The Top of Australia : Climb Mount Kosciuszko

For peak baggers out there, Mount Kosciuszko is a dream objective - it's the highest peak in an enormous country and yet doesn't require a huge amount of effort to climb. The peak sits just beyond the edge Thredbo mountain resort and is a day trip in both summer and winter for those with basic skills and reasonable fitness levels.

Thredbo resort is a pretty remote spot, lying 2.5 hours drive from Canberra, and 5.5 and 6.5 hours from Sydney and Melbourne respectively. It would seem a shame to drive all that way for a one day adventure so in this guidebook we've included some suggested warm up routes. In summer, that's a half day hike starting and finishing in Thredbo which will take you to the opposite side of the valley from Kosciuszko itself, and in winter it's a long and adventurous freeride line - Dead Horse Gap Run - accessed from the Thredbo lift system. You could feasibly do that line in the morning followed by the trip to Kosciuszko's summit in the afternoon, but spending a day blasting around the pistes of Thredbo and doing some freeride lines is a great use of a day, and a good way of getting your ski legs back before tackling Kosciuszko.

If 2 days skiing in this amazing area isn't enough - and it really isn't - then there's plenty more to go at the nearby resorts of Perisher (https://fatmap.com/guidebooks/28794/ski-down-under-:-guthega-and-mount-tate-tours/@-36.3689731,148.3606135,3488.0382264,-20.1998130,0,1798.9822746,normal) and Charlotte Pass (https://fatmap.com/guidebooks/28898/australia's-hidden-gems-:-charlotte-pass-ski-tours/@-36.3938731,148.2982842,3279.8481311,-90,0,2024.9537417,normal).

For those looking to make a longer summer trip out of summiting Kosciuszko, it's "only" 4 hours (next door by Australian standards!) to Falls Creek, where hiking and biking (https://fatmap.com/guidebooks/1514/the-best-of-falls-creek-mountain-biking/@-36.8619334,147.2677141,11334.9118200,-36.7627276,0,1724.5280951,normal) adventures abound!