The 2024 edition of Oscars 100

We'll be back at it again! On the 16th February we'll give Oscars 100 Hut 2 Hut another shot. Apparently there won't be buckles next year but we all know it isn't about that ✌

Now the deal is similar to the last two years: We'll be gunning for a two day finish on Saturday evening and IF we reached our fundraising goal when we do that, we'll run The Bella on Sunday as well. Once the fundraiser is up and running, I'll pop it here and post it on the socials. The only question which remains is how much do you hate us, how much are you willing to spend to make us suffer and can we reach the goal of 3552 dollarbucks?

 

Geeking out on Oscars 100 2-days pacing

This post is about stepping it up and doing Oscars 100 in 2 days. 

As an engineer I comprehend the world around me in numbers and equations. I try to find patterns in things when I want to understand them or explore options. For Ultra Runners this is very familiar terrain: Cut-offs, pacing, vert, distance and gradients 👉 you heard that one before. And these are just the KPIs around a race; when you go into training metrics, there's no limit to the numbers you can crunch. 

Every Run is a Beer Run

Now how do these race KPIs look for Oscars100? Well first of all Hut 2 Hut is a bit different because it basically has four races with the same distance and the same vert on the same course starting at the same time.

WHAT??

The Four Races of Oscars 100

Yes. That's actually true and as a little bonus you can upgrade or downgrade yourself while being in the race although that has an impact on the cut-off time. Here are the four race options which the RDs conveniently colour-coded:

• Solo
  You're doing it in one hit without overnight stops. All one day cut-off times apply. You are insane.
  
  
• 2-Days - Layover at King Hut
  BIG and dicey first day. Easy second day however the success rate of this option isn't very high. If you're contemplating this, suck it up, train harder and go straight for the solo.
  
  
• 2-Days - Layover at Lovicks Hut
  Easy first day and then a bit of a stretch for the second day. This is a serious step-up from three days.
  
  
• 3-Days - Layover at Lovicks & King Hut
  A good and doable hiking adventure. The third day has some challenging cut-offs.

All of these races start at the same time on Friday morning 5:00 am, go for 100km and have about 5700m of elevation in them. That's why you can upgrade or downgrade yourself. In theory a team which signed up for the 3-Days can just finish the whole thing in one day if they make the cut-offs. It also works the other way around where you can do a layover although that creates a bit of a logistical challenge for the vollies if you don't have overnight gear. 

The Cut-Off Times

The fours sets of cut-off times. The cut-offs of day one for the 3-Day event apply to all options:

Before I dive deeper into the cut-off times, I have to clarify that not all cut-offs are equal. In a normal race - e.g. the Surf Coast Century - cut-off times mean if you don't make them, you DNF. It's pretty straight forward. On a side note this year's 1/2 SCC ( =50km) had very generous times because they were starting on the 2nd half of the 100km course in the early morning which meant a leisurely 22 min/km pace on a flat course was sufficient. H2H also has hard cut-off times and those are definitely the ones between the layover locations. 

The next thing you have to understand is that making a cut-off doesn't mean there's a realistic chance you'll finish the race or even make the next cut-off on the Oscars course. Here's an example: Take the 2pm cut-off at Lovicks on the first day. If you just make this, you need to speed up to make subsequent CPs. Another one: The Solo runners (green) and 2-Days - Layover at Lovicks Hut runners (yellow) have 30 min between GGS Hut / Mt Stirling and Howqua Gap Hut. That converts to a 6:15 min/km pace which you won't do 90km into a race. Either you get there well before that time or you'll DNF.

The third thing is that there are soft cut-offs at the layover points. If you don't make your cut-off but other runners have a later cut-off, you can drop down to the other race option without DNFing. Again Lovicks is a good example: Anyone coming in between 2 pm and 7 pm is allowed to continue the next day. 

Bottom-Line 👉 You can't use the cut-off times as guidance for pacing and a race-plan.

Solo Pacing Sheet

Fortunately there are smart people who analyse past races and give you a good idea what you need to do:

Jonathan created this great spreadsheet for solo runners which gives you a clear picture, if your aim is  finishing the solo. Coming back to the dreadful 2pm Lovicks cut-off it means you can forget about finishing in one day when you sail through the CP past 12:20 noon. Andrew Zhang was the only runner this year who came through Lovicks past that time and still finished the solo - his CP time was 12:22. Everyone after that dropped to a 2-day event or DNFed.

If you're in a position where you can contemplate doing the solo, you weren't born yesterday and know how to use the spreadsheet. 

2-Days Pacing Tactics

I already mentioned that there are two options for the 2-Days events: 2-Days - Layover at King Hut and 2-Days - Layover at Lovicks Hut. And as mentioned previously the first option isn't really worth it and judging by the numbers it's also going a bit out of fashion. As one of the race directors puts it:

 

"Don't aim for King on day one as you have to be up to one-day pace in order to make cut offs" 

I think the King Hut Layover is more of a fall-back position for solo runners so they don't have to DNF. 

Finishing Stats on the Original Course

So here we go! You've done the Archies in a good time or the 3-days Oscars or another Ultra or whatever and now you're eye-balling the Oscars 100 in two days. You're in the right place and this is what you're facing: 

• Day One - Start to Lovicks - 37 km - 2300m vert
  
• Day Two - Lovicks to Finish - 63 km - 3400m vert

Day One doesn't really need much explanation because you've either done it or you should be perfectly capable of figuring this one out. Don't go too fast but also don't go too slow because too much time on the trail is also exhausting. It's not rocket surgery 🚀

Day Two is the important day ... 🥁 ... Surprise! Let's go through it in order. The first 13 km to Gantner Hut are super enjoyable especially since you should be fairly fresh. Don't mind the cut-off times because they are there for what I suspect logistical reasons. Realistically you should leave Gantner before 8 am. I suspect the generous cut-off at 11 am only exists so it's unlikely runners need to be carted out of Gantner and can simply be picked up from the Mount Speculation carpark. Accessing Gantner Hut from Mt Buller is fun ... but a VERY long 4WD trip. 

The next cab off the rank is the decision point at King Hut. Should you stay or should you go? If you're leaving the CP at 6 pm on the dot, you have 1:30 h to get to Craigs Hut. When I did this uphill slog during the three days event in 2019, I scooped it up on well rested legs in 1:26 h and I was the first through the checkpoint on that morning. You are not going to make the same time that late in the day. Therefore: 

Leave King Hut at 4 pm at the latest 

This puts you in a far better position to make it. Anything after 4 pm, I'd downgrade myself to three days and grab the buckle the next morning. Don't fall into the trap of using your 3-days times from King Hut to the Finish as the time for your 2-days race plan. Back in 2019 it took me 5:12h (on fresh legs, remember?) and this year it was 7:03h (on not so fresh legs).

How fast Do I need to be?

That's the million dollar question. Are you fit enough to make it and what is a realistic finishing time? The classic way to answer that is to stalk some runners who finished and find their finishing times of other races you've done as well. Here's the link to the Oscars 100 2022 Race Results. Positions 46 to including 83 did the 2-Days Lovicks and obviously finished. The Tomato Timing website allows you to search all results by name. 

