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Backcountry film festival 2015

Now in its 10th year the Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film Festival celebrates the human powered winter experience through film. The festival aims to entertain while helping to raise funds and awareness for Winter Wildlands and our like-minded partners.

The Backcountry Film Festival premieres in Boise, Idaho, and then travels to more than 100 locations worldwide.  Along the way, it will be viewed by more than 20,000 outdoor enthusiasts and raise more than $110,000 each year for local organisations working on advocacy, snow safety, outdoor education and Snow School programs.

Melbourne show

Thursday May 21, 2015

Cinema at RMIT. Building 80.

Level 1, Room 2, 445 Swanston Street.

Suggested donation: $8 conc & students/ $15 waged.

All proceeds go to the Friends of the Earth climate campaign.

Facebook page here.

The cinema is Room 80.01.02 (It can be hard to find, best bet is to enter off A’Beckett Street, just by the Oxford Scholar Hotel (map here). Building 80 is on Swanston, between Latrobe and Franklin street, opposite the main RMIT campus.

Feel free to meet at the Oxford Scholar for a drink from 6.30pm. Please aim to arrive at the Cinema around 7, we will start the films at 7.15pm.

The festival will also be shown during the 2015 Splitfest (splitboarding festival) being held in the Snowy Mountains, on friday August 22 in Jindabyne.

Please check here for a listing of the films being shown.

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World Telemark Day/ Splitboard Festival

Telemark Skier magazine, based in the US, is starting WORLD TELEMARK DAY.

They say:

“this inaugural event is a day for telemark skiers to get together and go telemark skiing. Wherever you might be around the world let’s gather at our local hills and drop a knee together!”

The Southern Hemisphere event will be on Saturday SEPTEMBER 5, 2015. Anyone interested in organising an event is welcome to do so: just post the details on the facebook page so other people can join you.

There will be a gathering at Mt Loch that day. We will meet in Mt Hotham resort in the morning, and ski to Mt Loch and Machinery Spur. Tele and AT skiers and splitboarders all welcome.

Some people will also be camping at JB Plain (between Mt Hotham and Dinner Plain) that weekend. You’d be welcome to join the camp. Just come fully prepared with food and gear for snow camping. There is a pub just a 2 km ski away if the need arises.

Splitfest DownUnder

And just a ‘date claimer’ for the 2015 Splitfest DownUnder festival.

It will be over the weekend of 21-23 August, in the Main Range of the Snowies.

Check the Splitfest website closer to the event for full details and to register.

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Is Backcountry the new Black?

In a recent post, I suggested that, in the last few years, I have seen more people getting out into the backcountry for skiing and boarding. I didn’t try to draw any conclusions about out-of-winter visitation, but it certainly seems to me that there is a new generation of backcountry skiers and boarders, and a growing number of snow shoers as well. These people are coming both from traditional resort users and also a more nature-enthusiast demographic as well.

I recently spotted some stats from the US based Outside magazine about avalanche risk, which seemed to underscore the trend that I see out on the slopes:

  • In the US, more people are getting out of resorts ‘than ever before’ (this includes skiers, boarders and snowshoers). The author of the article White Noise in the October 2014 issue of Outside, Christopher Solomon, suggest that ‘a tipping point has been reached, some say, and what was once a fringe subculture is now firmly mainstream’.
  • He puts this growth to a range of factors, including more resorts opening ‘sidecountry’ terrain, more focus on snowsports culture on getting out of the resort, more infrastructure – like guiding businesses – who can take inexperienced people out, and better equipment.
  • He notes that in the US, sales of backcountry gear has grown 85% over the past four winters.
  • He says that men in their 20s are the group that are making up the ‘largest demographic venturing into the backcountry’.

All of this is fairly consistent with what I see out on the slopes. And we have not come close to a peak as yet. I have lost track of the number of skiers, boarders, towies and other mountain enthusiasts I met this winter who have aspirations to get out of resort, but haven’t done it yet. The ‘collective consciousness’ of the snow sports community has shifted and more and more are looking beyond the tows. In light of this, Hotham resorts intention to investigate extending its lifted areas into prime sidecountry terrain seems doubly strange.

