Sport & Rec Tas are in the process of creating a statewide mountain bike plan:

http://www.development.tas.gov.au/sportrec/current_projects/tasmanian_mountain_bike_plan

The Project
Sport and Recreation Tasmania recently engaged consultants from Inspiring Place to develop a state mountain bike plan for Tasmania. The plan, which is expected to be released in August 2009, will provide a framework for the coordinated development and marketing of mountain bike opportunities in Tasmania.

Context
The Trails Tasmania Strategy was released by the State Government in December 2007. The Trails Tasmania Strategy recognised the strong and growing demand for mountain biking trails and identified a lack of provision to meet current demand, particularly for mountain biking trails and facilities close to where people live. The Trails Tasmania Strategy recommended the development of a state mountain bike plan and presented several strategies directly related to mountain biking.
The State Government committed $4 million in the 2008/09 state budget to support tracks, trails and city bikeways. Sport and Recreation Tasmania has allocated a portion of this funding to the development of this mountain bike plan.

Project Steering Committee
Sport and Recreation Tasmania will act as the lead agency and project manager. A steering committee for the project has been established with the following representatives:
Keith Ryan (Sport and Recreation Tasmania)
Luke Chiu (Sport and Recreation Tasmania)
Chris Colley (Parks and Wildlife Service)
Michael Easton (Wellington Park Management Trust)
Frank Hussey (Tourism Tasmania)
Richard Skinner (Forestry Tasmania).

Opportunities for Input
Land managers, mountain bike riders and other stakeholders will have the opportunity to provide input into the plan through a series of community and land manager forums to be held in June 2009. The community forums are open to mountain bike riders, other stakeholders and the general public. Three community forums, one in each region, will be held at the following dates, times and venues:
North West Community Forum
22 June (Monday)
7:00-9:00 pm
Ulverstone Surf Life Saving Club

Northern Community Forum
23 June (Tuesday)
7:00-9:00 pm
West Tamar Council Chambers, Riverside

Southern Community Forum
24 June (Wednesday)
7:00-9:00 pm
Domain Athletics Centre, Hobart

Interested individuals and organisations will also have the opportunity to comment on the draft strategy, which is expected to be released in August 2009. The draft strategy will be available for download from this website.

Survey

In addition to the community forums, members of the public will have the opportunity to provide input into the plan through an online survey, which can be found below. The survey should only take 5-10 to complete.
Tasmanian Mountain Bike Plan Survey
All those who complete the survey go into the draw to win one of two National Parks Annual All Parks Passes.

Is on June 18 @ The Plenary,Wrest Point Casino

Tickets and details at http://www.paddybanff.com.au/

I found 2 draws on the top of a route in the gorge on Sat 30th May. If you think they are yours, give me a shout.

Richard Halsey
0488088670
rjhalsey AT gmail DOT com

Well thought it was worth a shot, you never know.
I have been in Tasmania about 5 months but would like to stay another 3, based around Launceston at the moment, the catch is I do need to earn a crust at the same time. So if you know of any labouring, hospitality or other casual work on the go, please drop me a line, otherwise I may have to head back to the mainland...

Thanks and have a great day!

Richard Halsey
rjhalsey AT gmail DOT com
04 88 088 670

There is an article in the Merc today:

A man broke several bones after jumping from a cliff at Coles Bay yesterday.

Tasmania Police said the 23-year old tried to jump from a cliff into the water at White Water Wall. The man jumped 18m, hit a rock and fell into the water.

The Police Westpac Rescue Helicopter was called about 4.20pm.

A paramedic and police rescue crew were lowered to the scene and treated the man before winching him into the helicopter.

Police said the after-dark rescue was only possible because of new night-vision goggles. The man is in the Royal Hobart Hospital in a serious condition.

Anyone got any details? Was it a climber?

Trip reports from adventures at Mt Anne and Totem Pole:

http://thealpinist.blogspot.com/2009/05/mt-anne.html

http://thealpinist.blogspot.com/2009/05/playing-with-pole.html

From Michael Easton at the Park Trust:

Hi,
as a person who has dealings with Wellington Park, I thought you might be interested in the development of a sustainable transport system for access to the Mountain.

As a first step, the Trust is calling for ideas from the community as to what transport options/modes might make up a broader system.

Please use the following link to obtain the Invitation for Ideas paper released today by the Trust: http://www.wellingtonpark.tas.gov.au/STS

The Trust will receive written or emailed submissions until 12 June 2009.

Hey Everyone!

Lee Cossey is coming to speak in Hobart on the 25th of May at Hadley's Hotel @ 7pm. ($20)

Not every day you get a world-class climber coming to SLOWBART!!!!!!

If you have no plans, it would be great to see you there, and show your support to Australian climbing!

He is also doing a climbing workshop on the 24th of May at the climbing edge. (see poster below)

Cheers

Jake

This might be of some interest ....

http://www.chockstone.org/Forum/Forum.asp?Action=DisplayTopic&ForumID=1&MessageID=70456&Replies=17#newpost

hopefully he will update him blog soon.!!!!!

http://cjclimbs.blogspot.com

i wonder how many mushrooms this guy had in his pasta.....

From Tony:

Hi All,

Gather there is a program about the rescue of Paul Pritchard on WIN TV tonight at 7.30pm, if you are interested.

Cheers

Tony

pretty funny from the tas boys in vic, doug and crazy john climb serpentine:

http://cjclimbs.blogspot.com/2009/04/serpentine-has-been-slain.html

Was wondering if people had any ideas or requests for new features or content on this site.

The climbing guides are reasonably complete these days. Probably the biggest missing areas would be Hillwood and Flinders which are comprehensively covered in Gerry's guides. I do have some topo photos for hillwood somewhere, but never finished them because I wasn't sure about access and the attitudes of the landowner etc

I was wondering if people have any ideas for making the guides better and easier to use. I recently got the new Blue Mountains and Araps guides, which are currently the best two Australian guide books, and have been using them for ideas - the grade graphs in the guides are a borrowed idea from the Bluies guide. Both make extensive use of full colour - which make the guides pretty expensive and only viable on big production runs with advertising.

A couple of things I would like to do when I have time:

• A grade index across all the site, which you can filter by grade, stars, location
• An iphone optimised version of guides - iphones are good enough to replace paper books, and there will only be more of them about
• Comments on climbs - so that people can comment on grades and stars etc, or even upload photos and attach it to the climb
• An ethics section in the Intro
• A map of areas that people have explored for climbing - that allows people to tag and comment on areas

TELEMARK GEAR FOR SALE

Scarpa T2 double boots size 9 1/2

Morotto Skis 180 cm

• Riva cable bindings
• Voile release plates
• Televates
• skins

Emery adjustable poles

Boots and skis in excellent condition. Skis only used three or four times. Boots are an early iteration of the popular back-country tourer, but have been used perhaps 30 days. Skis have a few marks on the top due to incompetence of the owner (me) but bases are unscratched. Poles are serviceable.
This gear is old school now, but it works.

$400 dollars the lot. Will consider splitting but would prefer to sell as a package.
Contact me via my email if you're interested.

Found some gear on Fionn McCool this weekend (March 21), off route to the

left at the top of Pitch 3. We would be pleased to return it although the tape

stuff may be a bit passed it now. Let us know what it is and how we get it

back to you. Cheers.

Tony and Al.

Some nice photos of Talk is Cheap @ Mt Brown on Simon Carter's blog - pretty speccy rock down low: http://www.onsight.com.au/news-blog/articles/44/mount-brown-mega-route

(via Jake's blog: http://jakebresnehan.blogspot.com/2009/03/talk-is-cheap.html )