The pitfall is that there is always a story to a race. Looking at one runner is barely enough. For example if you punch in my name, you'll find this list (I added the finishing times here):

What does this tell you? The Sharpy times seem to be consistent so if you've done that in 2:30ish, you might be fine. The Hut2Hut Saturday in 2021 was basically the Archies however there's a huge difference  to the Friday. And the seven hours for the 1/2 SCC look doable.

Now here are the stories: Sharpy runs are good - there's no fluke. I ran the Hut2Hut Friday with a mate and we took our time. Saturday I went solo and could go way faster on not so tired legs.  When I did the 1/2 SCC I just came out from a big slump and got way fitter after that. That could give you a false sense of security

• Sharpy times, you got a good indication however it is a short race.
• Hut2Hut Saturday time you might think this is too fast for you although you could do it.
• SCC 50km time you could be overly confident and run into trouble.

We need more DATA!

That's not a problem. Not at all. I took the finishers from 2019 and 2022 who did the 2 Day Lovicks and cross-checked their times with various other races and then you get this table:

I marked four suspected outliers. These could be an injury or simply a case of the guys couldn't be bothered that day. Who knows ... Anyway. Once you take them out it becomes a clear picture. 

Your Archie time needs to be sub 12h - better sub 11h

and/or 

your SCC100 time shouldn't be much more than 15h. 

There you have it. That was a lengthy explanation but it shows you that this works for pretty much every race. It's a great way to give you the confidence to finish in your target time once you got a couple of races under your belt you can use to compare. It also helps keeping your records straight so you can put your finishing times in context. Was I coming out of recovery or was it a prime condition race for you?

👉 You'll find all the tables and graphs in this spreadsheet

👉 If you found this helpful, donations for our fundraiser are still open 

Always remember: Every Run is a Beer Run 

Cheers 🍻 

Philipp

Breakfast Beer at Speculation CP

P.S.: The Old Report

Back in 2019 I wrote a "race report" which is still surprisingly accurate. Remember I wasn't a runner back then. This was aimed at those who wanted to do their first Oscars and I covered a couple of topics. However let me add some remarks here:

• Course
  That's still accurate ... unless bushfires or a pandemic divert you onto another course. In 2020 the bushfires dropped everyone on the Archies loop for two times and lightning strike created a messy pile of poles. The Rona hit in 2021 and once again it was the Archies two times although this time there was no overnight camping in the valley. Fortunately 2022 didn't plague us with locusts or a flood and we were back on the original course.
  
  
• Training
  Consistency beats Motivation. 
  
  
  
• Gear
  I wrote you can have your dry pack weight at sub 6kg. Looking back that should be your absolute maximum. If you throw some money and smarts at it, you can easily push that down to about 3kg. 
  
  
• Tactics
  Yep. Also still valid although I'd emphasise the point of utilising your GPS watch as well as a race plan as per above.
  
  
• Support Crew
  Forget the part about UHF. We had Garmin inReach devices which are almost a must if you have a support crew. 

The 2022 edition of Oscars 100

 It has been a while ... That's what a pandemic does. However somehow we managed to sneak in Oscars 100 without missing a beat every year. Why should this one be any different?

Bogan Hipsters 4 Oscars 100 Fundraising Page

Next month Jon & Philipp will try the whole thing in two days on the original course. Let's see how that pans out. Of course we'll be grateful for every coin you toss our way because it'll all go to a good cause. 

Winter Is Here ... and C19

It has been a while since the last post ... I got busy and then the whole SARS-CoV-2 shits-how started. You know all about it. 

Let's start on a good note: We got a beautiful new team member. Little Winter joined the crew in late May and although adventuring is a bit limited, we're still getting enough fresh air to be prepared for the trips ahead. Her older brother is pretty stoked to show her the ropes. 

Now going from Winter (Baby) to Winter (Season), I've restarted the Natural Snow Depth Tracker. Spoiler: So far there's just a bit of dusting and Falls Creek & Hotham have postponed their season opening until the 6.7.2020. In short we haven't missed anything. 

Obviously it's way too early to write this season off and hopefully it will be good enough for some backcountry fun. In doubt ask the Grasshopper because he has the latest intel on the fluffy white.

Victorian Winter Trips

Obviously the virus slashed most trips until now and the spike in community transmission doesn't spark confidence in organised trips going ahead. Currently the numbers are limited to 10 people as they're classified as outdoor gatherings. The Mountain Sports Collective has a series of events in the line-up. The upcoming Uni trips (MUMC & ROC) have a questing mark hanging over them. Carpooling isn't happening and nobody knows whether the trips go ahead at all. Alpine SAR Victoria has announced they're doing their main training event if restrictions allow it. The Alpine Club Melbourne has only two trips lined up but given the circumstances that's not too shabby.

Here we go:

• ROC Intro to splitboarding - Mt Stirling Fri 24 - Sun 26 Jul  
• MSC Slay Safe - Falls Creek 30th / 31st July
• aSAR Alpine Rescue Training - Mt Baw Baw Fri 14 Aug - Sun 16 Aug
• AVM Winter Camp - Feathertop Sat 15 Aug - Sun 16 Aug
• MSC Slay Safe - Mount Hotham 27th / 28th August
• ROC Christmas just in July - Edmonson's Hut, Falls Creek Fri 31 Jul - Sun 2 Aug
• MUMC Midnight Ascent - Feathertop Fri 28 Aug - Sun 30 Aug
• AVM Stirling Snow Camp - Mt Stirling Sat 29 Aug - Sun 30 Aug
• Backcountry Festival - Mount Hotham  Fri 4 Sep - Sun 6 Sep
• MSC Slay Safe - Main Range 24th / 25th September

Let's keep the fingers crossed 🤞 that the covidiots don't ruin it for us. I won't bother telling you how the access to the resorts works since that might change tomorrow and you're better of checking the right website from the start. Just keep in mind simply rocking up isn't an option this year.

Crowded Backcountry?

Mont Equipment Facebook Ad

With the immanent opening of the resorts and the limitations at the same time, it's not a surprise that the chatter in backcountry forums has picked up. Of course this includes the usual suspects getting stoked but there are also more than usual noobie questions - which isn't bad at all, better ask than being dead. On top of that are so many gear requests that I wasn't the only one wondering if this is above the usual.

If people use SARS-CoV-2 as an opportunity to finally make a move on their backcountry aspirations, it should not come as a surprise. I think this is a good thing since more backcountry lovers means a bigger voice for access and better availability of gear because there's money in it. In that spirit we should reach out a helping virtual hand and be nice to each other. However this also might come with a couple of challenges. 

First of all the meat-works outbreaks around the globe should have taught us that cold & wet indoor spaces are to be avoided. Yes - don't use the huts. I know this is hard for some but it's far better than killing Nanna. Some huts will have a sign limiting the amount of people who can be in there e.g. Bluff Spur Hut is limited to 4 people however the reasonable thing would be not to go in there at all. Also check out the box about Cleve Cole Hut below.

