It’s wonderful to have all this fresh snow. With the national parks and resorts in Victoria closed, this is relevant for people from NSW and the ACT who are heading to the mountains this weekend.
If you are heading into the backcountry, be aware that there will be some tough weather and snow conditions.
Continue reading “Main Range backcountry conditions report 22/8”
Due to the new COVID-19 restrictions, we are sad to announce that the Victorian Backcountry Festival has been cancelled for 2020.
However do not despair, as the VBCF organisers have two exciting dates for you to put into your calendars right now.
We are in the early stages of organising the program, and would love to hear from people about suggestions for potential speakers. If you have a great snow adventure story, a backcountry skill you can teach over Zoom, or want to suggest an author/ athlete/ mountaineer/ etc you want to hear speak, let us know: admin@backcountry-festival.com
Hope to see you all virtually at the online event next month – and in person next year up at Hotham.
Keep an eye on the website for updates.
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”
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.
Mountain Sports Collective is a membership based not-for-profit user group organisation for human powered alpine sports in Australia.
In winter it produces a regular ‘Backcountry Conditions Report’ covering three areas: North East VIC, the Central Alpine Ranges in VIC, and the Main Range in the Snowy Mountains. The reports cover alpine snow and weather conditions and travel and terrain advice. It is generally updated as conditions change significantly.
This winter MSC has set up a ‘community observation’ page that allows backcountry users to contribute information about conditions. You can add your observations here.
Now that proper winter conditions have finally kicked in, the Reports will be updated on a regular basis.
Please check the reports before heading into the backcountry.
You can support the efforts of MSC by becoming a member.
With COVID-19 restrictions reducing the number of people able to ski and ride in resort, this will certainly be the ‘winter of the backcountry’.
This brings a range of management issues, as inexperienced and, potentially, under equipped, people head out into what can be serious terrain and sometimes crazy weather.
There is also another dimension to this: what to do with the waste that will be brought into the backcountry, including human waste (aka Poo).
The following information comes from the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service:
If you’re a Splitboarder and want to be part of an EXTENDED Alpine Safety Training (AST1) course in Victoria – a collaboration between Alpine Access Australia and the Let’s Split crew – read on!
Continue reading “Heading to the Backcountry this Season? Stay safe with a AST1 Course”
With ski resorts announcing their plans for the season (and resorts having considerable control over access to many backcountry skiing and riding access points) we now have a sense of what winter will look like.
The key message is that if you’re planning to access backcountry via a resort you need to organise entry before you go. But there are many options outside resort areas.
Lots of people are asking whether the Backcountry Festival will happen this year. The short answer is YES, providing Mt Hotham is open and backcountry access is allowed.
With the COVID-19 pandemic requiring society wide shut down of non essential activity, it is not yet certain whether the 2020 ski season will happen. Obviously, like all other snow lovers, we are anxiously waiting for the government announcement on whether ski season will proceed, and if it does, in what form.
Because the festival is not scheduled until the end of winter (September 4 – 6), we are hopeful that the festival will be able to proceed.
These images were taken from a lovely 46 minute video of ‘a flight over the Tasmanian Highlands on a mostly sunny autumn afternoon’ from Gary J McArthur (whose account is called Wandering Foxbat). This film is available here. He posts many great videos of flying over Tasmania.
He flies over Mt Roland, down along the western edge of the Central Plateau to the Ducane Range, then north to Cradle Mountain.
I couldn’t resist taking a few images from the video of some of my favourite peaks.
It was the end of day four on our 160 kilometre ski tour from the resort town of Aspen to Vail, in central Colorado. We’d had a brutal day, with an early start at 11,300 feet, a long descent off the edge of the Continental Divide, endless touring through deep fresh snow, and a final punishing two hour climb to Jackal hut. But tomorrow was the big day.
Perched on the edge of a meadow with jaw dropping views to Mt Elbert, the highest of Colorado’s 14K peaks, Jackal is a solid log cabin with a big front deck that is owned by the 10th Mountain Division Huts Association. On day five we left the hut just after dawn, shuffling through a dark spruce forest onto a long ridge that climbed towards the 12,000 foot mark. The plan was to take a high route over the mountains to our next destination – Shrine Mountain – rather than a lower and more complex trail below the treeline. I’d been struggling with the downhill sections, and was dreading the descent off the other side.
Mountain Journal 
Recent Comments