Mountain climbing is a great way to escape the rat race and be one with nature. However much we wax rhapsodic about the benefits of using your leisure time to go mountain biking, Alps routes draw just as many people for something other than stunning landscapes – price. Technical materials styled for everyday protection and warmth in cold, dry climates, the Summit Shadow is made for foul-weather commutes and winter days.

While the film takes an unequivocally romantic approach to mountains, it doesn’t shy away from casting a critical eye on the colonial thinking that underpinned early mountaineering exploits and that continues in a different form today. Some climb the foothills of Peavine Peak on the northern boundaries of the city, while others climb the canyons and flats of Northwest Reno, the Steamboat Ditch, and South Reno.

The first women climbers were involved in mountain climbing and rock climbing was a part of that. Some years back before I’d discovered the world of mountain bikes never mind the folding mountain bike or better yet the Army Recon folding mountain bike by Rietti I bought an Eagle Talon.

Yet mountains are under threat from climate change, land degradation, over exploitation and natural disasters, with potentially far-reaching and devastating consequences, both for mountain communities and the rest of the world. The highest mountains on the Australian mainland are in the Snowy Mountains region in New South Wales and the Victorian Alps which are part of the Great Dividing Range separating the central lowlands from the eastern highlands.

Injuries are also possibilities that can cut short your climb; death is also very possible especially in high altitude mountains. Our packs weighed about 20kg and included all our high altitude mountaineering gear like crampons, ice axes, thermal gear, down jackets and a packet of peanuts for the snow monkeys that do not exist.