Most of the newer backcountry skiers and boarders I meet seem to be focused on getting out into steep terrain. But I also notice another crowd, who are enjoying ‘traditional’ XC skiing or snow shoeing. This group tends to be both younger and older than the ‘steeps freaks’.

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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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Backcountry Awareness Presentation at Falls Creek

Falls Creek Ski Patrol is holding a Backcountry Awareness Presentation to be held this Saturday night the 9th of August at the Frying Pan Inn between 7 and 9pm.

Seats are limited so call Falls Creek Ski Patrol on 03 5758 1288 for bookings.

Mt Bogong from near Spion Kopje
Mt Bogong from near Spion Kopje

The night will consist of
·  a general presentation on backcountry awareness from both members of the Falls Creek & Squaw Valley Ski Patrol, including: How avalanches form, resort vs backcountry, personal equipment, weather / avalanche information sources when abroad, formal education resources for professionals and recreationists, avalanche transceiver use, probe line and search techniques, safe travel in avalanche terrain and snowpack analysis.

· the second part of evening will be a brief general summary of the recent Bogong Avalanche from Falls Creek Patrollers who assisted in search and recovery efforts – this will include a forensic review of the avalanche from a snow science and search and rescue perspective.

· After this there will be a couple of Backcountry short films – OFF GRID and Valhalla.

Also if anyone is interested in Field Workshops they should contact the Falls Creek Ski Patrol Base on for more information on 03 5758 1288.

· Donations for the night are going towards the set up of two Avalanche Rescue Hasty packs.

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Back Country culture. Changing of the guard?

As a teenager, my summer hiking and climbing quickly broadened into winter XC skiing. Wonderful years of skinny skis, dodgey boots, japara jackets and woollen pants.

A decade or so later, on a trip to the Main Range, I skied with some guys of similar skill level who were shredding slopes that I could barely get down. This was my introduction to the wonders of plastic boots and heavy gear. Like quite a few of my friends of similar age, I made the transition to fatter skis and started chasing steeps as well as enjoying my backcountry pottering. My equivalent of a mid-life sports car was a pair of Liberty skis with Axel bindings. I even bought a pair of skins. I never looked back, happily skinning up mountains after years of bagging my mates that had crossed over from the One True Religion of pattern based skis.

In the same way we have those subtle changes in our individual lives, these also play out on the larger level of the backcountry community. The last few years I have seen some interesting changes in back country (BC) culture. I suppose a lot my reflection is influenced by where I ski (mostly the Hotham/ Feathertop area, and Mt Stirling, with a couple of longer BC trips each year). So maybe its an observation that doesn’t ring true elsewhere. I haven’t skied out of Falls or Thredbo in about 3 years. And I certainly haven’t tried to cross reference it with any data.

Continue reading “Back Country culture. Changing of the guard?” →

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the year of the Avalanche?

While avalanches are not uncommon in Australia’s high country, they are certainly not a day-to-day part of the backcountry experience.

But the late start to the season, which saw excellent and deep falls across the Alps has seen some strange consolidation in many places, with a resulting increased number of slides as the snow base settles in.

Since the big fall in early July, there has been warmer and cooler cycles and continued snow showers across the Alps. Mt Buller saw a large slide avalanche in the Chutes last week, Stanley Bowl on Mt Stirling was closed, and a lot of the terrain around Feathertop and Hotham felt sketchy in the more avalanche prone areas. There are many reports of cornice collapse and slides from the Main Range of the Snowies.

When we checked snow conditions above the slopes at Stanley Bowl at the weekend (12/ 13 July) there was a clear heavier layer of slightly rain affected snow as the base, with a covering of new snow that cleaved off very easily. While only a few cm deep in places (depending on the aspect, deeper on slopes that collect spindrift) it was certainly a classic avalanche profile. This upper layer is getting heavier and compacting but in our cross sections was a separate strata to the base layer. Slopes that were more sun affected appeared to be in a more stable condition.

