Skiing has taken Tim around the world. He grew up with a ski resort as a backyard and this year he’s been exploring more of his backyard; the Australian back country.
“It’s an amazing place and it’s really fun when you can find a different way to enjoy the mountains, other than what the resorts can provide, like going further afield and discovering the Main Range, cause it’s soooooo impressive and it’s so incredible”, Tim tells me of the snow covered Main Range in Kosciszuko National Park.
With a couple of the best powder days he’s ever had in Australia this year. Then with no snow on the radar for August, he arranged to spend time camping in the main range. Climbing through the high country and camping on Mt Townsend, mainland Australia’s second highest peak, Tim and crew were on the edge of the western face of the Snowy Mountains, filming for a project that re-tells the story of the original pioneers of this area called ‘the Roof of Australia’.
“There’s some really steep and challenging skiing out there. The sentinel and Watsons Crags. You’re mountaineering in some parts, there’s nothing mellow about any of that terrain. Little Austria, looking at it from the right angle, it’s reminiscent of European mountains and terrain for sure, but no one knows it’s out there, they just think Australia is skiing for beginners,” Tim tells me.
Tim was also in Tasmania earlier this year, filming for another project he’s working on called ‘Toyota tales to tell’. It’s all about making adventuring accessible. Tasmania will be the first episode, trying to hike and ski Mount Ossa, the highest mountain in Tasmania. “You’ll have to watch the episode when it comes out to find out what exactly went down in Tasmania” he tells me, “It’s not what I expected, but it’s definitely a tale.”
Tim grew up with a ski resort as a backyard. Living in Tumut, he spent winters at Selwyn Snowfield, which his grandfather built. From his house in Selwyn he would climb out his second floor bedroom window onto the roof and ski off it. He went to school in Cabramurra, Australia’s highest school, during the winters; a tiny and unique school where the playground was always covered with snow. With a total of 30 students between kindy and year 9, it was right next to the Cabramurra ski slope where Tim would ski after school.
With a World Cup Alpine Racing father, and the lack of a freestyle program at Selwyn, it was no surprise Tim got into alpine racing. Ending up on the state team and the junior development team, training at Perisher and Blue cow. He traveled to Austria competing in junior world cups and getting experience in bigger races on the junior circuit. “We learnt that we had a long way to go in Alpine racing, but it was as an amazing base for skiing”, he tells me.
Throughout his ski racing, Tim was always looking for jumps to hit and trying to catch some air time. When he stopped racing he found out he could make money from skiing park and pipe, and was sponsored by Dynastar.
In his third year of studying television production at Charles Sturt uni in Wagga Wagga, he dropped out to go skiing. He took the opportunity to base himself out of Mammoth free-skiing for a few seasons, competing in Telus, the World Ski Invitational in Whistler and other comps around the west coast of America. An injury forced him to return to Australia and he started working full time as a cameraman at Perisher. This lead to working at Channel 9 for five years, in between skiing and expeditions.
Being involved with sport at Channel 9 has fueled Tim’s passion for filming sport. Going back to freelancing this year has meant he’s had a lot more time to go skiing, doing three big expeditions which he wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. The Roof of Australia, Tasmania and Alaska.
“Alaska was an amazing experience, probably one of the hardest things I’ve done. I was way out of my comfort zone”, he tells me. Thirty days camping on a glacier, with a lot of skiing, hiking and climbing. Filming with Richard James for the adventure ski film on the quest to find mythical Sugar Mountain, he was one of the athletes this time. “A lot of action went down so I’m sure he’ll make a pretty entertaining little yarn out of that,” Tim reckons.
“Mountaineering and climbing, is dangerous because you’re exposed when you’re spending a lot time on a face which can be unstable. If you’ve misread the signs it isn’t the most comforting feeling. The first day Watkin remote triggered an avalanche which was one of the most humbling things that I’ve ever experienced. I was nowhere near it, but there was this deep whoomphing noise and a rumble. The footage from the cameraman below was just incredible. It’s good that it happened on the first day because we got there and the snow conditions were amazing, and that happened before anyone had even taken a turn so everyone immediately changed back a couple of gears and re-evaluated,” he explains.
Apart from ski adventuring and filming, Tim is also director of the One Hit Wonder at Thredbo. It’s first year in 2009 was a really fun spring jam session with warm sunny days and good mates. Filmed well, Tim put something together that enticed Toyota to sponsor it the following year, unintentionally. The reason it was called the One Hit Wonder is because it was just going to be done once. The 100 foot jump invitational has now become the first big air event on the AFP world tour calendar as a gold event attracting many high caliber international athletes.
Tim hitting the 100 foot jump. Oh what a feeling!!
Having spent so much quality time this winter in his ‘backyard’, Tim sees himself as very fortunate to have skiing as something in his life which allows him to see the world with friends he has made along the way. “Its just a beautifully free sport in the sense that you have a mountain and you can do whatever you want to do on it, paint your own canvas. I think that freedom and sense of style and expression is definitely why I’m still involved in the sport and doing it every day I can. Hopefully I can do it for a lot longer as well. On the other hand, snow is something that will prevent any of us from leading a normal life. No one here leads a 9 to 5 job, but it’s just such a rewarding addiction” he says smiling. Nicely put Tim.
Some photos from this years Toyota One Hit Wonder
