If you’ve got a bit of spare time, or need to do a long drive, and are looking for some outdoors content to listen to, here are a few ideas.
Date claimer / Call out for local films
Each year the Backcountry film festival (BCFF) celebrates the connection between humans and wild winters. It is a ‘collage of human-powered stories and backcountry-inspired experiences. Backcountry Film Festival ignites wild conversations and inspires action to communities that celebrate the present while looking towards the future’.
For more than 10 years, Friends of the Earth has held the BCFF in Melbourne before winter. The 19th Annual Backcountry Film Festival is screening documentaries and ski movies about athletic pursuit in the mountains, artistic vision, friendship, and how the snowsports community is adapting to a changing environment.
In 2024 we will again co-host the Melbourne screening with the RMIT Outdoors Club. We are looking at dates in late April or early May.
We are looking for some short Australian made backcountry films to be included as part of the evening. Yes, 2023 was grim. But if you have a film you would like to see screened at the festival before an enthusiastic audience, please get in touch: cam.walker@foe.org.au
Continue reading “Backcountry film festival – Melbourne, 2024”
Mountain Journal magazine comes out once a year and is a free journal that is distributed throughout mountain and valley towns from Melbourne to Canberra. Now in it’s fourth year, this is a call out for contributions for the 2024 edition.
You could either contribute to the cover theme (mountain icons), one of the regular sections (see below), images for a photo essay, or an image for use on the cover.
Contributions would be needed by January 20, 2024.
The Backcountry Film Festival (BCFF) is produced each year by the Winter Wildlands Alliance, WWA (based in the USA) as a celebration of the human-powered winter experience and a gathering place for the backcountry snow sports community.
The Melbourne screening is co-hosted by RMIT Outdoors Club and Friends of the Earth, and is generally held in early May.
WWA produces a fantastic line up of films, generally from the northern hemisphere. At the Melbourne screening we are also keen to showcase locally made backcountry films (last years saw a screening of Racha, about a trip to Georgia, and The Australian Alp, a wonderful homage to Mt Feathertop.
If you are planning to produce a film from this winter and would like to screen it to an enthusiastic backcountry crowd at the 2024 BCFF, please get in touch.
Cam.walker@foe.org.au
Despite sad snow conditions, the 6th Victorian backcountry festival will happen over three days in early September.
It will happen in and around the Mt Hotham resort, with all the usual components of the festival that we love – the tours, workshops, repair café, demo village, speakers program and outdoor bar. This year we have two festival hubs – The General, plus the Last Run Bar.
Please register for the festival here (you need to register to be able to book tours). Check below for full details.
Continue reading “VIC backcountry festival powers ahead despite low snow”
The Victorian backcountry festival will be happening soon at Mt Hotham (September 1, 2, 3). Now in its 6th year, the festival offers tours, workshops, a demo village, ski in outdoor bar on a hilltop, repair cafe, avalanche safety courses, an opening night party, films and a speakers program.
You can register for the festival here. The full program will be posted on the backcountry festival home page shortly.
As part of the speakers program, there will be a great event at The General in Mt Hotham village, with presentations on how to turn concern for the mountains into meaningful action.
Now in it’s 6th year, the Victorian backcountry festival will happen at Mt Hotham again over the first weekend of September.
The three day event (September 1, 2, 3) features the normal program that we all love – guided tours, workshops, a speakers program, demo village, repair cafe, and the saki in outdoor bar on a mountain top.
The festival is 100% volunteer run and the committee is working hard to deliver another great event.
Registration for the festival is now open, with an early bird rate of $40 for the weekend. This covers basic and very important costs like insurance for the festival. Registering will mean you receive details of the tour program when it is announced. Registrations after July will be $50, so get in now and save.
You can register here.
https://events.humanitix.com/2023-victorian-backcountry-festival-early-bird-tickets
Recently I was enjoying an evening hanging out at Bluff Spur hut on Mt Stirling. The 9 folks there had long and interesting yarns and, as is usual in a backcountry hut, many of the chats often focused on the adventures we have enjoyed in the mountains.
A common theme was favourite places, and favourite people and at some point Bill Barker, head of ski patrol at Mt Hotham, came up and we agreed he was a living legend. We discussed our favourite huts (King Saddle, Cleve Cole and Vallejo Ganter), favourite mountains (Feathertop, Bogong), and favourite camping spots (well that would have to be a secret).
I got an idea for Mountain Journal magazine #4. What are the icons of the mountains we love? What people, what places, what forests, what institutions? I am hoping you will feel inspired to write a brief piece on your favourite mountain icon, for publishing on the website and (later on) in the next edition of the magazine.
An Icon is
‘A person or thing widely admired especially for having great influence or significance in a particular sphere’.
It might be a person who inspires you, a place, a mountain hut, a river, a business or other institution.
There will be a series of screenings of the new Australian backcountry film STEEP REFLECTIONS, happening across a number of towns and resorts in June.
With a warming climate, there is growing concern for the future of snowsports in the Kosciuszko National Park. STEEP REFLECTIONS aims to change your perspective on the Australian backcountry, and create greater awareness around the importance of both mountain safety and our environmental footprint. Follow local guides and freeriders as they showcase the hidden beauty of the Snowy Mountains, taking you to the highest peaks and the steepest slopes, whilst uncovering the harsh reality our winters face if we don’t act now.
The Backcountry film festival (Melbourne, May 4) is shaping up to be an epic night – 13 films, 4 speakers, info stalls and it just got bigger. It will be the world premiere of a new backcountry film produced after an 8 day trip in the Western Highlands of Georgia.
For the third year, we have produced a print version of the Mountain Journal magazine, with content from the Mountain Journal website and many new stories.
You can read the magazine as a PDF here: MJ3.
Look for print mags in your local resort, valley town or favourite mountain hut soon.
The VIC BC Fest will be happening in and around Mt Hotham resort over three days in early September (1, 2 and 3).
It will look a lot like last year – a great tours program, workshops and skillshares (including more telemark and cross country), the ski in outdoor bar, speakers program, repair cafe, and demo village outside The General in Hotham village. There will also be an on snow camp site attached to the festival this year.
With a new and expanded organising committee, we are getting down to planning another great festival. Stay tuned for details, call out for the program and volunteer guides.
Mountain Journal 
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