Two experienced backcountry snowboarders, Martin Buckland and Daniel Kerry, are currently missing on Mt Bogong and there have been fears stated by search and rescue about avalanche risk on the mountain. Let’s hope they turn up safe and sound soon. (As a tragic update to this story, on July 14, Victoria Police announced they had found one body, subsequently identified as Daniel Kerr, and that an avalanche had caused his death. On July 16, Victoria Police also announced that they had found Martie Buckland’s body).

STAY SAFE

The take home message here is that there are some incredible conditions out there at present and you’d be mad to miss some of the best snow in a decade.

And as pointed out by Bruce Easton, owner of Wilderness Sports and with 30 years experience in the backcountry, people have been reporting “best ever” backcountry conditions. Conditions have been better than average to date, and if people use common sense and stay within experience and what they know, they can have great experiences.

But there is also an enhanced risk of slides, so take care, and check before you drop in on any large backcountry lines. It’s a good idea to ask for some local intell from ski patrol before heading out if you’re starting near a resort, or check sites like Backcountry Forum or Wilderness Sports for conditions in the backcountry.

Personally I don’t carry an avalanche beacon, but a growing number of BC skiers and boarders do. I started, and was caught in, a slide avalanche on the bottom section of Pink Hamburg near Mt Hotham a few years ago. Since then I have been doubly aware of the value of carrying a snow shovel even when touring the side country, and the dangers of skiing/ riding alone.  A trip intentions plan – with good geographic detail about where you intend to ski/ ride, and a reliable person at home who has a definite time to call the emergency services – is really important for small groups intending to ski / board bigger and more remote terrain.

And if a slope is questionable but you do decide to ski/ ride it, then establish basic safety protocol: identify the likely points where a slope may give way and if there are any escape routes or safe points on the way down. Go one at a time while other the party members stand somewhere safe which allows them to observe the full slope so if a slide does happen they can pin point quickly where the debris has settled.

And if you’re not familiar with how to assess terrain for avalanche danger, then consider doing a course. There are 2 courses being offered this year in the Snowies, organised by Main Range Backcountry. They are being held Aug 27 & 28 and Aug 30 & 31st. Full details available here. Its money well spent.

There is a great short film by Fitz Cahall called Strong, about a man who survives an avalanche and goes back a year later to ski the line that almost took his life. The final words from that film says it all:

This year, be safe

But live wild

 

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Time to get Out There!

conditions at Mt Wheatley, 25/6/14
conditions at Mt Wheatley, 25/6/14

So, the first major dump has passed over the Alps, with snow everywhere!

This update comes from Bruce at Wilderness Sports in Jindabyne.

A deep low, well to the south of Tasmania is moving slowly to the southeast. A ridge of high pressure extends across the far north of New South Wales from a high centred over South Australia. The high should move to the Tasman Sea on Friday. The next major cold front is expected to reach the far west of the state Friday night, before bringing another vigorous and colder west to southwesterly airstream over the weekend.

In terms of backcountry conditions on the Main Range:

BACKCOUNTRY:
Lots of wind and drifting snow continuing to build the snow cover on the Main Range with a further 20+cms over higher peaks. Looks so promising with the forecast of solid snowfalls continuing this week. The base will have consolidated improving backcountry skiing & Snowshoes are pretty useful at the moment to get about. Once the weather clears it will be really good but while the weather is wild and woolly patience will be rewarded so use more sheltered spots to get out. Resort Cams show building snow cover!
The NEW Cam looking towards Mount Kosciuszko is sensational to assess conditions (But not when blizzard conditions prevail).

“From field observations exposed slopes in the area averaged 40-50cms. Cross loaded terrain averaged between 50-80 cms. Protected slopes snow depths started at 70 to130+cms”.

Check the weather page on www.wildernesssports.com.au for more updates on the weather throughout the week.

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Backcountry film festival, Melbourne, May 14

The Melbourne show for 2014 will be held on

Wednesday the 14th May

FBE Theatre 1, 111 Barry St (Melbourne Uni), Carlton. Between Pelham and Gratton streets, short walk from #19 and #59 trams up Elizabeth street.

From 6.30pm, films start at 7pm.

Suggested donation: $8 conc & students/ $12 waged.

