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sense of place

A half century of change in the Central Alps

Anyone who has hiked and skied the mountains between Buller and Stirling, and from The Bluff to Howitt and Cobbler and is over 30 probably knows the wonderful maps of Stuart Brookes.

Stuart has produced maps of the Alps and other popular walking areas since the late 1940s. As a teenager on my first walking, snow shoeing and skiing adventures in the area around the Howqua River, I fell in love with Stuart’s black and white map ‘Watersheds of the King, Howqua & Jamieson Rivers’. It had basic landform details shown through shading and all the features that a walker needed: good campsites, places where you could get water on the high ridges, routes and cairned trails rather than just the marked roads. I would get a new version every couple of years, and later versions were in multi colour and had contours. But they still had a sense of richness that are rare in modern maps. This was country that Stuart knew intimately and the maps evoked a rich sense of place.

Continue reading “A half century of change in the Central Alps” →

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Alan E J Andrews 1926 – 2014

mapAlan E J Andrews is known to many backcountry skiers and boarders as a pioneer of skiing the steep western faces of the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains. He was the author of Skiing the Western Faces Kosciusko.

He passed away last month after a long and well lived life. The eulogy that follows was written by his friend Klaus Hueneke, another luminary of the High Country.

Nureyev on Skis
Or
The Emperor of Illawong

Eulogy for Alan E J Andrews, Mona Vale, 26/6/14

“I have known Alan in person since about 1984 and I’ve known about his writings and journeys across the high country since the 1960s. He had a big impact on my life and my book publishing business Tabletop Press.

Alan was a lover of:-

Australian History especially the early explorers,

the Australian Alps and skiing in all its forms,

the mountain huts especially Illawong and Albina,

old style poetry with rhyming verse,

the ballet and bacon sandwiches and

an old Holden Station Wagon.
He loved reading, drawing and using maps,
and the careful composing of numerous articles and books.

He enjoyed helping others with their own research and replied at length to any questions or correspondence sent. He did this in careful, often quite tiny, longhand or neatly printed with lots of curly bits. You can view it in some of his books. When his distinct handwriting was not on the last parcel of books I thought, ‘something must be seriously wrong’. It was.

His books and long sojourns at Albina or Illawong hut above the Snowy River were very important features of his life. When he was at Illawong it was like the Emperor was in residence. Not a domineering Emperor who demanded our attention but a quietly spoken, quietly smiling, self effacing Emperor, one who didn’t have to shout it from the roof tops.

I loved listening to him reciting Australian classics as well as his own poetry. This is an extract from The Fan-shaped Snowgum.

There it is, the fan-shaped snowgum,
Glinting in the morning frost;
Reminding us of courtly pleasures
From time forgotten – long since lost.
Lovely eyes ‘neath lowered lashes,
Flirting sweetly, ringlets tossed,
Fan on crinoline laid demurely,
Clamouring suitors imperiously bossed.

But look again, the trunk is twisted,
Leaning perilously askew.
Another instant it had fallen,
Yet still survives, to grow anew,
The branchlets fanning to the northward,
Others stretching southward too;
Now proudly standing tall, defiant,
A sentinel to welcome you.

In 1982 I wrote Huts of the High Country. Alan took note that there was a new kid on the block and on a later visit to Illawong we spoke about my new book Kiandra to Kosciusko. He offered to draw a number of maps and gave me permission to use his articles about early ski tours in different parts of the Snowy Mts.

When the book came out he said ‘but you only spent a couple of pages on the history of Mt Kosciusko itself’. Sorry Alan. It got him going and in 1990 he asked me to design and publish Kosciusko – the Mountain in History. It covered all the first European explorers who reached the high tops and filled a missing gap. As usual, the research was meticulous.

In 1993 he wanted me to do the same with Skiing the Western Faces but this time he said, ‘I want the book to breathe more’. ‘Breathe?’, I thought Can a book breathe? It showed how books to him were living entities with eyes, lungs, heart and soul. No wonder his and Muriels house is full of them.

