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Falls Creek Bike Festival

The first inaugural FALLS CREEK BIKE FESTIVAL will take place in beautiful Falls Creek Resort on April 8th 9th and 10th 2016.

Situated on Bogong High Plains Road, Falls Creek, Victoria Australia. This event is set to be one of the best weekend road trips you can experience. With five events now locked in being Fridays single stage SUPER ENDURO race, Saturdays five stage VICTORIAN GRAVITY ENDURO STATE CHAMPS race, Sundays wild URBAN DOWNHILL race, and two kids events on Saturday and Sunday, its set to be a great adventure to this amazing part of the world!!!

Details available here.

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Lake Mountain Super G

On Sunday 28th of February the Murrindindi Cycle Club will be hosting Australia’s first marathon super G.

This event showcases the new single track trail that starts at the Lake Mountain summit and finishes at the Lake Mountain ticket office, 12 kilometres, 620 meters of descending and 200 meters of climbing later.

Continue reading “Lake Mountain Super G” →

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Bike packing

If you drive up any of the sealed roads into the mountains outside of winter, you will be aware of the incredible surge of interest in road riding in the Alps. From the Seven Peaks concept (ride up the seven key roads at your own pace during ‘riding season’) to events like the Tour of Bright (which has two substantial hill climb stages including the road to Hotham), road riding is huge.

Mountain bike riding is equally a wildly popular pastime, with Mt Buller in particular being an early adopter in terms of putting in infrastructure. The riding is great, and a growing number of other resorts are seeking to increase tourist visitation through developing infrastructure like single track networks.

Continue reading “Bike packing” →

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New walking and riding map of Lake Mountain

Lake Mountain Alpine Resort has produced a great new A2 sized map which details the walking, mountain biking and ‘shared trails’ on the mountain.

snowgumsThe map covers the area from Keppel’s Hut up to the plateau and all its ski trails, and then all the way down to the entry station at the turn off on the Woods Point Road.  There is now an increased range of tracks then were previously available as a result of work by Lake Mountain staff in connecting existing separate tracks, and this has opened up some really great extended day walks.

The map contains details of a number of suggested walks, as well as photos of some common flora which visitors may encounter at Lake Mountain.

The map will be available at the Lake Mountain resort and a number of tourist, bushwalking and cycling outlets.  Anyone having trouble finding a copy is welcome to contact Sue Parry, the Lake Mountain Environmental Officer via sue@lakemountainresort.com.au


snowgums2

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2015 Thredbo Cannonball MTB Festival –  Dec 4th – 6th

The Cannonball Festival is back for 2015. Hosted at Thredbo ski village, the organisers say it “promises dirt, vert and freewheeling action as some of the world’s best mountain bike riders mix it with rising stars and amateur enthusiasts to take home their share of the massive $45,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs”.

“Thredbo is Australia’s home of Gravity Mountain biking, and the five events across three days showcase the diversity of the terrain on offer in the Snowy Mountains. The line-up of events includes the side by side Sram Dual Compressor, RockShox Pump Track Challenge on Thredbo’s new look pump track, the ODI Whip Wars Big Air, Maxxis Flow Motion Cup and the jewel in the crown, the Toyota Australian Open Downhill”.

Full details can be found here.

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McKayos gravity enduro

October 4.

From Falls Creek resort:

“McKayos is Falls Creek’s newest event, a MTB gravity enduro bash from the snowy slopes of Australia’s highest drivable peak to the pristine shores of Lake Guy in Bogong Village.

Combining Snow, Dirt and Road, the course takes riders 18km through fire trails and sealed mountain roads for a total descent of 1200m. A mass start on snow is sure to see some chaos from the starter’s gun as riders muscle for position.”

It costs $50. For further information and to register, please check here.

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AdventurePro Video Festival to show at Mt Buller

Having received an overwhelmingly positive response from its original screening in Mansfield, the AdventurePro Video Festival is now going on tour.

A grassroots adventure film competition organised by AdventurePro is due to reappear for a screening at Mount Buller in July.

The collection of locally-produced adventure films was shown at Mansfield’s Armchair Cinema last month and provided an opportunity for independent filmmakers to win a cash prize.

Continue reading “AdventurePro Video Festival to show at Mt Buller” →

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Bike Buller MTB Festival

The following comes from Mt Buller resort management:

Mountain bikers are getting set for the biggest event on Mt Buller’s busy calendar, the Bike Buller MTB Festival Presented by Orbea on March 7-9. Taking place over the Victorian Labour Day long weekend on Mt Buller’s world-class trails, the Bike Buller MTB Festival will see riders enjoy a jam-packed three days of mountain biking and festival fun at the popular Picnic in the Park food, wine and music festival at Mirimbah Park.

The festival is an ‘all mountain’ event, held across Mt Buller’s world-class cross-country, endurance and downhill trails, and suitable for riders of all abilities and disciplines. Run by event management company Rapid Ascent, the team behind the Giant Odyssey, Salomon Trail Running Series, Surf Coast Century and a number of other iconic adventure events, the 2015 Bike Buller MTB Festival presented by Orbea has a massive 14-event schedule with a diverse range of mountain bike races, kids’ events and even a trail running component.

