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Winter 2025

Many of us were shocked last winter when the season basically stopped in August. While bad winters will become more common under climate change scenarios, and yes – we have always had good and bad seasons, the abrupt end was hard for people who were planning trips later in the season (and of course terrible for local and on-mountain businesses and staff).

This winter has been so much better – more like a ‘normal’ winter although with obviously less snow at lower elevations. It certainly delivered the snow we all needed after several grim seasons.

Continue reading “Winter 2025” →

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Backcountry film festival at Wolf of the Willows

Join us at the Wolf of the Willows Brewery for BACKCOUNTRY FILM FESTIVAL

Thursday 24th of July | Tickets start from $10pp
Doors open 6pm for Dinner | Films start 7.30pm | Duration of films total 2.5hrs

The Backcountry Film Festival is a winter institution in Melbourne, screening each year since 2011. The program is put together by Winter Wildlands Alliance, and celebrates the power and spirit of humans in winter. The festival features 13 films over 2 and a half hours and will be re-screening at Wolf of the Willows in Mordialloc on the evening of Thursday 24 July, 2025.

No allocated seating so get in early to reserve your spot.

You can find tickets here.

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In search of Australia’s longest snow depth record

Phil Campbell has written a short story on the length of the snow record in Australia.

Ask anyone interested in Australia’s snow country where the longest record of snow depth is located, and you’ll almost certainly be told it is at Spencers Creek, in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains.

Snow depth and density measurements have been recorded continuously at the Spencer’s Creek site by Snowy Hydro for the past seven decades, commencing in the early years of the Snowy Mountains Scheme in 1954. The site consists of a series of seven poles at a mean elevation of 1830 metres and is one of three ‘index’ sites maintained by Snowy Hydro for snowpack and runoff modelling, along with two other sites at Deep Creek and Three Mile Dam. Numerous lesser known sites exist scattered at different elevations across the Snowy Mountains, many monitored for a few brief years to fit operational needs at the time, with a handful still monitored to this day.

Continue reading “In search of Australia’s longest snow depth record” →

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Dark Days while we wait for the White

I love my backcountry trips and my traditions of getting into the Big Wild. The annual multi day walk in lutruwita/ Tasmania with some mates, the new years eve wander and camp out on Mt Stirling, the road trip to the Snowy Mountains in May. I notice sometimes that half the enjoyment comes from planning and then reflecting on the trip (especially when the actual trip ends up being Type 2 fun).

But this year has been different. After two grim winters, I’ve been obsessing over the forecasts for this season. And as we know they aren’t great. I know that we will get a break at some point, that we will continue to get good and bad winters. But as we pass through another warm autumn, it really does feel like we have crossed some invisible tipping point. As happened with bushfires in the mountains, which suddenly did a ‘step change’ in intensity in the early 2000s, you have to wonder if we have stepped over into a new world where, in Australia at least, our snow pack resembles the boom and bust cycles that have long dominated mountain snow in Tasmania, and less like the consistent snow pack we have generally relied on here on the mainland.

Continue reading “Dark Days while we wait for the White” →

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Late start to winter expected

As we wait for winter snows, every skier, rider and winter enthusiast is scanning the weather and reading the pre season forecasts.

As was reported recently on Weatherzone here April was exactly 1°C warmer than the long-term average across Australia, but the warmth was even more pronounced in Victoria, where temperatures were 2.37°C higher than the long-term average.

That made it Victoria’s warmest April since national record-keeping commenced in 1910, while for Australia as a whole it was the 14th-warmest.

With sustained warm weather and clear skies, no one is really banking on a great season. But after two dire winters, we all need a break, especially the businesses who rely on good snowfalls and a long season.

Continue reading “Late start to winter expected” →

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Mountain Journal magazine #5 now available

The Mountain Journal magazine is now in its 5th year of production. We print 1,000 copies and distribute it for free through mountain and valley towns between Melbourne and Canberra during autumn each year. This year we had a guest editor – Anna Langford, who has produced an absolutely gorgeous magazine with the assistance of designer Tess Sellar and beautiful images from a range of people including Matt Tomkins.

The theme delves into what is happening to Winter. As Anna says in her introduction: “Long, deep winters are fast becoming folk tales of the past. But there is still so much to love, and so much we can do to act. To talk about our alpine winters is to lament what we’ve lost, celebrate
what we still have, record it for collective memory, and impel each other to step up and take action“.

Continue reading “Mountain Journal magazine #5 now available” →

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Alpine Odyssey Aotearoa to cross NZ from north to south

Many backcountry enthusiasts will be familiar with Huw Kingston. Most recently he has released and toured the film Alpine Odyssey, which covers his winter crossing of the Australian Alps during 2022, which was unusual because he visited all of the ski resorts along the way.

Now he is planning a winter crossing of Aotearoa New Zealand. Traveling from the tip of the North Island to the bottom of the South, he and his friend Laurence Mote plan to ski, cycle, walk and sail the full length of both islands. They also intend to ski at all 24 ski fields in the country. They start their journey on 25 June.

