Seb - 2 Poles and 7 Summits

Kosciuszko - Australia

Australia, rather than Australasia, is the geographically correct continent and Kosciuszko is the highest point there. The trouble from a mountaineering point of view is that this is only about 2,200 mtrs and is only a gentle trek up and down.

Anyway, to ensure that I had completed both forms of the 7 Summits, I had planned to do both. We ended up doing this just prior to Everest as I had gone to stay with Gus in the much underrated city of Perth to do some warm weather training in Feb and March.

I found it quite tricky to get an idea of quite what this mountain entailed, but in the end it turned out to be little more that a three hour return trip from a small mountain resort town. Its a bit of drive from either Melbourne or Sydney and one of the main ski areas in the Winter.

From the resort, you climb up the side of the valley under the chairlifts and then trek along the plateaued top to the summit. There is a raised iron walkway to prevent damage to the environment up there. It was pretty windy but that kept us nicely cool in the Austral summer.

Overall, its a bit of fun and easily doable with the family. A good trip for a weekend if you live closish by.

The team and main slope up to the plateau under the left chairlift

View back down from the top of the slope

The top of Australia

The team on the top