Table of contents for Issue 184, Winter 2022 in Wild

[Letter of the Issue] LOOKING OUT FOR EACH OTHER Hi James, Over New Years, I took my partner and twin 10yo daughters on an overnight hike to Ropers Hut. Never one to miss a teaching moment, there was ample opportunity to educate them on the dark arts of a properly adjusted pack harness and the etiquette of not yelling at the top of your voice in a campsite full of people. After pointing out the travesty of Victoria’s third-highest peak being unnamed, I got the intended synchronised eye roll in response to my suggestion of Mt No-Name. Returning, I commented on the Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing sign at the Heathy Spur Junction. We then discussed the pros and cons of Parks Victoria’s ‘Iconic Walks’ strategy (hat tip to Wild…

Bob.Brown.Foundation bobbrownfndn www.bobbrown.org.au On our April trip to Itirkawara, one of the most awesome geological features in Australia, the rock-strewn washaways from last summer’s floods reshaped the car’s undercarriage. There was no one else along the rough final road from the village of Titjikala, although Itirkawara is less than 200km south of Alice Springs. In Arrernte Aboriginal tradition, Itirkawara is a Knob-tailed Gecko spirit ancestor, a fierce warrior who travelled widely and killed many others. He was evil and lived with women who, under tribal law, were forbidden to him. Banished because of this behaviour, he brought a girl relative to these sandhills and sat down to rest. He was turned to stone, and his companion, crouching with her face turned away in shame, became nearby Yayurara (Castle Rock). Itirkawara…

Ahem … Hello everybody. My name is Dan … and … I’m a gear snob. There, I said it. This is as much a surprise to me as it isn’t a surprise to my friends, for it’s happened insidiously over a period of time. Having worked in the outdoor industry for nigh on 15 years, I’m too professional to throw shade on a competitor’s products while helping a customer, but I recently scoffed at a friend’s purchase of a not-unreasonable, entry level tent. Sure, Aldi camping gear probably deserves all the scorn poured upon it, but this didn’t, and it occurred to me there and then what I’d become. When I first started hiking, like most people, I borrowed gear. I was a jobless teenager, and pocket money in the…

Once upon a time, when muddy tracks and mosquito-ridden forests flew under the radar of profiteers, the wilderness was a reassuring constant. With a backpack full of gear and a few days to use it, any rigorous ramble could offer up splendour and suffering in equal parts, and send you home shattered and smiling, and entirely restored. But something happened while we were out climbing hills and fording rivers in search of some joie de vivre. People slowly noticed how happy the wilderness made us, and wondered what the experience might look like if you took soggy tents and two-minute noodles out of the equation. What if trails could be groomed, and packs didn’t need to be carried; if experience, expertise and fitness were no longer required? What if discomfort…

WILD: OK, so what’s The Final Symphony about? MK: The film follows myself and Gabby Degagne as we traverse New Zealand’s South Island using a combination of trail running, ski mountaineering, packrafting and biking. On the way, the impacts of climate change are extremely apparent; we ski over the Main Divide via a classic route called Symphony on Skis, and there’s not as much snow or ice for skiing as there was even just a few years ago. We’re connecting the changes we’re seeing in the mountains to changes we’re seeing downstream to demonstrate how climate change impacts all of NZ. WILD: What spurred you to make the film? MK: POW in NZ hosts a lot of movie nights; they’re a great way to connect the community. We tend to…

What wonderful air! Once you’ve discovered the Upper Engadin, you will want to return to this idyllic place again and again. Hotel Nira Alpina is located at the highest point in the picturesque village of Surlej. It glitters in the sunshine. The special location right by the ski slope makes the hotel the ideal base for snow sports enthusiasts. Outside there are plenty of sporty adventures to be enjoyed and inside guests can expect pure comfort – including a whirlpool with a direct view of the wonderful mountain panorama. Comfort and reliability Conviviality plays a key role here. A sporting adventure: the insider tip for guests at the Nira Alpina is the Hahnensee run to St. Moritz. Snow Sports Hotels SNOW SPORTS HOTELS MySwitzerland.com/snowsportshotels These accommodation options are ideal for…