The second thing is that enthusiasm and interest are no substitute for knowledge and experience. The backcountry is littered with hazards, like rocks under the shallow surface, avalanches, hypothermia, carbon-monoxide poisoning, camp fire burns, icy slip'n slides or exposure. Only time will tell whether this is a good combination with beginners heading for the hills. Anecdotally SES Bright, BSAR and Police SAR Victoria expect some call-outs. 

That said if you're one of those beginners, check out events like the Alpine Club's Winter Camp or the MSC Slay/Safe program. They are really good and free for members.

Personally I don't expect this year to be a rescue disaster. Most rescues don't result in a major call-out anyway - as we've seen it on the Razorback last year. 

Slay Safe ⛄

Cheers Philipp

COVID-19 Parks Victoria have asked the Mount Bogong Club  to ensure that the rules put in place by the Chief  Health Officer are respected at the Cleve Cole Hut.  This means a maximum of eight people inside the hut 1.5 metre social distancing is maintained no cooking or sleeping in the hut  fill out the visitors’ book for contact tracing purposes. supply and use your own hand and surface sanitisers. Sanitise all surfaces after use - this includes toilet door handles. IF THESE REQUIREMENTS ARE NOT MET  THE CLEVE COLE MEMORIAL HUT MAY  BE CLOSED BY PARKS VICTORIA.

We are better than this

Let's start this post on a positive note :) The headline isn't a question or a call for action. It is a simple statement because a handful of climbers created the Gariwerd Wimmera Reconciliation Network to form positive and enduring relationships with Traditional Owners of Gariwerd and Djurite. Among those climbers are Claire Evans, Mark Gould, Daniel Earl, Adam Demmert and Kieran Loughran who are all without a doubt great ambassadors for this initiative and the climbing community in general. 

The formation of the GWRN has already sparked positive reactions both from climbers and the Traditional Owner which hopefully is a good foundation for future relationships. You will find more about the GWRN on their facebook page so head over there, give them a like and be part of this journey of reconciliation. 

"Where there is light, there must be shadow."

Unfortunately not everything is nice and rosy this week in the news of climbing access. Let me get straight to the point: Last week the ACAV's president Mike Tomkins announced that he'll disregard the current climbing bans and therefore the Traditional Owner's wishes and go climbing in Special Protection Areas. On Sunday he decided to rub it into the face of Traditional Owners that he has done that^[1].

The ACAV president is struggling with this

Personally I'll file that type of behaviour under intentional stupidity but if you want to use different words, be my guest. In any case it is important that we as a climbing community speak up if someone is doing the wrong thing and this is what I'm doing here. After all there are these two posters of CliffCare's Access Is No Accident campaign. However the topic just doesn't stop there.

Access Is No Accident

The VCC should not affiliate with the ACAV

In the upcoming adjourned part two of the VCC AGM the members will be asked whether they should affiliate with the ACAV. There are four options for affiliation so let me quickly run you through them and explain what they mean:

1. No affiliation
   Both clubs stay separate and there is no formal affiliation. If they want to collaborate in certain areas, they can still do that.
2. Supporting partner
   Open reciprocated support between the clubs but no flow of money.
3. Affiliate club membership
   VCC pays $500 and members can buy a $10 discounted ACAV membership. VCC gets a vote at the ACAV's AGM (Yay! As if you couldn't buy that for $15 as well)
4. Automatic dual membership
   VCC pays $10 for every new or renewing membership. Currently that'd be ~$5000 per year.

First of all option d might be a bit of an administrative nightmare because I wouldn't know how you handle the memberships of people who are already signed up with ACAV but that's not my problem. Now the real question isn't how to make this work but

"What's in it for the VCC?"

And this is where the whole thing falls down. The sales-pitch is that the VCC gets a certain amount of influence but the reality is that the players in the ACAV are doing whatever they want - see above. The ACAV obviously is happy to pocket the money and any legitimisation which comes with an old standing club like the VCC. I can't see how this could be beneficial for the Victorian Climbing Club. In fact I believe there are a two big disadvantages which outweigh any perceived benefit:

• Financial Loss
  The money would just be gone and couldn't be used for CliffCare, Social Events or the Bouldering Walls. Would it be in good hands? I doubt it given the ACAV has been found in breach of gambling regulations by the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) because they couldn't even set-up a simple club-raffle the right way^[2]. How on earth should they be able to handle real litigation as they plan to do?
• Damaged Relations
  So far the positive engagement of the ACAV and their committee members with the Traditional Owners has gone up like a lead balloon. Given that no climbing ban will be lifted against the will of the Traditional Owners, it would be foolish to affiliate with such an organisation. This would simply remove the VCC's option to have meaningful and respectful conversations in the future. And yes - there's already a potential backlash for the atrocious behaviour of the ACAV's president. 

Nope. I think this is a terrible idea and therefore as a VCC member you should vote No affiliation on question 6. Now to make this easy for you here's the proxy form you can use for that. If you don't have a proxy who's voting no, check with any committee member if they'll be there and proxy vote for you.

1. Download this Proxy Vote Form
2. Open it and fill it out with 
1. Your details
2. Your proxy's details
3. Your vote
4. Today's date
3. Sign the form (You can sign the form without printing and scanning it within the Adobe Acrobat Software. You can also use this website: https://smallpdf.com/sign-pdf) 
4. Email it to the VCC Secretary secretary@vicclimb.org.au and CC your proxy

Personally I'd like to return to all those great crags in Gariwerd and know that this has been achieved by following a path of honesty, genuine listening and true reconciliation. I trust that the Gariwerd Wimmera Reconciliation Network has taken the first steps on that very path and I will support them along the way. 

Thanks Claire, Mark, Earl, Adam, Kieran and whoever else is with you! 

Cheers 🍻

Philipp

[1] I decided to not link to the post or upload screenshots of this infuriating behaviour but if you want to see them, feel free to drop me a line.

[2] CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post I stated that the ACAV is facing enforcement actions by the VCGLR. The ACAV's secretary has clarified that this is not the case and the matter has since been resolved.

Alpine Club Melbourne

YAASSS! 💓🏔

We're stoked to announce that the Alpenverein Melbourne / Alpine Club Melbourne is a thing now! Last year we started this adventure and this month we put the final pieces together. The club is registered, has an ABN and is officially part of the Austrian Alpine Club and therefore also the wider Club Arc Alpine and UIAA family. 

We've come a long way and it's always good to remember why we started this in the first place. Most of us are one way or the other a member of the Austrian Alpine Club since it comes with the awesome Alpenverein Worldwide Service (insurance for SAR, limited medical and unlimited repatriation).

"We're already paying anyway with no local benefits so let's make it an Australian thing."

Top of Ama Dablam with
Cho Oyu in the back

That was the initial idea and soon we realised there isn't a real Alpine Club either - something which needed to be changed :)

• Having a true Melbournian Alpine Club encompassing all mountain activities
• Providing a great insurance under the umbrella of the Austrian Alpine Club
• Bringing adventurers together with local trips and events

The Alpenverein Melbourne is an all-ages, all-inclusive club which does a baby-hike in Plenty Gorge as well as expeditions to high altitude peaks. Now while you can do the baby-hike on short notice, you can't do the same for major peaks in the Himalayas, Alaska or the Andes. The club is committed to provide a pathway for mountaineers to grow and achieve their long-term goal.