He showed me a book which had lots of space around the text and between chapters. I got the message and Skiing the Western Faces became his most popular book. It inspired many others including his sons Neil and Ian as well as my step-son Chris, who brought me here today, to explore the dramatic western faces. I always know it has been a good snow year if orders come in during September and October.

By 1996 he was ready to go with Rainforest and Ravished Snow. Half of this book dealt with his bushwalks on the Comboyn and in the Upper Manning River area, one in which some of his relatives once lived and where Ian, his son, still owns a plot of bush. After skiing became too hard for him, Alan often went there to communicate with nature.

It became obvious that Alan had been sitting on a large body of drawings, maps, photos, writing ideas and unpublished work. I was very glad he chose me to bring them into the world. These were books with small print runs not commercially viable for big publishing houses but important nevertheless.

In 1998 I received the manuscript for Earliest Monaro and Burragorang, his last major work. It is jam-packed with historical detail, black and white photos, dozens of hand-drawn maps and many references. It has been well received by old Monaro families and local historians.

His books have been selling steadily for the last 20 years and will continue to do so for a long time. I often say ‘History doesn’t age, it just gets older’.

Before I came along Alan published a number of books with Blubber Head Press and smaller hand-made ones like Where the Wombat Goes and Surveyor Thomas Townsend, his work in Australia 1831-1854. Another was a compendium of all the articles and books he had published between 1950 and 1983. Yes, starting in 1950, 64 years ago, when he was a young 24. A note in one said, ‘This really is a table top book – written, made and printed at home’.

On one of our day trips he took me on to Twynam West Spur and showed me the gap in the cornices through which I could thread my long, thin skis and descend into Siren Song Creek. ‘Ski down there?’ I thought, and went off to sit at the end of the Crags to bask in the sun and contemplate the vista to the crouching lion Jagungal.

He, meanwhile, wasted no time and in a series of adroit, light as a feather, linked turns, leapt, carved and flew into the sirens arms. It was Rudolf Nureyev (a famous ballet dancer from the 1980s) delicately balanced on a couple of plastic planks in the steepest snow country we have.

About the same time I discovered he adored the Australian Ballet and the stunning, lithe, pink-clad ballerinas. He wrote poems about them too. The ballet must have rubbed off for it was ballet on skis that he displayed that memorable day.

Writing this about Alan, the word ‘fey’ kept bouncing around inside my head. The dictionary explained. It means, ‘as if enchanted, under a spell and aware of supernatural influences’. Yes, that was Alan all over and that’s what explains his love of skiing, his poetry, his wry sense of humour, some of his drawings and his ability to morph from a cheeky Shakespearean imp to a serious historian over the same cup of tea.

I will end on a poem he wrote after ascending Twynam North Spur. It could be his epitaph:

We leave our stately sentinel
And pass on through the Arc of Trees,
Then upwards still and cross the snowbridge,
There possibly to take our ease,
But not for long; it’s on to Twynam
To the throne to pay our dues
And find our fealty rewarded –
The granting of the kingdom’s keys.

You may be sure we will not waste them.
Full many a secret we’ll explore.
Full many a slope will feel our ski-tips:
Past craggy slate and granite tor,
Down gullies steep and awesome,
We’ll ski them all, you may be sure.

So when at last we hand the keys in,
As needs we must – so stands the Law –
There’ll be no need for compensation.
There’ll be no need to ask for more.

I will miss him, his annual hand-illustrated and written Christmas cards, his tightly composed letters often with poetry, his years of support and all that he stood for with all my heart for the rest of my days.

Alan, you were an inspiring scholar and an old fashioned gentleman”.

Klaus Hueneke (OA-AM)

NB: a number of Alan’s books are still available, check here for details.

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The High Country of the Mind

The places we love are the ‘mountains of the mind’. The places we imagine and day-dream about. The places we escape to. Each of us has our special place. Some of us have many. Some just like to keep moving, and the mountain of the mind is the next unclimbed range.

What makes our places special? And what do we find there?

And where are your places?

Check here for some reflections, inspired by writer David Gilligan.

