Just because the rest of the world doesn’t rant and rave about Australia’s backcountry terrain doesn’t mean it’s not open for exploration. In fact, even Freeride World Tour rookie Michaela Davis-Meehan hadn’t taken a deep dive outside of the ropes of her own backyard until New Zealand freeskiers Fraser McDougall and Hank Bilous visited with the specific intent of finding steep lines in Australia.
Led by Australian mountaineer Tim Macartney-Snape, the group, along with freeskier Anna Segal, took to a part of the world where the spirit of backcountry exploration can still be about as pure as you’ll find. The lines are steeper than even they expect, all in a region that doesn’t get a ton of attention and is therefore still new and fresh to most of us. It’s not entirely unexplored. It’s not an untouched frontier. But it’s certainly a place where a few hair-raising firsts can be experienced.
“I didn’t think I was going to scare myself this trip but even just that simple line was enough just to get the heart going,” McDougall says of one run that appears about halfway through The North Face’s Western Faces.
“Australia’s got the goods,” Bilous adds.
Honestly, if it can get the thumbs up from a couple of Kiwis, Australia’s underground backcountry scene might not be so underground for long.