Full details here.

And if you’re up on Mt Stirling, make sure you drop in to the Epicenter for a coffee or some food and support this great mountain business.

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The Epicenter

The Epicenter is a great new cafe, opened in December 2014, that’s operating out of the ski school building at Telephone Box Junction on Mt Stirling.

Epicenter 2The Epicenter has a strong focus on mountain biking, and will be open throughout summer and autumn, then for the snow season as well. Along with Mountain Kitchen at Dinner Plain, this new operation is a stand out amongst alpine cafes: it’s small scale and friendly, with an authentic feel and commitment to adventure and mountain living.

Co-owner Hjalmar Arnold (Yully/Dingo) describes it as “the Riders Lifestyle in a shop, year round” and “the Gateway to the Alpine Backcountry”. There is no doubt that the MTB trails developed in recent years on Mt Buller and Stirling are some of the finest in the country. Yully helped build them, and is a great source of knowledge for first time riders.

They have great food, much of it made on the premises, and excellent coffee. Please drop by and support this great initiative.

There are additional renovations going on to extend the facilities at TBJ, which will be ready for winter 2015.

You can find their facebook page here.

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the Australian Mountain Bike Summit

You are invited to the inaugural Australian Mountain Bike Summit hosted at Mt Buller on 4-5 December 2014. This conference is dedicated exclusively to mountain biking, covering issues, emerging trends and opportunities relevant to this industry.

Topics that will be covered include:

  • – Industry best practice trails and emerging trail trends
  • – Trail advocacy and land management
  • – The current state of the Australian mountain bike market and future trends
  • – Industry development
  • – Developing sustainable trail funding models
  • – Mountain bikes and the media
  • – Industry issues and required actions
  • – Trail building: new products, techniques and supplies
  • – Securing or developing successful mountain bike events
  • – The future role and strategy of Mountain Bike Australia

Over 20 industry experts from Australia and abroad will deliver a range of keynote addresses, workshops and breakout sessions that will allow you to hear from the specialists, share ideas and ask questions in a collaborative environment. There will also be plenty of time for networking, socialising and
– most importantly – riding bikes.

Register by 31 October and enjoy a 10% early bird discount!

Australian Alpine Epic Launch

This critical industry event coincides with the 6 December launch of the Australian Alpine Epic – the first IMBA accredited trail in the Southern Hemisphere, offering a breathtaking 40km backcountry ride experience.

For more information, visit bikebuller.com.au or email summit@mtbuller.com.au

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Australian backcountry film festival – Spring 2014

For the past four years, the backcountry film festival has been attracting good numbers of people, and has been showing in more locations across south eastern Australia.

It seems like it might be time to have our own festival – with films made in Australia.

At previous Melbourne shows, we have added a film about skiing and boarding on The Bluff (No Lift Lines Here), and this year saw OFF GRID, a new effort on Mt Bogong from SoO Airtime.

The plan is to hold an Australian backcountry film festival in late spring 2014 with only local content. There are some fantastic film makers out there, and we hope to be able to showcase some of these.

We are seeking expressions of interest from film makers who would like to submit films.

Any human and gravity powered backcountry adventure would be welcome: walking, skiing, boarding, MTBing, paddling, climbing, …

As this is an entirely volunteer effort, with no budget, we are not able to offer payment for showing the films.

Films can be in two length categories. We hope to show an hours worth of short films (3 to 7 minutes) then up to 2 longer films (30 – 40 minutes each).

At this point we are looking at doing a Melbourne showing, with the ability to offer the festival to other places once its packaged up. The aim is to do a low fuss mini film festival, so we’d appreciate getting the films in a format that allows us to put them onto a single dvd.

If you’re keen, please get in touch: cam.walker@foe.org.au

I would also love to hear from anyone keen to volunteer their skills to turn the individual films into a package and for help with logistics.

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Bike Buller

Bike-Buller213Flow magazine is a great local mag that covers the mountain biking life.

The following is from the introduction to their recent story on mountain biking at Mt Buller in Victoria’s high country.

I’m on the chairlift for the second time that morning during day 2 of Bike Buller when my phone chimes in from the top pocket of my CamelBak. It’s Will, who’s here in Buller for the first time – his text reads simply:

“Holy shit my milkshake!”

Decoding Will’s particular blend of babbled enthusiasm, I know that the Delatite River Trail has lived up expectations and has left him, as we promised, as frothy and shaken up as any good vanilla ‘shake should be. Thinking back to my first ever run down the Delatite, I can recall how he must be feeling – the manic speed of it all, the stomach clenching fear as you get off the ride line and big rocks start flicking your wheels about, the disbelief at just how long it keeps it on descending. And finally a mixture of relief at having survived unscathed, and desire to just do it all again RIGHT NOW.

Check the story here.

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