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In praise of huts

Tawonga Huts, Bogong High Plains, VIC
Tawonga Huts, Bogong High Plains, VIC

Huts in the mountains can be a vexed issue. Huts will tend to attract people and so tend to concentrate visitation within a larger area. As one example, most people who climb Mt Bogong tend to then turn towards Cleve Cole hut rather than head across to the Hooker Plateau. This tendency to influence visitation can be both good and bad.

They are part of the cultural history of the high country, and reflect major stages in the post colonisation era: cattle grazing, forestry, hydro, even fire watch towers and, more recently, huts built for recreational purposes. We also have a number of strange and random anomalies, ones that don’t really make sense: Craig’s hut near Mt Stirling as an example, which was built as a set for a film. There are, of course, those whose primary function is safety, such as Seaman’s hut near Mt Kosciusko, and huts that belong to clubs or even schools (Geelong Grammar on Mt Stirling).

I have always tended towards the position that we don’t need more huts in the high country. With incremental pressure as ski resorts increase their footprint and the risk of private developments within Victorian national parks and the precedent of private enterprise in a number of Tasmanian parks, I don’t think we need more infrastructure. There have been some hut removals that make ecological sense (such as Albina Lodge, above the western slopes of the Main Range in the Snowy Mountains). I certainly understand the need for huts in strategic spots for safety. And I do appreciate the history of these places, the incredible work of getting materials into hut sites in the early days and the bush skills of the builders. I love the work of Klaus Hueneke, who has chronicled the heritage of the huts.

the hut at Lake Nameless
the hut at Lake Nameless, Central TAS

With the rise in wildfire over the past decade, we have lost many of the iconic huts. There have been some excellent rebuild efforts, such as Michel’s at Mt Bogong. The Victorian High Country Huts Association was founded after the major bushfires of February 2003, to try and preserve remaining huts. Some huts are looked after by organisations and this can give people a strong connection to ‘their’ hut, and various groups exist to look out for huts in general (partial list below).

For me, it’s a rare thing to find a hut that is more appealing than a tent, but amongst my favourites are Seamen’s and the ‘Schlink Hilton’ in the Snowies, Vallejo Gantner at Macalister Springs, Cleve Cole on Bogong (of course), and the hut at Lake Nameless in Central Tasmania. I love the location of the ridiculously ugly house on Mt Wills.

For hut fans, we have recently been posting photos on Mountain Journal’s facebook page. Please feel free to join in and post your favourite pics.

the hut at Newgate Tarn, TAS
the hut at Newgate Tarn, TAS

I recently spotted the article below, highlighting the value of the ‘secret’ hut stash around many resorts, the little known hang out spot. I remember a rough hut that lasted several years on the northern slopes of The Bluff in Victoria which was popular with some backcountry skiers and boarders. I went to look for it one spring and it was gone (it had been tarp and pole heavy, more a glorified camp than a hut).

What I loved about this article is that it highlights that for all of us who use huts, there are personal and social memories that build up: of friendship, adventure, good dinners, long and late night conversations with strangers. I held my 30th birthday at Vallejo Gantner hut and have spent the last 4 new years at Bluff Spur hut on Mt Stirling with a big gang of friends. Part of the cultural – as opposed to technical – history is preserved in log books and, increasingly, on line. For instance, check the newsletters from the Mt Bogong Club, who have been looking after the Cleve Cole hut since 1965. In many countries there is the tradition of the hut warden, which can add to the sense of hut culture. I like the short film Winters of my Life, an appreciation of the decades-long service of Howard Weamer, who for the past 35 years has spent his winters as a hutkeeper in Yosemite’s backcountry.

Twilight Tarn, TAS
Twilight Tarn, TAS

Shacktivities

From Powder magazine.

Secret stashes, shacks included, are a part of skiing in the same way that early mornings and long drives are. If you are dedicated you will have yours, you’ll know the good ones, and the people to share them with inbounds and out. People who love the mountains cultivated them, probably long before you got there.

 Some contacts

Kosciusko huts association.

Victorian High Country Huts Association.

