Location: Australia.
Height: 2,228 metres (7,310 feet)
Chicks’ Summit date: Sep 2001
Route taken: Normal route
Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain in Australia is located in the Snowy Mountains, in New South Wales. It is 390km southwest of Sydney and close the Victorian border. The first official ascent of Kosciuszko was in 1840 by Pawel Edmund Strezelecki, which excludes the aboriginal people who would have gone up it for thousands of years.
Mount Kosciuszko is not difficult to climb, and thousands of people trek to the top each year. Anybody with a modest fitness level is able to climb it. There are two routes. There is a road to Charlotte Pass, from which it is a nine kilometre walk up a path to the summit. The other approach is from Thredbo, which is a shorter (6.5 kilometres) and is supported by a chairlift ride year round.
In 1997 the Geographical Names Board of NSW agreed to a proposal that the spelling be changed to “Kosciuszko,” the correct spelling of the name of the famous Polish freedom fighter he mountain was named after.