You can read more below.

Continue reading “Alpine Odyssey Aotearoa to cross NZ from north to south” →

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Mountain Journal magazine #5 – call-out for contributions

It’s that time of year. We are starting to get the annual magazine started. MJ magazine is an annual magazine that is distributed for free in mountain and valley towns between Melbourne and Canberra. And this year we have a guest editor: Anna Langford.

Continue reading “Mountain Journal magazine #5 – call-out for contributions” →

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We know how this story goes. But we could decide to change the ending.

We know that climate change is reducing the overall amount of snow we receive in Australia. The snow pack has been in decline since at least 1957. We also know that the loss of snow is being felt especially at lower elevations.

We also know that as snow pack dwindles and the snow line climbs up the mountains that we have already lost a number of previous centres of snow culture – like at Mt Buffalo where there used to be a small resort with ski runs, and people would ice skate on Lake Catani, while the famous Buffalo chalet provided great holidays in the snow in a beautiful setting. The old ski lifts at Buffalo have now been dismantled.

In the 1920s and 1930s people could ice skate on the lakes in Mt Field national park in lutruwita/ Tasmania, including at the famous Twilight Tarn and there was even a small outdoors ice rink on the summit of kunanyi/ Mt Wellington, above Hobart.

In the early 1900s, a popular ice-skating venue at the time, Pine Lake on the Central Plateau in Tasmania was chosen for the intention of establishing Tasmania as “the Switzerland of Australia” by establishing a “Ice yachting” venue (where specially built yachts could skim across the top of the frozen lake). Source.

The small resorts at Mt Mawson (Mt Field national park) and at Ben Lomond in the north east of the state really struggle to get enough snow cover to justify opening the ski tows.

Spring skiing in the mountains of lutruwita/ Tasmania was a thing up until the 1990s. Now good snow pack in the spring months is a rarity that must be grabbed if you have the chance.

Kiandra in the Snowy Mountains was the birthplace of skiing in Australia (as pointed out in this recent podcast from Protect Our Winters). Australia’s first T-bar lift had been installed on Township Hill near Kiandra in 1957. Now the valleys and hills around the old settlement rarely hold skiable snow for long.

Continue reading “We know how this story goes. But we could decide to change the ending.” →

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Letter home from the Arctic: when will we miss winter?

A reflection from Anna Langford, currently in the Arctic Circle region of Norway.

 

People keep asking me why I have come to spend three months in the Arctic Circle. They need a beat of stunned silence to comprehend my answer, ‘to be cold’.

I’m well-practiced at riding out the response – the loss of words, usually followed by a guffaw of laughter and a light-hearted insult. And sometimes a nervous flicker in the eyes, as though I’ve just given myself away as a ghoulish creature who flinches at the touch of sunlight.

I have been travelling since January, when I chose to bail on an Australian summer in favour of an English winter. ‘What are you doing here?!’ people would splutter, upon finding out where I had come from. Had I accidentally stumbled into Melbourne airport and onto a flight to London while on my way to the beach?

Continue reading “Letter home from the Arctic: when will we miss winter?” →

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Winter 2024 – the washup

If you were in the Victorian mountains during that amazing storm that passed through in the third week of July, you will have experienced winter at its best. In the Victorian backcountry we had already lost much of the base and the fresh snow was unconsolidated, but it didn’t really matter because there was so much of it. That wonderful and particular sound of fresh dry powder creaking underfoot as you weave through the trees on the uphill and that weightlessness as you head back down truly is magic (it always reminds me of that opening scene in the Valhalla film from Sweetgrass – When you’ve seen the season’s first great snow through the eyes of a child—you’ve known true happiness).

Then the blow drier was turned on, and we all know what happened next. Despite the amazing efforts of the resort groomers, the resorts started to close – the lower elevation ones like Mt Selwyn went first (consistent with what we expect from climate change). As of September 8 there is still cover in the Main Range and a few lifts are still going in places like Falls Creek. But basically the season is done – a whole month early.

This is obviously a huge blow for the businesses who are on their second short winter and everyone who was reliant on a full winter working in a resort or valley town. And, of course, it’s a drag for everyone who just wants to go skiing or riding.

Continue reading “Winter 2024 – the washup” →

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The world’s most charismatic tree (*)

If you visit this website, you will probably have noticed that I have a bit of an obsession with Snow Gums.

Snow Gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora) are the classic tree of the higher mountains of south eastern Australia. Interspaced with Alpine Ash at the lower end of their distribution, much of the forests and woodlands at higher levels across the Alps are dominated by this wonderful tree. They are profoundly different to the trees found in mountain areas in other parts of the world, and give a uniquely Australian sense to our high country. I am always amazed by the remarkable diversity in form that is possible within a single species. From grand tall elders in sheltered zones to wind pruned Bonsai sized trees on the treeline, the Snow Gum has a dazzling diversity of forms.

Continue reading “The world’s most charismatic tree (*)” →

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