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Giving back

IMGP7211While on a recent walk in Mt Field national park in Tasmania, I was struck by the amount of track work that had been done in the four years since I was last there. Much of this is in the fragile areas from Negate Pass through to K Col.

I was reminded of the fact that track work can be incredibly aesthetic. In Tasmania there have been various stages in creating and stabilising tracks, with less use nowdays of locally cut timber, in favour of treated pine and lots of boardwalks. This is never very nice looking in it’s own right, and often needs helicopter lifts to get to remote areas, and hence has a higher environmental impact than locally cut wood. But the stone work in many places, including Mt Field, is fantastic. Thanks to the Parks Service workers, contractors and volunteers who have put in so much effort for so long to stabilise the track network in the mountains.

Although I have walked in remote areas since I was a teenager, I sometimes found track works an intrusion on my enjoyment of wild landscapes. Of course, I eventually realised that in popular – and especially alpine areas – they are a necessary part of reducing impact, by channeling what otherwise may be a myriad of smaller braided trails into a single pathway.

Then the poet Gary Snyder introduced me to the idea of track construction, of laying stones and other trail stabilisation as meaningful work, a way for us to interact with the wild. His poem Riprap and other works constantly remind me of that. Track building is a subtle, low impact way to engage mindfully with landscape.

 

Lay down these words

Before your mind like rocks.

placed solid, by hands

In choice of place, set

Before the body of the mind

in space and time:

Solidity of bark, leaf, or wall

riprap of things:

Cobble of milky way,

straying planets,

These poems, people,

lost ponies with

Dragging saddles—

and rocky sure-foot trails.

The worlds like an endless

four-dimensional

Game of Go.

ants and pebbles

In the thin loam, each rock a word

a creek-washed stone

Granite: ingrained

with torment of fire and weight

Crystal and sediment linked hot

all change, in thoughts,

As well as things.

IMGP7470As we walked out from a fantastic trip, I was reminded that helping out on working bees to stabilise tracks is a great way of giving back to the places we love. If you live in Tasmania, you may want to get involved with Friends of Mt Field, a volunteer group that does much of the track work there. But where ever you are there will be a group doing this type of vital work. You will find some contacts here.

Check the Friends of Mt Field site here.

 

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Mingling Waters Music Festival

January 18 and 19, Nowa Nowa, East Gippsland

Mingling-Waters-Music-Festival-logo-colour-300x223From the organisers:

Mingling Waters Music Festival is a small, grass-roots, high quality, well-organised, community-focused, family-friendly music event, supporting local artists and business, promoting Nowa Nowa as a special place to visit.

We plan to bring new and interesting artists in from the wider community.

We aim to create a scene that brings people together to talk, listen, play, and dance and celebrate together, in a beautiful natural environment!

It is a high priority to pay and look after all the participating artists as best we can.

We hope to do well enough to donate to two local charities, The East Gippsland Rail Trail and Melon’s Cottage.

There will be a small market, including food stalls, a bar, workshops, children’s activities and FINE MUSIC!

Check here for details on the artists.

Check here for details on tickets, accommodation, etc.

 

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‘snow surfing’

‘Snow surf’ boards are hardly a common sight on our slopes. But they are showing up more in some classic backcountry films like Signatures, from Sweetgrass Productions.

The following item is lifted directly from the new The Drift publication, and features some quotes from renowned surfboard designer and rider Taro Tamai. The company Gentemstick makes snowsurf boards.

 

Image: The Drift
Image: The Drift

Taro Tamai: Of Gods and Mountains

ON DESIGNING GENTEMSTICK:

My shapes aren’t just mimicking surfboards, but like surfboards they have different shapes for riding different waves. I shape boards depending on snow, terrain, and riding styles.

The design should perform on any snow condition, whether it’s powder, groomers, or spring corn snow. I don’t focus on skateboard-like snowboards, which emphasize ollies, big-air landings and the spinning factor, but a design that focuses on the relationship between the rider and slopes.