“I’m too busy!” We hear others say it all the time, don’t we? We say it too. Hell, I believe it. Being busy is the modern way of life. At what point is one deemed to be busy, though? According to Dr Google, busyness is defined as the “state or condition of having a lot to do.” A lot to do, eh? Like trying to manage studying, working, cleaning, cooking, looking after the kids, cleaning, commuting, renovating the house, cleaning, washing the clothes, trying to dry the clothes, exercising, cleaning, gardening, socialising, scraping the mould off the lounge—wait, maybe that’s just me—then cleaning some more? While busyness looks different for different people, the bottom line is there’s always something to be done. But, why? Why is adult life characterised by…

We get it; we know ads aren’t the primary reason you read Wild. But without our supporters, Wild simply wouldn’t exist*. If you love what we’re on about here at Wild, if you’re passionate about both adventure and protecting our natural heritage, if having a magazine that’s full of well-written, crafted stories means something to you, a magazine that fights hard for our environment, then support our supporters; without them, Wild wouldn’t exist. We know that our advertising supporters aren’t, of course, your only options when it comes to choosing what gear you purchase. But if you’re in a situation where you have a few cool options to choose from, and one of them happens to be from one of our advertisers, then show them their support means something by…

Heading out with Steve Leeder, you’re guaranteed to be looking up, then looking up a little more. I’ll point out features which would frame up well in an image, then he’ll mention that cliff above it with next-to-no take off and seemingly no landing. “Sure man, if you want to fly off that, I’ll get the shot!” We had some overcast weather on this particular day, and decided to stick to the lower valley. Steve picked out this monster boulder he thought had a nice in-run. The first attempt proved it was going to play hard to get, with some hidden off-kilter rocks just at the point he had to duck under a low-hanging tree branch. After a few close calls, he managed to dial it in and send it,…

@meganholbeck www.meganholbeck.com A clear-fell site feels like a battle ground: the ground churned up, littered with dead limbs. Without the canopy, there isn’t shelter to protect you from sun or rain. There’s nothing soft, nothing living, just harshness and destruction. I was at the Pieman Blockade in takayna/Tarkine, northwest Tasmania, my first time at both a blockade and a clear-fell. It felt foreign, like visiting the moon. Clambering around the site, part of me marvelled at the neat stacks of logs, at the industrial scale of it all—five hectares cleared in four days. And another part looked at the rainforest beyond the edges, at trees 70m high stretching down to the Pieman River, imagining this bald clearing as part of the intact forest. takayna/Tarkine is Australia’s largest sub-temperate rainforest, assessed…

So you’re planning your first trip into the great unknown to camp in nature and all its beauty. But when you asked your experienced mates for gear recommendations, all they gave you were old, standard clichés: tent, sleeping bag, pillow, and food. Boring! What they didn’t suggest are items you don’t realise you need … until you need them. Here are a few lightweight, cheap and downright useful things to bring along. Let’s start with something I always suggest to mates, whether they’re camping, running, climbing or just day hiking: a LifeStraw. I learnt the hard way about how valuable this super light and easily stored piece of kit is: While running a 100 mile race in the beautiful Glasshouse Mountains, I thought I’d save time by skipping the water…

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Wild is no ordinary magazine. Since its establishment in 1981, Wild has been the inspiring voice of the Australian outdoors. It is a magazine of self-reliance and challenge and sometimes doing it tough. While it is not necessarily hard-core, what it certainly is not is soft-core. It is not glamping. It is not about being pampered while experiencing the outdoors. Wild does not speak down to experienced adventurers. And Wild does not look on conservation as a mere marketing tool. For nearly four decades, Wild has actively and fiercely fought for the environment. Campaigning to protect our wild places is part of our DNA. Show that you care about stories that matter by subscribing to Wild. Better yet, subscribe to Wild yourself and tell your friends and family how great…

MORE SUSTAINABILITY →Tenna A solar powered ski lift A pioneer celebrates a birthday. The Safiental valley in Graubünden is home to the world’s first solar-powered ski lift. The 450-metre-long lift system carries winter sports enthusiasts up the mountain while at the same time generating solar energy. The installation is ten years old this year – happy birthday! →Melchsee-Frutt Making snow without electricity The height of ingenuity. In 2013, the people of Central Switzerland started a pilot test, and now they have 19 “Nessy Zero E” snow lances. The Swiss invention uses just water pressure to produce snow. This pressure is delivered by the lakes high up on the Melchsee-Frutt. →St. Moritz Vision 100 % water recycling A world first in the Engadin. St. Moritz aims to use snow makers on its…

