A Kossie Christmas!

Tucked away in the heart of Snowy Mountains in Thredbo, New South Wales, lies majestic Mount Kosciuszko, the tallest mountain in Australia. On 25 December 2017, we hiked up to the summit. 

It was a beautiful day, and as many hikers we met who were regular visitors to The Snowies during Christmas told us, it was one of the best days for the climb. Fun fact: Originally, this was named Mount Townsend, and the real Mount Kosciuszko, thought to be the highest, was located nearby. In early 1900s, when measurements revealed that Mount Townsend was actually higher than Mount Kosciuszko, The NSW government simply swapped names, so Kossie remained the tallest mountain! Thanks to accurate measurements, I am pretty certain we did the right mountain! So here's our story of the climb:

It was just daylight as we left our cottage at Jindabyne. We had a short drive of about 35 km to Thredbo, and we were planning to take the chairlift up to the start of the trek, a 15 minute-ish ride up 560 vertical metres, offering great views.

The drive to Thredbo was smooth. Even with narrow winding roads and a drizzle, we made it pretty quickly. Once we found a good carpark, we bought our tickets and headed towards the chairlift.

It was cold, and there was thick mist, but we didn’t realise just how thick it was before the chairlift moved up. This was the middle of summer, just after 9 am. A little way up, we could faintly make out a biking track below, and a lone biker on her way down. Another few feet up, the tracks disappeared. Mayank, who was trying to shoot a video, soon gave up since all he could see through the mist was my face.

Seconds later we were in the heart of Mistland and we couldn’t even see the car in front of us, or the one behind. Weird thoughts kept popping up in my head. What if we keep going forever? What if we’ve stepped into some alternate dimension? I clutched Mayank’s hand, determined to take him whatever alternate universe it was I was going to.

The end of the chairlift would have been easy to miss, had it not been for the man on duty there, and we might have ended up going back without realising it. A building suddenly loomed into view, and a cheerful man on duty greeted us with a smile and helped us off the car, and we gratefully clambered off.

Now we had made our way to the top of the chairlift, there was the walk itself. Kosciuszko National Park has several walks up to the mountain, and being novices, we chose the easiest one, a 13 km return parth.

The walk started relatively easy, with a defined track to walk on. There were no trees up there, only grass and certain wild flowers. Covered by mist, everything looked surreal. There weren’t many people up there this early, or if there were, we couldn’t see them.

We trooped ahead, me with the camera, snapping pictures here and there, and Mayank warning me to save some battery till we got to the top.

A little farther along our way, the sun came up, and the mist cleared. As our surroundings materialised, we realised there were many people doing the walk. It got a little warm, and I took one of my two jackets off and stowed it away. Soon, we could see patches of snow here and there on the surrounding mountains. We even stopped at a patch of snow to make a tiny little snowman without eyes or nose, which I held on to till my ungloved fingers went numb.

Luckily for us, the path wasn’t all uphill. A little way ahead was a beautiful lookout point from where we could see several mountains ahead of us. We tried to debate about which the tallest one was, but from where we were, they all looked similar in size and we gave up without reaching a consensus.

Mayank and I are both more mountain people than beach ones. I, for one, find them calming, but also mysterious. Mountains have stood the test of time, and could perhaps tell us fascinating stories. Serenity abounds around mountains, and we feel connected with nature.

Coming back to the story, we moved farther along the path, stopping for photos or merely to catch our breaths after a fairly uphill stretch. We passed several patches of snow from winter, still lingering.

About 2.4 kilometres before the summit lies the famous Lake Cootapatamba. I’d laughed myself silly when I heard the name during our research. At 2024 metres above sea level, it is the highest lake in Australia. Derived from Aboriginal heritage and meaning “The Icy waters where the eagle swoops to drink,” this lake remains frozen from June until September. A spectacular sight at this high altitude, it is known to have formed about 20,000 years ago due to glacial movements.

A little ahead, 900 metres from the summit, lies Rawson Pass. This is where the two different paths (the express chairlift walk and Charlotte’s Pass) converge. The last stretch was a little steep, but the view from this altitude was so great it was more than worth the exertion. A little ahead of Rawson pass, we walked past a solid stretch of snow where kids were climbing, sliding, and building snowmen. Christmas with snow, the way it’s meant to be!

Spectacular view from Rawson Pass

Finally, panting, we made it to the summit. Even though it was a little crowded as it was just past one and we had to wait patiently for ‘Summit Photos’, we didn’t mind it, we were busy drinking in the view. Mountains dominated the scenery as far as we could see. Different shades of blue and green interplayed to create an effect so beautiful, no photograph would do it justice (no photograph from our basic Pan Lens).

The tallest person in Australia (Just for that one moment)

A cloud shadow on Kossie

We ate the lunch we brought and sat down for a while at the top of the summit before deciding to head down. We stopped at the large stretch of snow again, Mayank trying to slide and me trying to build a snowman. My fingers were so stiff it was a futile attempt, and Mayank turned out to be too tall to slide. After a few minutes, we decided to head back since we had a long way to go, and if we missed the chairlift, would have a hard time finding dinner at night, stranded atop a mountain.

Past Rawson Pass, Lake Cootapatamba and the lookout, and we could now view the surroundings which we couldn’t in the morning mist. It was a beautiful bright day, thousands of wild flowers danced among the rippling grass in the gentle afternoon breeze.

We were back at the chairlift, just as our legs were about to give way. We could truly appreciate the view as we moved down the mountains.

All too soon, we were clambering off the chairlift, and out the entrance point, heading back to the carpark. We looked up and, even though we couldn’t see Mount Kosciuszko anymore, thanked it for a truly spectacular Christmas.

Picture Courtesy: Some of the pictures above are mine and some are Mayank's. He says the best ones are his, and I begrudgingly agree.