Image: The Drift
Image: The Drift

ON SNOWSURFING:

What if someone sees the mountain differently than others? What if the same terrain appears different to each person who sees it? Obviously the design for riding that place will differ from one another. The reason I quit skiing— which I loved so much—for snowboarding is because the potential lines that I could see when on a snow-surfboard were drastically different from when I was on skis. The ultimate goal of surfing is to be one with the wave. The ultimate goal in snowsurfing is to be one with the mountains.

MOUNTAINS IN JAPANESE SYMBOLISM:

Traditionally, Japanese people felt the presence of gods in all natural elements: water, forests, fire or mountains. Mountains were one of the most important deific symbols and climbing was a religious ritual. Japanese mentality sees gods in every single pebble lying on the river shores.

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on walking, part 2

IMG_00000875The week’s craziness dissipates with every step, evaporating and blowing away. Another wave of clouds come through and I pause under a big old tree, waiting for the rain to pass. Behind me, what sounds like a frogmouth ohms its call, and as a rainbow breaks over the shallow valley in front of bright cumulus, the kangaroos slowly emerge from under cover and start grazing again. The stream is flowing clear, and everything is still green in a flush of late spring growth.

I am reminded, as I often am, of how walking is the only real way to experience landscape on an intimate scale. Surfing and cross country skiing are the same. Once it gets mechanical, you’re generally moving too fast to catch the nuances of landscape.

It also got me thinking about the frame of mind that can help to drive and inform your walking.

What jumps out at me is this.

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eco arts retreats at Baw Baw

This comes from Baw Baw resort. A nice bit of low impact value adding to the resort.

eco_arts_retreats-703x1024The ECO Arts Retreat program consists of Studio and En Plein Air workshop elements inspired by the Pristine Alpine Environment which surrounds you at the Mt Baw Baw Alpine Resort. Mixed in with some of the fundamental theory aspects of landscape painting and photography, this years program will be facilitated by the current Mt Baw Baw Arts & Culture Ambassador, Educator and Environmental Expressionist, Peter Biram.

A series of Photography and Painting retreats will be available during summer on the mountain:
9/10 November 2013 : Eco Arts Retreat #1 : Painting
14/15 December 2013 : Eco Arts Retreat #2 : Photography
11/12 January 2014 : Eco Arts Retreat #3 : Painting
1/2 February 2014 : Eco Arts Retreat #4 : Photography

For further information contact:
Caroline Hammond, Mt Baw Baw Arts and Culture Manager on 5165 1136
or email artsandculture@mountbawbaw.com.au

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on walking

on the Razorback, VIC
on the Razorback, VIC

I recently heard a great Radio National program featuring English travel writer Robert Macfarlane.

His new book The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot is the third in a trilogy about “landscape and the human heart”.

As mentioned on RN, “in it, Robert Macfarlane travels the ancient walking tracks of Britain” and he spoke of the many deep experiences he has had while travelling on foot.

I have always been a big fan of walking, for commuting and recreation. It has all manner of benefits, and in bioregional terms, is a necessary part of getting to know your place and region. But lately I have been getting more influenced by the thought that walking can have a spiritual benefit as well.

Partly this is just formed from many hours sitting on trams and trains, aware of everyone around me fiddling with their electronic gadgets. I love and appreciate the internet as much as anyone and have the need to be plugged in. But as our minds become ever more crowded with huge volumes of data and (often quite shallow) information, and as we get ever more dependent on electronic gadgets, many of us are becoming obsessive in our need to be online and ‘connected’.

To have what has been described as a ‘considered’ life, you need time for reflection. This means time simply being with yourself. Whether you have religious or spiritual beliefs or not is irrelevant to this observation. It strikes me as being obvious that people need time for inward reflection – as opposed to the external ‘reflection’ that happens on social media and ‘reality’ TV, which is essentially something crafted for consumption by others. If you cannot bear to just sit with yourself, then there is something wrong in your life.

But in this hyper consumerist world, few of us are encouraged to make that time just to be.

Having some quiet time in the day means we can think about life, and how we are going in our relationships: with ourselves, our loved ones, and our community. Walking brings this opportunity to me. You don’t need any fancy gear to actually do it, just a few minutes in your day, wherever and whenever you can fit it in.

