Australia Was Fun in 2013

In January of 2013, Kriss and I went to the Snowy Mountains part of the Australian Alps to climb Mount Kosciuszko.  Australia is a continent and even through Kosciuszko only stands 7,310 ft above sea level, it’s the highest mountain in Australia and therefore one of the Seven Summits. 

Traveling by car in Australia was enjoyable.  It was like being in the United States but on a different reality plane somehow.  We found the people to be friendly and hospitable and they were definitely more laid back than we Americans are.  They spoke English obviously but with that great accent that makes you want to crack open a beer and listen to a story about the outback.  They also drive on the other side of the road, which took a fair bit of concentration for me to make good decisions within intersections and roundabouts.  The best part though was their road signs.

 

 This was ski country for Australia and the broader part of the mountain’s base comprises the Thredbo ski resort.  Being there in the summer time, the resort was nice and quiet and we had many good choices of hiking trails to achieve our summit goal.

 

Like many ski resorts, Thredbo runs their chair lifts in the summer time for tourists.  This gives many people the opportunity to hike above tree line without having to climb all the way up on their own.  Of course, since this was to be one of our Seven Summits, there was no chair lift in our plans.  In fact, we decided to take the longest route possible in order to feel like we earned the summit.  Our route started with the Merritts Traverse, connecting to the Merritts Nature Track then to the Mount Kosciuszko Track up to the summit.

Since the route is accessible to most people of reasonable fitness, it gets a lot of traffic.  The local authorities have taken precautions to protect the fragile alpine flora by installing metal walkways along the route.  Seeing this preservation method reminds me that we in Colorado are loving our 14ers to death and that maybe something should be done in the locations most susceptible to damage by human traffic.

We reached the summit along with 50 or so others from all over the world.  Being on the highest point for thousands of miles around is always a thrill and we were happy to be there.  

The return route followed back down the Mount Kosciuszko Track then veered off the map on Dead Horse Gap Walk and finally returned to the village via the Riverside Walk.  All in all, it was over 18 miles and 3,000 feet of elevation gain which took us about 10 hours of dedicated hiking.  With a 30# day pack, it would have scored well on the PFM scale.

Kosciuszko was now the 5^th of our Seven Summits climbs successfully completed, leaving Vinson Massif in Antarctica and Mt Everest in Asia.