Diving into the mountaineering world can be a bit daunting and especially since Australia is lacking the big mountains and glaciers although we do have some great training grounds. There's plenty of knowledge across the member so joining the club gives you an opportunity to tap into that.

Cheers
Anna, Emil & Philipp


Find out more at

www.alpenverein.melbourne

---

Glossary

AVM - Alpenverein Melbourne - Alpine Club Melbourne

AAC (UK) - Austrian Alpine Club (UK)

AVS - Alpenverein Südtirol - South Tyrolean Alpine Club

CAA - Club Arc Alpine

DAV - Deutscher Alpenverein - German Alpine Club

FFCAM - Fédération française des clubs alpins et de montagne - French Federation of Alpine and Mountain Clubs

OeAV - Österreichischer Alpenverein - Austrian Alpine Club

SAC - Swiss Alpine Club

FAQs

Here are the updated FAQs about the Alpenverein Melbourne (AVM) from the previous blog-post. Please drop the club a line if you can't find the answer you're looking for: adventures@alpenverein.melbourne

• Does the insurance cover trips here in Australia? 
  Yes. Absolutely. It's actually worldwide. You'll find more general information here. There's also a specific article which looks at insurances from an Australian point of view.
• Is the insurance any different to the one of other sections of the Austrian Alpine Club (OeAV)?
  No - all sections and groups of the OeAV have the very same insurance. Insurance-wise it doesn't matter if you're a member of the AAC (UK), the Section Vienna or the Alpenverein Melbourne. 
• Does the insurance include other leisure activities?
  Yes. All leisure activities in general are included. However there are some exclusions like paragliding, high altitude mountaineering (above 6000m) or arctic expeditions. 
• Does the insurance cover backcountry, side country, off-piste, ski-touring or other out-of bonds adventures?
  Yes. All of them.
• Why wasn't the AVM initiated as part of the German (DAV), French (FFCAM) or South Tyrolean (AVS) Alpine Club or any other alpine club?  
• Simple: The Insurance of the Austrian Alpine Club (OeAV) is better for Australian based activities
• Why is it Melbourne and not the Australian Alpine Club? 
  The Australian Alpine Club already exists but has a strong focus on snow sports. Mountaineering and Alpine Adventures aren't something the AAC does. On the other hand the names Alpine Club Melbourne or Alpenverein Melbourne have not been used prior to the AVM.
• How does the AVM fit into the Victorian Club Landscape?
  The club has the mandate to establish and maintain relationships with similar or the same goals. While building our membership base we're also facilitation cross-club events and create new partnerships. 
• Can I join without becoming an OeAV member?
  No. The Alpenverein Melbourne is a local group of the Alpenverein Österreich - Sektion Innsbruck. If you join the AVM you're joining the OeAV.
• Can I join if I'm already member of another OeAV section?
  Unfortunately not. You'll need to switch to the Section Innsbruck in order to become a member of the AVM.
• Is the Alpenverein Melbourne incorporated in Australia?Yes - we are registered with Consumer Affairs Victoria. The registration number is A0107950D. The ABN is 93 853 885 730
• How is the Alpenverein Melbourne be structured?
  It's not much different from any other club you know. There are club rules, a committee and there are club events.
• What is the structure within the OeAV?
  The OeAV is made out of 197 independent member-clubs - so-called sections. One of them is the Section Innsbruck. The AVM is a local group within Section Innsbruck. See the diagram below.
• Why Innsbruck - why not any other section?
  This is the biggest section within the OeAV and we thought it might be hard getting this off the ground with smaller sections. We got and we still get a lot of support from Innsbruck so we think we made the right choice.
• Why do we use the German "Alpenverein" instead of "Alpine Club"?
  We're simply sticking with the Corporate Design Manual of the club. Even the pommies with their British Section couldn't escape that. Besides we do have some German native speakers as members.
• What do we do about the language barrier when we need to communicate with Austria?
  The current AVM Secretary is a German and the English of the guys in Austria is also pretty good.
• How much does the Membership cost?
  The prices for 2020 are:
  Individual € 78
  Family € 132*
  Senior € 64
  *Children are free if all parents (single or couple) are members of the same sections and the children are insured too. 
• For which time-frame do I sign up?
  In general you're singing up for the calendar year however there's a spring special every year. If you join after the 1st September, you'll get the remaining year for free and just pay for next year.
• Are there any local club trips?
  Absolutely. They are listed on the club's website.
• Where can I sign up?Right here - Registration Form - click on the link and on the upper right is the Union Jack to change the form to English.

Simplified Structure of the OeAV

Suspended (Voting) Tensions

The Vertical Life Mag (VL) has published a spot-on account of the things which happened at the recent Victorian Climbing Club (VCC) AGM. However the AGM isn't over yet and has only been adjourned but we'll get to that later. VL opens their article with this statement:

Did the Australian Climbing Association Victoria (ACAV) succeed in taking control of the Victorian Climbing Club (VCC) at last night’s AGM? 

Yes, and no.

Yes because if you look up the term "branch stacking" that was a textbook example of what happened and No because if you see this as an armed assault, that obviously didn't happen. Yes because ACAV affiliated members took the majority of the committee and No because half of the officers don't have an ACAV affiliation. 

Packed to the rafters - 2019 AGM Part I

As VL pointed out, there were over 100 members in the room & online, therefore you can't say a minority wrestled their way in ... or can you?  It's a substantial amount of members who wanted the committee to be replaced - there's no doubt about that. However also a substantial amount of members (over 30) only signed up with the club in September - one of them is now on the committee. The bottom-line is that everything happened within the rules - whether you like it or not - and the result needs to be accepted.
Now let's have a look at the committee and other functions. The new committee looks like this:

2019 changes of the VCC committee

Although some of the members tagged as "ACAV" have resigned from that club, they are still in some way affiliated. E.g. James McIntosh was on the how-to-vote-card which was handed out that night although he isn't an ACAV member anymore. The non-committee function are simply appointments by the committee and can also be done by committee members themselves.

How-to-vote-card

The club is now in what I'd describe a post Brexit referendum situation. You voted on the future of the organisation however it wasn't a landslide win. In fact it was really close which means almost half of the membership base didn't vote for the current president and other members of the committee.

It's now in the hands of the new committee to demonstrate via actions that they can unite the membership base, gain the trust of those who didn't vote for them, keep the social part of the club alive and make progress regarding climbing access. Personally I hope I'm wrong regarding the intentions of the new committee members but only time will tell.

What's Next?

The AGM has only been adjourned since it got late. There are two more resolutions to decide on: "Should the club affiliate with the ACAV?" and "Should we raise the membership fees?". The first one is the interesting one. There are four options:

• No affiliation
• Supporting partner
• Affiliate club membership
  (VCC pays $500, reduced ACAV memberships available)
• Automatic dual membership
  (VCC pays $10 for every new VCC member signing up/renewing)

The option with the most votes gets across the line however Kevin Lindorff already said, he'll call a Special General Meeting (SGM) if the votes of the last three options combined make up more than 50%. The date of Part 2 of the AGM will most likely be announced in the upcoming Argus together with a new proxy-vote form for the two remaining resolutions. Given the results so far I'm expecting some sort of affiliation - with or without an SGM. 

