Kosciuzko

On August 16 I climbed Mt. Kosciuzko with two friends from a conference I was attending in Sydney. At 7310ft, it's normally a pretty easy climb. We picked a day in winter with 10ft visibility and -50 degree wind chill, but at only 6 hours duration, it's not too hard even so. Kosciuzko is often considered one of the "Seven Summits", but it's not the highest in Australia if you consider some of its islands near Antarctica, or the Castenz Pyramid in Indonesia. In any case, it was a fun objective to have.

Periodically, on the way up, it cleared a bit, so we could see about 100ft.

Visibility was so bad at the summit, we actually walked by the summit cairn the first time and had to circle back guided by the GPS.

In the last hour on the way down it cleared up for real.

Given the poor visibility, having a GPS was essential. Here are the points we followed. We also had a backup GPS, since it could have been a real problem if our GPS had failed.

Google coordinates
Kosciuzko walk start
-36.494119, 148.287942

trail junction
-36.48891, 148.283865

waypoint1
-36.477799, 148.276355

waypoint2
-36.46434,148.269789

Kosciuzko road junction
-36.457135, 148.268516

summit
-36.456300, 148.264050

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