Kosciuszko National Park: Kosciuszko Main Range Trail

General Information

Grading:  hard

Distance:    21 kilometers

Total climb:    743 meters

Time taken:   5 hours 45 minutes

Maps:   Perisher Valley 8525-2S  1:25 000

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:   220 kilometers

Start point map grid reference:  55H FV 19089 67358

Destination map grid reference:  none

End point:  same as start

Route

Description

We did this walk counter-clockwise starting from Charlotte Pass. We descended from Charlottes Pass down a paved walkway to the Snowy River and Club Lake Creek, both of which we were able to cross via stepping stones. Some people found these harder to negotiate than others.

From the Snowy River the climbing starts - the river is around 1715m above sea level and after walking a bit over 3 kilometres we were almost at 2000m elevation. At this point we had a good view of Blue Lake.

From here we turned left towards Carruthers Peak. Here we started to be exposed to very strong winds, but we paused long enough to take some photographs of nearby Sentinel Mountain which on a milder day we might have been tempted to climb.

Continuing along the track we came to a section of elevated steel walkway. The wind was so strong here that I was blown off the walkway a couple of times.

The track took us under the peak of Mt Lee and via Northcote Pass to Mt Northcote and Albina Lake.

The track had not been too steep since descending Carruthers Peak, but from Mt Northcote it started to climb again as we approached Mt Kosciuszko via Muellers Pass. When we reached the track to the Kosciuszko summit we saw dark clouds to the west, indicating the forecast afternoon rain was on its way. We decided not to do the 2 kilometre detour to the peak - we had both visited it several times before - and started down the track back towards Charlottes Pass, visiting Seamans Hut along the way.

By the time we hit the bridges over the Snowy River and Merritts Creek heavy rain had begun to fall and there was the sound of distant thunder. Fortunately the rain did not last too long and we were able to get back to Charlotte Pass without getting too wet.