Cheers 🍻

Philipp

Hostile Takeover and the silencing of a moderate Voice

It's AGM time for the Victorian Climbing Club (VCC) and in the previous decades this was a very dry state of affairs. Well this time it will be different. If you missed the previous post about the climbing club landscape, now would be a good time to catch up. On the 24.9.2019 the VCC will form their new committee and this one will be a show - unfortunately not in a good way.

Is the climbing governance going to derail?

Last week Kevin Lindorff and Matt Brookes announced that they're throwing their hat in the ring for the positions of the president and the vice president. Both have been long time VCC members and Kevin has been president before so that's nothing unusual.

Or is it? Both haven't done any club work in the past year, haven't led any trips and also never attended a committee meeting. Leaving the current access issues aside, I quizzed both about their vision and ideas for the future of the club: 

[sound of crickets 🦗🦗🦗]

Yep. I got nothing. They simply ignored the question. Coincidentally there was a sudden surge of membership applications as well as a rather tabloid-style campaign to allow proxy voting for the committee positions although proxy voting for committee positions is against the club rules.

Kevin and Matt are current committee members of the Australian Climbing Association Victoria (ACAV) and this is where things are getting quite obvious. One plus one is still two in my books. Let's be real:

This is an attempt by the ACAV to take control of the VCC 

Given a lot of climbers on the side-line don't know much about the specifics of the ACAV, it's worth highlighting its track record:

• They founded an organisation that declared itself a pre-eminent governing body with no consultation - creating a climbing community governance crisis in addition to the access crisis.
• They had no issue aligning with a fringe political party - the Liberal Democrats - which openly opposes Aboriginal Traditional Law and doesn't have exactly a good track record when it comes to champion Aboriginal Rights. This creates a publicity risk without any real benefit. 
• They are putting the climbing community's credibility at risk by saying one thing at the round-table and doing the opposite. 
• They are taking legal action on behalf of the climbing community without any community consultation. This has already alienated some Traditional Owners because the conclusion  "the ACAV thinks climbing is more important than Aboriginal Heritage" is not far fetched and that puts the building of relationship at risk.
• They created a social media echo chamber where many members of the climbing community feel uncomfortable to speak critically about the ACAV. I'm not even in that group and get personally attacked on a regular basis for asking critical questions with the usual framing "I'm going against the climbing community if you don't support the ACAV."
• They created a media campaign which only resulted in an unnecessary shit-fight and left the climbing community with a damaged reputation. 
• They are constantly trying to discredit the work of various clubs to unify the Victorian climbing community into what is currently known as the Climbing Federation. 

As mentioned in the earlier blog post, the ACAV is trying to take the seat on the Stakeholder Reference Group (SRG) from the VCC in order to presumably achieve recognition by an external organisation. This is an official position of the ACAV and given Kevin and Matt are committee members, this is a massive conflict of interest. Now you can already guess what the answer was when I asked them about this one ... exactly, 🦗🦗🦗

The VCC is more than just rock climbing @Winter Camp 2019

Furthermore, the ACAV is working on a Climbing Management Plan but refuses to share these drafts with any other club and the wider climbing community for feedback or simply create a cross-club group which collaboratively works on this. Kevin said he'll brief the VCC if he gets elected but then didn't respond when he got asked what happens if he doesn't get elected and why hasn't this been shared already. 

The picture is very clear: The ACAV wants to control the well accepted VCC and its assets. Kevin and Matt try to look moderate so they can be perceived as normal and moderate VCC members however their unwillingness to answer quite crucial questions is very unmasking. They and the ACAV have no interest in keeping the social life and actual climbing club component of the VCC alive. This is purely a power-grab and get the VCC in line with the aggressive ACAV approach. 

If VCC members want that ACAV track record reflected in their leadership that would be sad because it would remove the VCC's more moderate approach of collaboration with Traditional Owners and land managers:

• The VCC wants to win back long-term access by working with all the stakeholders to address the real issues and building trust - not through arguing about legal processes and suing.
• The VCC is taking hold of an opportunity to be leaders in working with Traditional Owners to find a way to manage access together creating a model for other outdoor recreational activities across the country.
• Together with the other clubs of the Climbing Federation the VCC addresses the issues around how we, as the climbing community, make collective decisions by playing a leading role in setting up new governance bodies and adopting best practices governance principles.

Now if you want 

• to keep that moderate voice which respects Traditional Owners in the current access crisis,
• don't want the club's funds eroded over fruitless legal actions 
• and if you want to be part of an association with an active club life, 

you should 

• attend the AGM in person - 24.9. 7pm @ The Retreat Hotel Abbotsford, 
• vote "no affiliation" for resolution 6 - at least via proxy if you can't make it
• quiz the ACAV candidates with critical questions, 
• vote for the moderate officers - like Paula Toal, Dave Scarlett, Michelle Tusch, Cam Abraham, Steve Toal or Ben Wright
• and put your hand up as an ordinary committee member. 

If you don't, don't be surprised if the club will dramatically change and not necessarily in a good way.

Cheers 🍻
Philipp 

A New Dawn - Climbing Clubs in Victoria

I'm not talking about a Star Wars novel but - you guessed it - climbing! There has been an awful lot of noise around the access issues at Gariwerd (aka the Grampians), clubs and climbing associations. Right. Get a cup of tea and strap in.

Let's face it: Currently the climbing community is divided over this issue. On the one hand you have the climbing clubs and on the other hand you have the ACAV.

For the normal climber this might be a bit confusing so I'll take a closer look and show you in which organisational direction this might lead the climbing community of Victoria. Without a doubt the current situation will not only change how we approach future access issues but also the organisational structure of climbing clubs in general.

• Why is this happening?
• Who are the involved parties?
• Where is this going?
• What's happening next?

VCC Self-Rescue Course

Now before we start you need to understand that Mountaineering Melbourne is a private blog about alpine sports in Victoria. It's run by Anna and me. We're both involved, affiliated with and members of various clubs and businesses. The two most prolific ones are the Victorian Climbing Club (Anna is a long-time trip leader, I'm the VP) and the Alpenverein Melbourne (we're both founding members). We also have good relationships with committee members of other clubs like the MUMC, Sport Climbing Victoria, Outdoors Victoria, Mountain Sports Collective, LUMC and Climbing QTs. This post is obviously not impartial and it also doesn't necessarily reflect the positions of the clubs mentioned above. 

Righty-o. Let's dive into it.

Why is this happening?

You can read up on the history of climbing access in Gariwerd from 1999 up until November 2018 in this Vertical Life article. Shortly after that in February 2019 Parks Victoria dropped the bombshell and announced that they're closing climbing at eight "focus sites" and they made various misleading statement about Special Protection Areas (SPAs) in the following weeks. By now we know climbing in SPAs isn't allowed either and they cover a lot of active climbing sites. The only exception is that Licensed Tour Operators (LTOs) are allowed to climb in parts of Summer Day Valley under a licensing scheme. 

