My schedule was light on Friday so we were out by 2pm. We are using the long weekend to see the 12 tallest mountains in Australia. That may seem like a deal but they are quite close together and connected by a ridge. So after work we headed up to Jindabyne for the night. It is 2 hours north of Cann River. We stopped at a platypus reserve in Bombala but couldn't see any. We did find a rosella (though the picture didn't come out).
After the reserve Damien drove and I slept. He woke me up on occasion to point things out. I opened an eye and went back to sleep. We got into Jindabyne the town at the bottom of the mountain just as the parks office was closing. We were able to get a pass and a map to enter the mountain area.
We checked out the shops and checked into our 6 bed suite before going for a run in the park (at the bottom of the mountains).
We ran 9km's past a waterfall and we saw an amazing rock formation and heaps of kangaroos. When we were playing on the rocks Damo slipped and broke his watch :(
After the run, we raced back for a dinner of pizza and pasta.
Saturday morning we were up early to park and start our walk. On the way out of town we grabbed breakfast before heading up to Charlotte Pass where we left the car and started the hike.
We started easy on the track to Blue Lake. It was spectacular and we stopped for lunch.
Then we hiked up and up and up and up to Mt. Twynam the third highest peak in Australia. (Mountain #1)
Then we headed onto the next one. It was off the track so we dropped our packs and walked up. This unnamed peak was 2146m (mountain #2)
On the way back we couldn't find our packs so we went up and down and back and forth for 20 minutes until they appeared. Then after a bit more off roading we reconnected with the trail. On the way up to the next peak we found a fantastic lookout for club lake where we had a nice rest.
Then we headed along the track to Mt. Carruthers (mountain #3)
After going down we climbed the ridge back up to Mt. Northcote (mountain #4)
From the top we thought that we saw another peak higher than us that wasn't on the list so we decided to climb that too.
So we went all the way down and all the way back up to Mt. Muellers (mountain #5) which we could clearly see was the 13th highest from the peak.
From there we found a path that led up to Mt. Townsend (mountain #6). It is the second highest peak in Australia. Funny story: Australians used to think that it was the highest mountain due to a surveying error. When the error was recognised instead of changing the record for tallest mountain they just switched the names of the mountains. So the mountain that we climbed was the original Mt. Kosciuszko.
The next morning we started out strong. We got straight up and went up to Mt. Alice Rawson (mountain #7).
After going back to camp for breakfast, we packed up and headed to the next two peaks. We dropped our packs again and headed up Mt. Abbot (mountain #8).
And Mt. Byatts Camp (mountain #9).
Which were right next to each other. After the peaks we grabbed our packs and began walking back toward the main track. We crossed a marsh, some streams, and climbed over some rocks before meeting up with a dirt path and then the main path. Once we made it back to the path it was still 200m elevation gain to the peak of Mt. Kosciuszko (the tallest mountain in Australia). As we walked up, there was an unnamed knoll on the side of Kosciuszko that ranked in at over 2150 meters so we climbed to the top and had a snack, but forgot to take a picture (mountain #10).
From there we joined the herd of people walking up to the peak of Mt. Kosciuszko. Damien commented that he liked the contrast of the extra people here. But I disagreed. The people were ruining my serenity. Anyway we made it to the top. Tallest mountain in Australia (mountain #11).
Shortly after the peak we left the path again to meet our next peak. Just above the highest toilet in Australia (not the tallest, the highest from sea level) at Rawson's Gap we headed up to the top of Etheridge peak (mountain #12).
Now if you have been paying attention I told you that we were planning on 12 peaks but we have also added 2 in that were in planned, Mt. Mueller and the extra knoll were unplanned so we still have 2 left.
We took another pack drop and headed up to North Ram's Head. It would have been an easy-ish climb but we went to hard way. By the time we reached the top it was time for a much deserved lunch break. (mountain #13)
It was a bit of a slog to the last peak but we made it to Ram's Head Peak (mountain #14) and we were so excited!
I should also mention that it is the peak of wild flower season so our whole journey was covered in beautiful flowers.
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