Thredbo and Mt Kosciuszko
Posted by Anura Samara, 31 December 2015
Walking up Mt Kosciuszko feels like a rite of passage.
We made a quick post-Christmas trip to Thredbo mainly to catch up with friends from Geneva
Thredbo
What can I say? After spending time in various alpine resorts in Switzerland and France, Australia’s Alps really aren’t in the same ballpark.
To start off with, the mountains just aren’t high enough and there’s no snow (even in summer we were used to seeing snow on the tops of the moutains around Geneva). And Thredbo isn’t exactly a bustling resort town with high-end stores. Overall, in summer there’s enough to keep it going but it feels like the quiet country village that it is.
Not that that’s a bad thing. It’s pretty relaxing to be able to stroll around the village in a few minutes. There’s not exactly a plethora of places to go, so deciding on where to have dinner is pretty easy. And there are a few shops for the few things that you really need.
I know, all of this is a far cry from winter when every hotel and apartment will be booked and the roads will be filled with people traipsing to and from the slopes.
Mt Kosciuszko
Once you’re in Thredbo, you almost feel duty-bound to climb Mt Kosciuszko. Luckily, it’s less of a climb and more of a walk. The Crackenback chairlift takes care of most of the vertical distance and from the top it’s a stead walk across a raised mesh walkway. The point of the walkway is to minimise human impact on the flora and waterways, but it also has a slight spring to it which makes it easier to walk on too.
I was taken aback by the sheer number of people walking with us – it really was a steady stream of people of all ages and levels of preparation. The other things you have to battle with are (1) the impact that altitude has on your fitness and (2) the number of very large blowflies – surely, you must be carrying a few extra kilos with all of them on your back!
At the base of the summit, where the summit road joins the track, there is a new toilet block which is a welcome relief. The walk to the summit itself is steeper and less well developed. There was already a crowd when we arrived – maybe 100 people or more – and it was impossible to get near the cairn marking the summit because of the number of people posing for photos and selfies next to and even on the cairn. We decided instead to just make ourselves comfortable on the western-facing slope to have lunch while enjoying the views.
And then it was time to retrace our steps to head back down – even at that late stage we passed more people still aiming for the summit. But we couldn’t descend the chairlift again with sampling a Kosciuszko Pale Ale in the café at the top of the chairlift.
Categories: Australia
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