When making a summit attempt in the high mountains, the final push must begin very early morning. So, I rolled out of bed around 9 and sauntered out for some Muesli and toast. The climb starts by loading supplies (e.g. sandwiches, soda pop, chips) into a rental car and driving to base camp at Thredbo, a popular altitude training retreat for endurance athletes. Then, the journey becomes more arduous in the icefall area. Unlike the Kumba icefall of Everest, the ice here is often manufactured by snow making machines doesn’t exist in the summer (must be global warming). I successfully navigated the field by getting on a chairlift with my support crew and riding up to Camp 2.
From Camp 2, I abandoned the support crew for a solo summit run (and by “run” I mean “run”). The trail was a rough raised platform of metal. On the way up I passed several teams coming down from the summit. Had summit fever captured me? Was I running too late, risking being stranded on the mountain? Others were asking similar questions. When I reached the technical area that I’ll call “The Hillary Steps,” I was breathing hard, gasping for air. Nevertheless, I took the steps 2 at a time, because time was of the essence here in the “death zone.”
After what seemed like minutes of head-spinning ascending, I reached Camp 3 which is where mountain bikers come up from the other side and ditch their bikes for their final push to the summit on foot. Camp 3 is also where the relative comfort of the raised platform walkway gives way to crumbled rock, or scree, packed into and supported only by rubber lattice that is a mere 3 meters wide. The cornices and exposed rock called for extreme caution as the trail circumnavigated the conical summit. There were still a few people lingering near the top, making calls on their satellite phones, but these sat phones were quite a bit smaller then others I’ve seen–must be new technology. I presume these were final calls to loved ones to provide their last words.
By 2 pm I had summited the highest mountain on the Australian continent, the mighty Mt. Kosciuszko at 2,228 meters. That’s right, 1 continent down and 6 more to go. Thirty minutes later I was safely back at Camp 2. Later that evening I was sitting on my couch at home.
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