Let's rewind a little bit - back to 2003 to be precise: That's when the current Management Plan for Gariwerd came into effect and that was pretty much badly crafted. It holds a couple of inconsistencies regarding climbing: 

• "further stabilise access to the base of climbs at Summerday Valley" (6.7) and then states in Table 3 that rock climbing isn't allowed in SPAs. Summerday Valley is and has always been a SPA. Something isn't matching up here.
• Another one is that Table 3 says far less than 1% of the park are SPAs but then Figure 2 - Management Zones shows SPAs already occupied wide areas of the Park. In the meantime a couple of SPAs were added and if you look at the map which Save Grampians Climbing created, you see immediately that this 1% was never true to begin with. 

This means that Parks Victoria had the tools to shut down climbing since 2003 but chose not to do that. On the contrary it encouraged climbing by adding infrastructure and working with the climbing community on access and environmental projects. 

Something obviously changed! 

This is a very crucial piece of information which is missing in the whole conversation. There's a lot of chatter on how these closures were determined and if due process was followed however the actual motivation gives us a much better understanding why this is happening. Which change of legislation could have sparked this? This one comes to mind: The Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 and the Aboriginal Heritage Regulations 2018 which has a legal implication towards Parks Victoria and therefore triggered a review of the park management and that exposed some conflicts: Parks Victoria is liable for Aboriginal Heritage Sites on the land they manage, actions needed to be taken. Climbing sites and Aboriginal Heritage Sites directly on top of each other aren't a great idea and can lead to some serious repercussions for PV by Aboriginal Victoria - we're talking about big fines here.

Gariwerd

What followed was something I'd call a Trauerspiel and a sequence of missed opportunities. It solved the immediate threat of damaged Aboriginal Heritage Sites - which is without a doubt absolutely necessary - and fired up climbing community at the same time. Most likely there would have been a better approach but not everyone within PV understands climbing or even likes climbers. 

Anyway. Water under the bridge - let's move on to the next point ... well some never moved on but I'll get to that.

Who are the involved parties?

I mentioned it before that this isn't simply a case of Parks Victoria and climbers. There are A LOT of parties, groups and stakeholders involved. The 2003 Management Plan lists a bunch of key groups who were consulted so let's start with them. I went through the list and tried to find these groups and put down the new names in case they changed names. 

• Gournditch–Mara, Kirrae Wurrung and Wotjobaluk Nations
• Brambuk Aboriginal Cultural Centre
• Mirimbiak Nations Aboriginal Corporation (now First Nations Legal & Research Services)
• Grampians National Park Advisory Group
• Friends of Grampians–Gariwerd
• Friends of Zumstein
• Department of Natural Resources and Environment (now DELWP)
• Aboriginal Affairs Victoria (now Aboriginal Victoria) 
• Victorian Climbing Club 
• Field Naturalists Club Victoria
• Victorian Apiarists Association
• Anglers Associations (now VR Fish) 
• Tourism Association (now VTIC)
• Country Fire Authority Brigades
• Victoria Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs (now Four Wheel Drive Victoria)
• Federation of Victorian Walking Clubs (now Bushwalking Victoria)
• Victorian National Parks Association
• Tourism Victoria (now Visit Victoria)
• Catchment Management Authorities
• Australian Trail Horse Riders Association 
• Victorian Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association

Yep that's 23 groups however not all of them are related to the climbing bans therefore this list needs a tidy up. A couple of groups need to be chopped and some new organisations get added:

• Traditional Owners:
• Barengi Gadjin Land Council
• Eastern Maar Aboriginal Cooperation
• Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Cooperation, 
• First Nations Legal & Research Services
• Aboriginal Victoria
• Government
• Parks Victoria
• Volunteer Groups:
• Friends of Grampians–Gariwerd
• Grampians National Park Advisory Group
• Tourism and Industry Groups:
• Australian Climbing Instructors Association
• Outdoors Victoria
• Victoria Tourism Industry Council
• Visit Victoria
• Climbing Associations:
• well - this is where things get interesting ...

I made a little graphic to show you how convoluted the whole club landscape actually is. If we would be in Germany, Switzerland or Austria everything in the box "Current Associations" would be one club - the respective Alpine Club of the country.

... but we aren't in Europe and we got a diverse range of clubs and associations ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Uni Clubs

These clubs have obviously a younger but quite extensive membership base and are governed by the universities they belong to. However young doesn't mean without heritage e.g. the MUMC has been around for over 75 years. All of them are Associate Clubs of Bushwalking Victoria (BWV) which provides the members an avenue to become an active Bush Search and Rescue (BSAR) member.

Climbing Clubs

In a broad sense these are the standard climbing and adventure clubs:

• Alpenverein Melbourne - (= Alpine Club Melbourne) fairly new and small. It's a local chapter of the Austrian Alpine Club.
• Climbing QTs - also new but very colourful 💕🌈
• NZAC Australia - Australian chapter of the NZ Alpine Club.
• Sport Climbing Victoria - peak body for competition climbing (Recognised State Sporting Association).
• Victorian Climbing Club - the oldest non-uni club in VIC (since 1952).
• Western Victorian Climbing Club - got their own gym in Ballarat.

Of course, there are also a bunch of facebook and meetup groups however they generally lack a democratic structure and aren't incorporated hence why I took the liberty to cut them out. 

Alpenverein Members on a recent trip on top of Mont Blanc

Special Interest Clubs

The thing these organisations have in common is that they have their little niche purpose. There might be still an overlap with other clubs' purpose and objectives.

• Alpine SAR Victoria (alpineSAR)
  They are an experienced group of backcountry skiers, mountaineers and hikers skilled in search and rescue who. They are an associate club with BWV / BSAR and organise regular SAR trainings for their members.
• Mount Bogong Club (MtBC)
  This is probably the leanest set-up of a club you'll ever find and the dream of every management consultant working in the field of process improvement. They take care of the historic Cleve Cole Hut and the track network around Mt Bogong.
• Mountain Sports Collective (MSC)
  The MSC is an Australian Backcountry User Group. Their mission is backcountry safety and among other things they issue Avalanche Bulletins.

Access and Environmental Groups

Most of you know that I'm not a big fan of stacking access organisations and overlapping fields of work. In the past you had Crag Care in NSW, the ACAQ in QLD and here in Victoria it was always CliffCare. Anyway - these groups purely focus on climbing access and the advocacy activities related to it. 

• Australian Climbing Association Victoria (ACAV)
  A brand new club and a spin-off from the Queensland ACAQ. This basically a climbing access fund which means there is a lot of overlap with activities of the Victorian Climbing Club and this has created a lot of friction within the climbing community.
• CliffCare
  This access and environmental arm of the VCC was set up in 1998. CliffCare takes the lead when it comes to taking care of the environment in which we climb. The main task of Access and Environment Officer employed by CliffCare are:
    1. Education – promoting ‘low impact’ climbing
    2. Advocacy – negotiating with land managers to maintain access and re-open popular cliffs
    3. Protection – organising work parties and raising money to preserve the cliff environment
  In short, it’s about taking responsibility and looking after the places we love and love to climb at.
• Gariwerd Access Working Group (GAWG)
  This group supports the A&E Officer of CliffCare was initiated by the VCC to focus specifically on the closures in Gariwerd. In order to quickly respond the bans, VCC/CliffCare selected volunteer members of the climbing community with critical skills. The team is made up of media specialists, lawyers, cultural heritage experts, long term climbers, guides, technology specialists, education specialists and administrative support. 

