Life achievement unlocked: we climbed to the highest point in Australia today!
There’s only a short drive from Jindabyne into Thredbo, and thankfully at this time of year it isn’t busy at all. We got into Thredbo a bit after 9am, picked up our lift passes, and made our way straight to the top of the Kosciuszko Chairlift. It was about a 15 minute ride to the top. As we crept further up the mountain, we started to see tiny patches of snow… and we could see the excitement in the kids’ faces!
From the top of the Chairlift, it’s a 13km round trip to the summit of Mt Kosciuszko, and apparently a 4-6 hour walk. The walk is all on a track, and 90% of it is on a raised metal boardwalk. We knew there would need to be quite a few breaks with the kids, but we were fairly confident they would be able to do it.
The start of the walk was tricky – the first half a kilometre or so is just on paved track, and there was quite a few patches of snow still sitting across the track, which made it really hard to walk! But thankfully, when we hit the raised metal walkway only a few hundred metres further on, the walk was much smoother – there was more and more snow as we walked further on, but it all had fallen through the walkway, with only a few patches on the edges of the track.
Our first stop was the Kosciuszko Lookout, about 2km up the track from the Chairlift. Not a great lookout at this time of the morning, because the really low cloud and fog meant we could barely see 10m in front of us. But it was a good stop for some morning tea. We pushed on toward the top, stopping a few more times for short breaks along the way. After about 90 minutes, we reached the main track-head, very close to the summit – nearby were some toilets, and a track off to Seamans Hut (which would’ve been amazing to go and see!).
From here, it was about another 30 minutes to the top. The track dropped back onto paved / dirt track, with plenty of snow around, so it was a bit slower going for a while. The wind really started to pick up as well, as you’d expect. As we rounded the summit, we had to climb 156 stairs to get to the summit (thanks to some temporary scaffolding stairs, while they made some track repairs).
We had made it! But my goodness, the cold wind at the top was almost unbearable! We had a wonderful plan to sit and have lunch at the top… but that quickly went out the window. It was time for some quick photos, a brief look around, then back down off the summit to get out of the wind.
On the way back down, we found a spot off the side of the track on a rock or two, trying to avoid all the snow. And we enjoyed our various sandwiches for lunch, along with a couple of easter eggs as well.
We headed back down the short walk to the track-head where the toilets were for a quick toilet break. Having had a couple of nice breaks, and some food, we all had a bit more energy in us and so the trek back down the mountain kicked off. Even with all the stops until this point, it had only been about 2.5 hours, so we expected it would probably only take us a bit over 90 mins to get back down.
On the way back down, we enjoyed much clearer views – the clouds and fog had mostly cleared, and we could see some incredible views. It was obviously a quicker walk on the way back down, and it ended up taking us a bit over 90 minutes. So all up, the 4-6 hours was accurate – but that included a whole lot of stops and child-style walking.
Throughout all this beauty and hefty walking, we also wanted to acknowledge that the First Nations Australians have been exploring this mountain for a long time before Europeans arrived and ‘discovered’ it. Whilst there’s uncertainty over what different clans, nations or languages refer to the mountain as, it is often known as Kunama Namadgi, which means ‘snow’ and ‘mountain’ in Ngario language. (Edit: I neglected to include this acknowledgement in my first version of this post – it’s something I really wanted to include as we visited each place on this journey, but I initially forgot!)
We headed back down to Thredbo Village on the chairlift, and decided to pause for a hot chocolate and some donuts. Seeing as we had an all-day lift pass, and it was only about 2pm, we decided to jump on the Merritts Gondola. We weren’t sure what was at the top, but it was an enclosed Gondola, and we knew there’d at least be some amazing scenery. Turns out, that’s all it was – at the top was really only for mountain bikers. So we jumped back on for the trip down.
And by that time, everyone was starting to feel a bit weary, and so we jumped in the car to head back into Jindabyne. But what an amazing second day of the holiday!