“As a few of the lucky crew to be in the NSW backcountry while Sydney was locked down in August 2021, Tim Clark, Hayden Griffith and Sophie Hewitt were taking in the view of the Western Faces from our eagle’s lair campsite. While that low cloud treated us to an epic sunset that evening, it rose the next morning and kept us tent-bound in a dense white out the entire next day!” OWEN LANSBURY Avalon Beach, NSW Owen wins the minimal yet formidable Osprey SPORTLITE 20 daypack. Its AirScape back-panel and suspension system, plus quick-release compression straps, allow for a stable and dynamic carry that everyone can appreciate. And it’s made with 100% recycled materials. osprey.com SEND US YOUR WILD SHOT TO WIN GREAT GEAR! For a chance to…

He stands head and shoulders over everything else in the valley. And it’s a beautiful valley, too—fern-studded and rainforest-smeared, thick with greenery and looping vines. There’s no official track here, but the canopy is dense enough that its darkness ensures that much of the understorey is open and clear; you can pass through with minimal effort. Not that many do pass through, however. I’ve come here probably—without exaggeration—close to a hundred times, and I’m yet to encounter anyone. Anyone, that is, except Ol’ Man Turps. This ancient turpentine is huge, so much bigger than any other tree here. He is a testimony to what once was, and is the last of the big trees, the really big ones, left in this valley; he has no similarly aged brethren. The rest…

You're bonking man!” said Bob stomping up “You’re behind me. Well, I could have been bonkers for agreeing to guide him and his fanatically fit skiing mate from Utah. They’d specified they wanted to do “eight-thousand-foot (2500m) backcountry days” in the deep powder of Japan’s central Hokkaido, but bonking, as I understood it, was the last thing on my mind right then. We’d just climbed out of the steep skin track I’d broken earlier in the day; this was our third time up the daunting slope. Premium conditions had kept us going hard all day as the skiing had been sensational. But then, suddenly, my legs just gave up on me. There was no pain, no signal except no signal. Like the fast wind down of a power tool that…

Tasmania’s Western Arthurs circuit covers 68km along the spine of the Southwest Wilderness, usually walked in six days. And while it’s on the top of many bushwalkers’ dream lists, it is not to be messed with: it’s remote, rugged and committing, with horrendous weather, raining an average of 250 days annually, often with gale-force accompaniments. In 2020, Hanny Allston ran it solo in a day, for fun, for play, because the idea of it “made her toes tingle”. She began and finished (10h:15m later) at Scotts Peak car park rather than the usual Junction Creek trailhead, the only person (she thinks) ever to do so. Despite running an extra 14km, she still holds the fastest known time for the run. She counts it as her finest achievement, but not because…

Hop on a train In Switzerland, public transport will also take you to smaller and more remote places, and, with 9,000 trains a day, you’re sure to find a suitable connection. What’s more, Swiss Federal Railways will carry your winter luggage from station to station, or even from door to door, so that you can enjoy your journey in a relaxed and environmentally friendly way whatever the weather. Protect the winter An NGO called “Protect Our Winters” organises, among other things, ski touring and freeride weekends with climate protection experts. This means you can be guided safely through the mountains and at the same time find out what you can do to ensure that winter experiences in the mountains are still possible in 50 years’ time. Enjoy responsible cuisine The…

HOME TO SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND’S highest peak and its largest rainforest ecosystem, and (along with its twin park in NSW) one of the largest boulder fields in the world, the Scenic Rim area is full to the brim with challenge and beauty. The region is synonymous with outdoor adventure, and while there are ample opportunities for rock climbing at Mount French or swimming in the Upper and Lower Portals, we think the Scenic Rim is best explored on foot, whether it be day hiking, overnight backpacking, or trail running. The diversity of trails in the Scenic Rim is unparalleled. There are peaceful trails through lush rainforest, where every breath is full of life and the air is filled with the constant sounds of lyrebirds, whipbirds, cockatoos, and bellbirds. Once you’ve…

MORE INFO: wavecel.com/science anonoptics.com TECH ANON WAVECEL A new technology promises more protection for your greatest asset: your head. IT’S TAKEN A LONG TIME for the risks of concussion to be taken seriously in the community, and it seems like the various football codes are only now getting in on the act. But skiing and boarding was no different, and helmet wearing has only relatively recently become commonplace. While this is great, one of the problems is that standard foam helmets, while offering far more protection than nothing, are still far from perfect. They mainly provide protection from direct impacts, but as anyone who’s slid on snow knows, most falls happen all over the place, with twists and angled impacts. These can cause rotational acceleration (in laypeople’s terms, rapid spinning)…