The global connections available to us via the internet are amazing. And more and more this opportunity is spreading to the majority world. But this engagement is very much ‘front of brain’ interaction, generally not deep or reflective.

And while I love my bike, walking gets you to a different place, because you can get into the rhythm of walking rather than maintaining the need to be constantly scanning for danger, which is a requirement of riding a bike at any speed.

Walking clears my head. It lets me plan for my day and then to unpack whatever happened at work.   Sometimes it just connects me to place, as I wander neighbourhoods and see how people live and interact. My life feels richer as I get to know the places around me, human and non-human, as you see a level of detail that cannot be discovered even from a push bike or car.

Then there is the deeper level. Sometimes I think its good to have an open mind as you walk. To consciously not think or plan, just to be open to what presents itself on that particular day. Some of my deepest revelations and connections have happened as I practise open mind walking, there is something to the movement of walking – a defining characteristic for humanity through the entirety of our existence – that takes me far further than sitting meditation has ever done. Being propelled through a landscape, the weather, our immediate surroundings, at the pace of the human body is inherently spiritual.

Yes, walking can be a drag, when you’re tired and want to get home, when its too hot or too wet or your destination is simply too far away. When you’re sick or tired or simply weary with life. But mostly its something that enriches our lives and gives authentic experience that is not gained from being plugged in or otherwise distracted in our lives.

To finish, I like this quote from Timothy Hull. His ‘companions’, transcendentalist poet uncle Walt Whitman and nature writer Mary Oliver may not resonate for us all. But the notion of walking out from home, into a rich landscape – busy or empty – flat or hilly – urban or rural – is something that we can all do. Who knows what we might find and who we might meet on the way.

Lets go walk out beyond the Wall
Across the land in the bright Fall
With the leaves fiery jewels
With Uncle Walt on the open road
Mary Oliver,
Dreaming souls
Wonderful companions bright and clear

[originally posted on an appreciation of the Bogong bioregion]

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mountain goodness – your daily pic from the hills

april 2009 147Mountain Journal is on Facebook and has a daily photo from the mountains of TAS, NSW and VIC.

Please feel free to add your own.

You can never have enough mountain goodness, especially at the start of what is likely to be a long, hot, and fire-prone summer.

Daily photos available here.

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review: A Night on a Mountain in Namadgi National Park

Whenever I fly from Melbourne to Canberra I try and get a window seat facing south, to get whatever glimpses I can of the High Country. The descent takes you over the wonderfully rocky, domed ridges of the Brindabella Ranges, scattered with frost hollows and ratty looking snow gum fringed ridgelines.

I haven’t been up into those mountains for years, but it’s on my perennial ‘to go’ list. Coming from the south I find the Main Range of the Snowies is normally sufficiently distracting that I don’t get any further north.

In the modern world of evolving media, the concept of ebooks has become popular. These can be books on specialised themes made by regular people, which are available in a print per purchase format, allowing an idea for a book to make it onto paper without the costs and commitment of producing a large print run.

A Night on a Mountain in Namadgi National Park is produced by Barrie Ridgway and available via Blurb, one of the online book companies. When you order it, a copy is printed and mailed.

The author says “this book is a textual and photographic portrayal of the beauty, vastness, peace and preciousness of wilderness in general and a unique Australian wilderness in particular. It is my portrayal of the need to preserve wilderness in its own right for the survival of all life on this planet Earth”.

It is a set of visually gorgeous photos taken as the author and his friends climb a peak in Namadgi Park to watch the sun set and spend the evening on the mountain. It reminds me of the ‘mountain viewing rituals’ described by deep ecological thinker Dolores laChapelle.

The book is primarily full colour photos, with some minimal commentary about the journey up the mountain and a plea to protect wilderness. It is a worthy addition to our literature about the Australian Alps, largely letting the landscape speak for itself, albeit through the eyes (lens) of someone with a great affinity for the place.

You can buy it via the Blurb website. Although this is expensive, it is a glorious book of 98 pp, with lots of gorgeous full colour pics at all scales, from the micro to the landscape level. The Softcover version comes in at about $50.

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