Now although ACAV and CliffCare/GAWG aren't organised under one roof, it doesn't mean this can't work. There are three main aspects how you can tackle climbing access:

1. Challenging current legislation and lobby for change of rules and law.
2. Question and challenge decisions made under current legislation - however if you're successful with that, nobody can stop the land-manager to revisit that decision and follow due process the second time around. 
3. Collaboration, community engagement and advocacy. 

All three approaches have their merits and while one entity can focus one or two aspects of the above approaches, the other can tackle the other pathway(s). You just have to talk to each other and make sure this isn't overlapping.

Blogs and Magazines

This is again not a comprehensive list - in fact it's rather short and arbitrary. I'm just adding them so you are aware how they are related to the other organisations.

• Vertical Life
  VL is a nice magazine with good articles and great local information. The two makers Ross and Simon are members of some clubs which isn't surprising since they have been around for a while
• Save the Grampians
  Goshen, Neil and Mike set-up this blog immediately after the bans to purely focus on the ongoing access situation in a tabloid style of writing. Mike is the current ACAV president and Goshen a committee member. Neil isn't an ACAV member^[C].
• Mountain Journal
  This is a great blog about the Australian Alps. Unless you're a backcountry lover you probably never heard about it. The articles very informative and far away from what I'd call tabloid-style. Cam is a founding member of the Mountain Sports Collective.
• Mountaineering Melbourne
  This is the site you're currently on and also the one with the least reach - by far ... but somehow you're reading this ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Where is this going?

The club landscape has already been fragmented before the recent access crisis and since then it didn't get any better. Phil Goebel - President of Sport Climbing Victoria - wrote an open letter explaining why we have to do the exact opposite: We need to unify the climbing community. I think he's right because it gives climbers, mountaineers, alpinists and backcountry lovers a stronger voice.

It also creates a governance structure with beneficial synergy effects and the opportunity for more funding. The Victorian State Government is very supportive of the idea since studies have shown that climbing and affiliated activities - everything instagram-able - are only increasing. It needs to be noted that nobody has reliable numbers on how much rock climbing is growing in Victoria and that includes Parks Victoria. Having a State Recreation Organisation would help manage that in a positive way for climbers. Other outdoor user groups like paddlers, hikers and four-wheel drivers have done that before and in each instance it was quite successful.

Let me walk you through how this unified Climbing Federation could look like*. If you're familiar with the European Alpine Clubs, you'll realise the model is quite similar.

*We made this chart based on slides which have been shared with the founding council of the Climbing Federation. Again: It doesn't reflect an official standpoint of any involved organisations and simply shows how Anna and I think this might pan out.

State Recreation Organisation

What is that? An SRO is basically a recognised organisation active in the sport and recreation sector however does not govern a sport in the way a State Sporting Association (SSA) does. The SSA for climbing is Sport Climbing Victoria. Both SRO and SSA can apply for state funding which is pretty cool. You'll find more information on the SRV website.

Membership

If you're a member of a club who's part of the Climbing Federation, you're a member of the whole thing. However some details still need to be worked out e.g. are you a member of SRO and SSA or are there levels of membership? Also not everyone wants to be part of a club and therefore can be an avenue for individual members be created?

Now over 45000 Victorians are self-identified climbers and most of them aren't members of any club. Also not every club wants to become a member of the Climbing Federation. For some it simply doesn't make sense e.g. NZAC Australia is a country-wide club and affiliating with a state organisation might not be appropriate. Once there is a national body, that idea might be worth revisiting. Or the Mount Bogong Club is interested in a lean set-up and therefore doesn't want to deal with the administrative burden. It's important that the Climbing Federation seeks the feedback and input from those climbers and clubs who aren't members as well.

Governance and Money

Climbing in Summerday Valley

This is a blank canvas. Obviously there will be an AGM and at that occasion the board / committee will be elected. However is every club-member invited to this AGM or do the clubs send delegates? How does the whole thing get financed? Is there a fee per club based on size or per individual? Are there discounts? There are a lot of questions and the job of the founding council is to figure them out.

Competition Climbing

Obviously this would be governed as per usual by the SCV except there could be a natural progression from all clubs into the competition world which would mean a great opportunity for more athletes. 

Name Finding and Branding

You see a lot of names thrown around: Climbing Federation, Mountain Activities Victoria, Victorian Climbing Council and so on. What has been decided is that we need community input to find one but that's not really a worry at the moment. My impression is that those who are working on this idea don't have strong feelings about the branding. For now I'll just stick with Climbing Federation in this post.

Access and Environment

This is where things get interesting.

The ACAV is a new kid on the block and they already got a large membership base. They announced their formation at the Natimuk Goatfest in a manner which can only described as controversial^[1]. The GAWG was holding a town-hall meeting there to answer questions and got a bit under attack for volunteering their time and working on this access situation.

It's not exactly a secret that the ACAV was mainly formed because their founding members thought the VCC / CliffCare / GAWG wasn't aggressive enough towards Parks Victoria. As mentioned above under "Who are the involved parties? > Access and Environmental Groups" this doesn't mean it's impossible to make it work. A good cop / bad cop approach is something reasonable however the cops need to work together and this is where we're falling short. There are ongoing conversations but no joined strategy.

The ACAV is reasonably good at their PR game. Bundled with a cheap membership fee it's unsurprising that they have grown fast. Unfortunately they promise a lot and don't have any issues bending the truth a bit. Let me give you a couple of examples:

• Mike Tomkins (President) claimed the ACAV was at the first pub meeting of the Founding Council on 13.5.2019. They weren't. I know. Mountaineering Melbourne hosted that meeting. 
• The ACAV claimed "When the Founding Council becomes a real entity in 2020, ACAV will become the access arm of this new body.". Well this hasn't been decided yet given the final structure hasn't been agreed upon as more consultation across Victoria is planned, and the ACAV hasn't even signed the Memorandum of Understanding. Their statement is "As an access organisation, our legal constitution is tightly focused. Hence we cannot sign up to an agreement with a proposed governing body without reviewing the proposed constitution of that organisation." Given they got lawyers in their committee it's a bit surprising that they think they can't sign a MoU which in fact is legally non-binding. Therefore the only logical explanation is that they disagree in parts or with the whole content of the MoU. You'll find the MoU here on the VCC page.
• There's the claim that nobody in the other climbing clubs voted in favour of the Founding Council. Well - the committee members of the involved clubs somehow got voted into their role, right? Isn't this how representative democracy works? Also if this thing gets off the ground, I'm pretty sure there will be a members' vote at each AGM to finalise any affiliation ... or not. 
• Mike Tomkins is repeatedly emphasising how transparent the ACAV is however when they decided to complete a heritage submission with Heritage Victoria which aims to register rock climbing as a heritage activity at Djurite (Arapiles), they didn't consult any of the other clubs or their membership base. I leave it to your imagination how Traditional Owners could react to this.
  The ACAV is also preparing a Climbing Management Plan but haven't shared any of the drafts. Transparent is something else. 

