The Roof of Australia

August 2014
The Australian Alps

The Australian high country is larger than the Swiss Alps. A massive alpine expanse of rugged and steep mountains, but also the open rolling hills of the high plains. There is little documented of these mountains in winter, and while skiers do ventured there, their stories are not widely known. Our intention was to spend a month in these mountains setting up several camps as bases to explore the fathers reaches of the western faces and spend time in these mountains with the hope to come to understand their significant place in Australia's deep history.

Retracing the steps of some of the early pioneers of these mountains, and traversing the highest peaks of the Australian mainland, we encountered a pristine wilderness with an indescribable power. Large mountains and deep valleys ending in creeks and rivers that provide fresh water and electricity on an enormous scale... And we found some world class skiing and snowboarding.

To explore such a massive expanse of terrain we needed to set ourselves up for a long period in the mountains. The logistics were significant and together with Chris Booth and Teddy Laycock we spent several days hiking in with equipment and supplies to set up a base camp in the Arc of Trees, about 7km from the trail head at Guthega. The next month was spent co-ordinating day trips to explore as far as possible, to as many peaks as possible... in all, a 16km day of hiking was standard. We broke these day trips up with light-weight satellite camps deeper in the mountains allowing us 3-4 days of exploration without having to return to base camp.

We encountered the best and worst of Australia's alpine weather but finished the month having successfully explored more than we had ever hoped and managing to film a large portion of the footage we'd hoped for. Not to mention thousands of images documenting the trip and covering my assignment for Australian Geographic.

Australian Geographic published a feature covering our trip and several articles have followed throughout ski and snowboard magazines in Australia.

AUSTRALIAN GEOGRAPHIC ISSUE #126
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/magazine/archive/volume_126

MOVIE TEASER
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/adventure/2015/04/roof-of-australia,-retracing-our-alpine-past

The Shashin Shimbun - A collection of images from the pristine wilderness for Hokkaido. A joint project between Aaron and his apprentice and long time friend, Yasuyuki Shimanuki.

Check out some of the print and media publications from this expedition.