NB: please note that this year, because of the venue, we won’t have drinks for sale.

Co-hosted with Melbourne University Ski Club.

MUSki

 

FoEA logo colour

The festival is run by not-for-profit hosts, and in Australia, all funds raised will support the Friends of the Earth (FoE) climate campaign. Funds will go to FoE’s work with regional communities to stop the development of new coal mines and unconventional gas drilling across southern Victoria.

Facebook event page here: please feel free to invite your friends.

Full details here.

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the Alpine Walking Track in winter

This trip is from several years ago but remains an impressive effort: a traverse of the Alpine Walking Track (AWT) from near Canberra through to Walhalla in winter.

This short video gives some highlights of a trip done in 2005 by two brothers, Andrew and Mark Oates. The main ranges images are lovely, but it’s the earlier stages of slogging through the wet plains of the northern Snowies and fording flooded rivers that is perhaps the most impressive.

They say of their trip:

Our first seven days involved walking and carrying our skis, with pack weights around 35 kg. We first put on our skis just after Kiandra and apart from one or two days of pure walking we were able to ski most of the way from there to Hotham. A 60 cm dump of light dry snow near Thredbo helped keep us on our skis but it also made the first few days afterwards extremely challenging. Even with the fattest touring skis available we were still sinking at times thigh deep in snow with our skis on.

After crossing the three highest peaks in the ACT, NSW and Victoria we reached Hotham after four weeks. Unfortunately though the snow did not last – our fifth week out, from Hotham to Howitt saw us experiencing a week of solid rain and strong winds. This resulted in much of the existing snow along the remainder of our route melting away before our eyes.

There is a 4min 40 sec short version of their adventure available here.

Check Mark Oates vimeo page for the 2 longer videos. He also has a youtube page.

The AWT remains the quintessential trail through the Australian Alps, and at 680 km in length remains a committing project with complex logistics, because of the need for multiple food drops along the route. You can find some extra info on the track here.

 

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Point zero zero one

East Face of Mt Feathertop, VIC. Image from the film by Stephen Curtain.
East Face of Mt Feathertop, VIC. Image from the film by Stephen Curtain.

As Tony Abbott threatens to de-list significant areas of the Tasmanian World heritage area (WHA) so the loggers can get to the old growth forests that are currently protected, it’s worth remembering that all our WH Areas are special and most of them are already under pressure from climate change.

No area has as many climate pressures as the Australian Alps. This film from Stephen Curtain offers some great telemark skiing images from the Western slopes of the Main Range in the Snowy Mountains. It also reminds us how unique and vulnerable this landscape already is. There have been several attempts to get World Heritage listing for the Australian Alps over the years. In an era of climate change and ever more demands on wild places, we need more world heritage areas, not less.

Check the film here.

Stephen says:

Point zero zero one (0.001) is the approximate percentage of the Australian continent occupied by the Australian Alps.

Bordering one Territory and two States, this biogeographical island supplies invaluable fresh water to much of south east Australia and provides outstanding natural, spiritual and cultural values.

Although the Australian Alps are recognised as a national iconic landscape by federal national park agencies and Tourism Australia in recognition of such values (see australia.com/campaigns/nationallandscapes/AustralianAlps.htm), World Heritage Listing still eludes the Australian Alps.

Point zero zero one celebrates the fleeting beauty of these Alps.

This short film was an entrant to Bristol’s 2012 Wildscreen Festival in the UK. Visit wildscreenfestival.org/

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The Drift – new publication

The DriftThe Drift is a collaborative newsprint publication between The Usual and Patagonia to celebrate all things snow.

Issue 1 features Patagonia ski and snowboard ambassadors Caroline Gleich, Josh Dirksen, Gerry Lopez, Kye Petersen, Liz Daley, Pep Fujas, Forrest Shearer, Taro Tamai, Alex Yoder, and Aidan Sheahan.

Pick up your Winter 2013/14 copy at select Patagonia stores worldwide.

For more information visit: http://www.thedriftmag.tumblr.com and http://www.patagonia.com/us/sports/snow. Follow us @theusualmontauk, @patagonia #pursuitofpowder

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