These are some examples which have led to an increasingly erosion of trust between the ACAV and other clubs. Now the obvious and underlying question is why is there all this infighting going on?

Currently CliffCare is sitting under the VCC however there's the idea to simply lift it up under the roof of the Climbing Federation. On the surface it would make sense given you don't have to re-invent the wheel since CliffCare is a legal entity and therefore it this would avoid a lot of administrative set-up headaches.

However

That would also mean the new formed climbing peak body - The Climbing Federation - has an access and environment arm and where would that leave the ACAV? And even if the ACAV acquires CliffCare and becomes the A&E arm of the Climbing Federation, there's still a board and a committee above them. This would not be an independent body.

The bottom line is that if the Climbing Federation gets formed, the operation of ACAV will be forced to change. If you've invested all this time in getting the ACAV up and running, you don't want to see it become dependent or even obsolete within a couple of months because something else popped up. In my opinion that's the reason why Mike Tomkins and other ACAV members try to discredit the concept of the Climbing Federation.

Other Topics

Rescue Helicopter over the Razorback 

This is something which falls under the table in the heated debate of rock climbing access. A climbing Federation would also cover things like safety standard, diversity, search & rescue or backcountry access. Yes I understand that a lot of climbers couldn't care less about these things but when you get woken up at 5 am by an rescue chopper hovering 20m above your tent, you realise how ridiculously stupid the notion is that backcountry safety should be put on the bench over some access issue.
Especially when you piece together what happened and realised you weren't far from a potential fatality. I'm with Phil Goebel on this: If we're doing this, let's do it the right way. We need to look at best practice organisations which are the Alpine Clubs and don't make this an one-trick-access-pony.

Future of the Climbing Federation

As you can see the idea and the drafts of the Climbing Federation have merits and a solid foundation. I am confident that it will happen one way or the other and whether some clubs decide not to be part of it, might influence the structure but not the overall outcome. E.g. Alpine SAR Victoria already said they want to be kept in the loop but probably won't affiliate.
The whole set-up around Access & Environment and the connected fields like Education is obviously messy and needs to be resolved.

What's next regarding the
Gariwerd access situation?

Right. I touched on the whole access issues so many times, I might as well give you an update on this as well. There are a couple of things which are happening at the moment. Let's revisit the three access approaches:

1. Challenging current legislation and lobby for change of rules and law.
2. Question and challenge decisions made under current legislation - however if you're successful with that, nobody can stop the land-manager to revisit that decision and follow due process the second time around. 
3. Collaboration, community engagement and advocacy. 

Lobbying for change of legislation

I haven't seen any true action on lobbying for change of legislation so let's move on.

Legally challenge decisions under current legislation

The VCC has an ongoing legal interaction with Parks Victoria. Currently they are in the process of mediating however there is still the option to seek litigation. The case is around the VCC’s request for reasons in relation to the recent climbing bans in Gariwerd. Yes that's not a typo - it's the VCC and not the ACAV.

Collaboration, community engagement and advocacy

There are a couple of ongoing consultations about the Grampians Landscape Management Plan Review It's not that complicated from a climber's perspective:

• First is the Stakeholder Reference Group aka SRG. Every "sector" gets invited by ParksVic and sends a representative. For the climbers one of the oldest clubs - The Victorian Climbing Club - got invited and the VCC gets backed by the clubs who are in the process of founding the Climbing Federation^[2]. The SRG had one meeting so far.
• Second is a climbing round table. Every climbing, backcountry and mountaineering club you can think of got invited to this one. There was one meeting so far and the Alpenverein Melbourne posted a brief article on their website. The next meeting will be at the end of September / beginning of October.
• Third are the community consultations which are open to everyone. They are starting in September and if you're passionate about climbing in Gariwerd, you should attend one of the workshops. You should register for these at engage.vic.gov.au/grampians-management-plan

See :) Pretty simple. Ok, these are the main ones. There are also a lot of direct initiatives of clubs, CliffCare and the GAWG but it'd be too much to get into these here.

Traditional Owners

Congratulations: you made it this far! I know it's a long post. Above you could read as much: "Climbers, climbers, climbers, Parks Vic, climbers, climbers, Parks Vic, climbers, Parks Vic"
The reality is that Parks Victoria probably doesn't have too much of a say about climbing access. The Traditional Owners have. This access situation isn't about a rare flower or a nesting falcon. It's about Aboriginal Heritage. It is really important to form this relationship and there is one important thing to understand:

Your white-people's expectations don't work.

This isn't your country and this isn't your culture. 

German winepress built 1704 ^[3]

We are so used to engaging with other groups, people and organisations in a certain way that we're usually pretty lost when this isn't the right way. You should not try to force the processes you're used to on Traditional Owners. This is doomed to fail. Engaging the right way takes time - time some impatient climbers unfortunately don't seem to have.

I am as German as you can be with a family-tree which would bring right-wing idiots to tears due to envy because it dates back to fifteen-hundred-something. I grew up in the heart of Germany, I learned a lot about my country and my own history, I served and I still feel this strong connection to the land which is encompassed in the German word "Heimat". I believe this feeling is similar to the connection the Traditional Owners have to their country. There are millennia of history. Now if I imagine someone would tell me that German culture isn't that important and has to stand back for something which hasn't been around for even a century, I'd slap them with the collected works of Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Brecht and Grimm. If you'd try to learn about my culture and understand the things which are important to me and my family, that'd be a very different conversation.

I've lived on three continents and what I've taken away from a lot of travelling and being exposed to non-western cultures is that you need to understand your host's culture before you even consider aiming for any achievements. Ideally along this process you'll adjust your goals because you understand; you know this is or isn't right.

This is the journey we as a climbing community have just started. Unfortunately there are some who already struggle with the fact that only other climbers have other value systems and priorities, let alone someone from a completely different background. Should we put the access negotiation in the hands of these struggling climbers or leave it in the hands of well-established organisations like the VCC, CliffCare, Outdoors Victoria, Sport Climbing Victoria and the future Climbing Federation? Whom do you trust more to treat Traditional Owners with respect, not force our white-people's processes upon them and show an honest interest in their history?

Thanks for reading this.

Cheers 🍻
Philipp 

Matt walking into Summerday Valley

[1] ACAV members standing up and demonstratively turning their back towards the stage and the GAWG guys. 

[2] The ACAV is trying to take the seat on the SRG from the VCC in order to presumably achieve recognition by an external organisation. Parks Victoria has already turned this down.  

[3] You'll find it at the Schloss Johannisberg winery which is 900 years old. Riesling and late harvest wine were "invented" at this very winery. This is just one example of a tiny thing in Europe being much older than white Australia. 

[C] CORRECTION 05.09.2019 - In a previous version I've stated that Neil is an ACAV member. He is not.