ski resorts. Volunteers at all the mountains donate their time, passion and skills to assist skiers, riders and other visitors to have a safe experience in resorts. Beyond staging rescues of injured people there is so much that patrols do behind the scenes, from assessing slopes before they are open to the public, managing safety on the slopes, and assisting with rescues in the backcountry.

But the Perisher Volunteer Ski Patrol (PSP) is facing an uncertain future due to the actions of Vail Resorts, the US-based owners of Perisher.

PSP say that: ‘Vail Resorts has made the shocking decision to ban the PSP – a specialist squad of VRA Rescue NSW (Volunteer Rescue Association) from operating‘.

Continue reading “Perisher Volunteer Ski Patrol struggles to survive” →

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Chillfactor 2020

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.

Continue reading “Chillfactor 2020” →

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Backcountry festival program launch

The Victorian Backcountry Festival will happen at Hotham, over the weekend of Sept 7 and 8. The program has just been released and is available here.

So far the program has 27 tours and workshops, from beginner to advanced, covering snow shoeing, splitboarding, alpine touring, telemark, and cross country. There will be skillshares in fat bikes, snow and avalanche safety, navigation, snow camping, rescue and a film making workshop.

The program:

  • Start the weekend with a drink at the Snowline in Harrietville on Friday night
  • Meet at The General early on sat for a briefing and tours (there are currently 19 tours and workshops on offer)
  • Speaker’s program from midday at The General
  • Then head to the outdoor bar (1 km ski/ skin in) and then kick on at Blizzard brewery in Dinner Plain
  • Sunday is mostly longer tours (there are currently 8 tours planned for that day)
  • The weekend finishes off with an evening brought to you by Protect Our Winters, featuring great speakers and 2 films, at The Bird
  • Then Monday morning, the 3 day Feathertop camp out starts
  • Alpine Access Australia is offering 2 day AST 1 avalanche courses before, during and after the festival.

The program is here.

Please remember to buy tickets for the weekend if you haven’t already (it’s $10 a person for the weekend)

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Early open at resorts

The Alps received some fantastic snow falls in the last couple of days, prompting at least two resorts to announce they will open a week early.

Perisher has announced it will open a week early (Saturday June 3). Queen’s Birthday weekend is the traditional start to the season in the resorts.

Mt Buller has also been promoting its new snow making technology. The resort spent $1.6m on its ‘Snowfactory’, which is already making and stockpiling artificial snow, and is now spreading this to create a base for operations.Mt Buller will start operations from friday night (June 2).

Hotham has also invested $4.4 million in snowmaking over the past two summers, with the new system, covering more terrain, ready to go. Most resorts have started making snow on the back of this recent weather system. There is a nice summary of how the resorts fared in terms of snowfall on Mountain Watch.

The question, of course, is: is this the start of the 2017 snow pack, or the last autumn snow fall?

Snow forecaster The Grasshopper suggests that 2017 will be a ‘slightly worse than average season’ but it now looks like we will skiing/ riding opportunities over the Queen’s Birthday weekend, at least in the resorts. And unless there is some kind of rain event disaster in the next couple of weeks, it looks like this is the beginning of the base for the season.

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Reducing the impact of our snow obsession

Outside magazine recently posted a great piece on the environmental impact of skiing/ riding. Well, one particular aspect – the amount of carbon pollution we produce through driving or flying to get to ski destinations.

They tracked and collated the travel mileage during winter of their most snow-obsessed staff, then consulted a carbon offset specialist, who estimated they would have to plant 704 trees to sequester all the carbon generated.

Continue reading “Reducing the impact of our snow obsession” →

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Backcountry film festival – Melbourne, May 30

As the Alps gets another blast of pre winter snow, I’m happy to be able to tell you that we have a date for this year’s backcountry film festival program in Melbourne!

The BC festival is the annual mini film festival that covers human powered winter adventure.

The Melbourne show will be held on Tuesday May 30.

Continue reading “Backcountry film festival – Melbourne, May 30” →

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The winter of awesome

The waiting is over. Winter is finally here!

Now all that’s left to do is get out into the hills.

Here’s a short list of some of the backcountry-related organised snow events that I’m aware of.

Continue reading “The winter of awesome” →

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Backcountry film festival in Canberra

Mont Equipment, in partnership with Main Range Backcountry, is hosting a Canberra showing of the 2016 Backcountry film festival on Thursday August 11 at 6pm.

It will be held at the Mont store, 18 Pirie Street Fyshwick.

Tickets are available from the Mont Shop in Fyshwick and are only a gold coin (you can give more) that will go to the Mountain Critter Cause, a fundraiser to protect the Mountain Pygmy Possum.

Tickets are limited and will go quickly, so hurry in to avoid disappointment!

Facebook page available here.

 

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Nat Segal. Greenland and the future of skiing

In March of 2014 six women set sail from Ísafjörður, Iceland with the intention of sailing across the Denmark Straight and up the south-west coast of Greenland. They hoped to explore the remote coastline, pioneer new ski descents, and collect scientific data in some of the most incredible wilderness on earth.

Continue reading “Nat Segal. Greenland and the future of skiing” →

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The Grasshopper prediction for winter 2016

It’s April: two months til winter… Which gets us all thinking about what type of season it will be.

Most Australian snow enthusiasts know about The Grasshopper, who writes snow forecasts for MountainWatch (‘resident meteorology sensei’ at MountainWatch).

The first prediction for 2016 has arrived.

Continue reading “The Grasshopper prediction for winter 2016” →

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Backcountry film festival in Sydney

Saturday April 30 at 7.30pm.

The NSW Nordic Ski Club is hosting a screening of the Backcountry Film Festival – this Film Festival features 9 short snow and ski films selected by the American Winter Wildlands Alliance. The Festival is renowned for its mix of professional and grassroots films, from well-known filmmakers who search backcountry corners across the globe to submit their best work to first-timers who take a video camera out on their weekend excursions.

Continue reading “Backcountry film festival in Sydney” →

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Backcountry Information Night

Event Details

The love of mountain sports invites you and all to an Australian Backcountry Information Evening. The night is hosted by Watkin McLennan and presented in association with Marker Bindings, Rhythm Snowsports, Mountainwatch.com and Chillfactor Magazine.

When: Thursday 16th July from 7:30pm

Where: Banjo’s Back Room. 1 Kosciuszko Road, Jindabyne.

The evening is for Australian backcountry skiers and snowboarders of all levels of experience and ages. The night kicks off with a short film shot on The Roof of Australia.

Following the film Bill Barker will talk about the hazards unique to the Australian mountains. Bill has been patrolling for over 20 years, is a certified guide with the Canadian Ski Guide Association, and a member of the Canadian Avalanche Association. He is the director of ski patrol at Mt Hotham and runs epic backcountry trips to Gulmarg, India. Visit www.billstrips.com. Continue reading “Backcountry Information Night” →

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