We warmly invite you to register online for FMC's 90^th anniversary celebrations. The $40 fee includes a buffet dinner on the Saturday night.

We have also published a list of speakers (more to be confirmed soon) and information on the venue, food, accommodation, and planned outdoor activities on our website.

We look forward to seeing you there! 

FMC is proud to offer youth expedition scholarships for the 11^th year running, and the Simon Bell Memorial scholarship for the sixth consecutive year.

For information on how to apply, and to check your eligibility criteria, see the FMC website.

A poster to promote the scholarships can also be downloaded from our website.

We are also offering training grants for the second year running, to support FMC clubs by making training opportunities more accessible. More information here.

Applications for both expedition scholarships and training grants close at 5pm on Wednesday 15 September 2021.

For any queries, e-mail our executive officer at eo@fmc.org.nz.

Remember to get your club competition going this year! A perfect thing to do on a club night during the long cold winter evenings... 

If you haven't run a competition before, give it a try! This year we are offering a spot prize, drawn out of a hat from all the clubs that enter. Also, we've put together resources to help you run your club's photo competition.

The winning images of a club's competition are eligible to be entered by the club into the FMC competition. FMC individual supporters can also enter and are pre-judged by FMC with the top shots gaining entry to the overall competition.

Information on how to enter is on our website. This page also includes tips on how to run a photo competition for your club, both in person and online.

Entries close on 1^st September for Individual Supporters and 15^th September for clubs.  If you have any questions, please contact photocomp@fmc.org.nz

It's easy to fulfil them if you follow a few key concepts; take a look at our Wilderlife resource on the Privacy Act & clubs to find out how. 

FMC recently submitted on the Incorporated Societies Bill 2021, which would see the current Incorporated Societies Act 1908 modernised. There are a few implications for clubs, including re-registering and adapting your rules in a few specific areas. You can read our submission here.

Any changes won’t be coming into force until at least 2025. FMC will keep following any developments and prepare resources to support our clubs.

Read more

On 1 July 2021 the new pricing and booking provisions for several DOC huts became active, as announced earlier in May.

The Backountry Hut Pass can no longer be purchased from your local DOC office; it is now only sold online.

Among other changes, a DOC campsite pass is now also on sale.

To buy a hut pass you will need to create an account on DOC's booking system first. Members of FMC affiliated clubs and FMC individual supporters are entitled to a discount on the price of the Backcountry Hut Pass. To claim the discount, you must first send proof of this to the booking team in Wellington via the booking system (this may take a few days to register) by selecting your account/your profile/apply for a discount/backcountry hut pass holder then scan your relevant membership.

Please note that the new BHP is just a number and not a physical card as in the past. Take a copy of this to the hut. You are able to forward date the hut pass up to six months in advance.

David Cary has been making ultra-light bombproof Fiordland Packs for quite a while now.  Ultra-light doesn't mean fragile: he uses modern X-Pac fabric, and gear tests with rough off-track missions into Fiordland.  You can read a Real Gear Review on Wilderlife, where the 70L packrafting pack gets a proper Fiordland thrashing.

David is passionate about the work our outdoor community does in volunteer trapping projects, so he's offered to provide some packs as prizes to support FMC's year-long focus on Volunteering for Biodiversity.

To enter, send us a story or resource to inspire others to get involved in a local volunteer trapping project. Tell us the reasons why you do what you do, how to get involved and wisdom you wish you'd had when you started. The best contributions will be selected to receive a fully customised item from David. There are 45L, 35L, 25L packs and a waist bag up for grabs, worth up to $400 each.

Articles should be 800-1500 words long, with approximately one photograph for every 200 words. Send your contribution to development@fmc.org.nz.  Entrants must be FMC club members or Individual Supporters. Winners will be announced by the end of August, and packs will be custom made after that. 

Learn more about the packs online: fiordlandpacks.nz

When the snow allows, many of us will be popping over the back of a ski field for a few turns and a tour or two. FMC initiated a collaboration with the New Zealand Alpine Club and 23 of our Ski Areas to explain  etiquette for touring 'over the back':

skitouring.co.nz/faq/ski-area-access-guidelines

Members of FMC affiliated clubs can utilise the optional D2U service to get the next four issues of the magazine, plus the FMC discount card, delivered directly to your home address.

More info is available online:  www.fmc.org.nz/D2U

The print date of the August issue of Backcountry is fast approaching. The 25^th of July is the cut-off date for those wanting to start D2U to receive the August issue.  Sign-ups after this date will start with the November issue. 

If you’ve enjoyed a great read, but don’t want to hang on to the issue, please give the messages and stories a chance to reach others. 

Take it to a hut, or give it to a friend and encourage them to support FMC if they like it.  

www.fmc.org.nz/join

We also encourage clubs that end up with spare copies to consider making an arrangement with the local outdoors shop to donate their spare copies for customers to take away. Maybe you could even put your club's details on a sticker on the front cover to encourage new members to join.

FMC Mountain and Forest Trust is pleased to be supporting the Untamed Aotearoa Podcast in celebrating the outdoor community and wilderness areas of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Dr Laura Young is a talented botanist and conservationist based in Blenheim. We talk about her love for ecology and how her career in conservation has evolved, from rediscovering a giant weevil (previously believed to be extinct) to studying wild Spaniards and kea. Laura has a five year old daughter, Cassie, who often comes with her on field trips. She shares some wonderful tips on balancing field work and outdoor time with being a mum.

Listen to Episode 11 of Untamed Aotearoa Podcast to get to know Dr. Young and find out more about her work here.