Beyond the Summit: What I Found Hiking Australia’s Tallest Peak

Updated: 24 June 2025

Read Time: 5 minutes

This post takes you through the Main Range Track (anti-clockwise) to Mount Kosciuszko (Australia’s highest peak) in a day. Along the way, I share reflections on friendship, slowing down, and the rare clarity that comes when you unplug.

⛺️ Includes: where to camp (Island Bend Campground), what the trail is like, and why this hike felt like closure on something deeper.

🥾 For the Hike – Charlotte Pass Charlotte Pass NSW 2624

⛺️ For the Campsite – Island Bend Campground Guthega Road, NSW 2624

🚗 Getting There: Only accessible by car, I recommend coming early as you will need to park on the side of the road next to the main entrance.

$17 For the national park fee, per vehicle per day. Or $29 from June to October. You will probably be doing this hike when its not snowing so you won’t need to pay the $29 entry fee.

*🔥 Hot tip: if you arrive after 5PM when the ticket office is closed you can pay this fee on the NSW PARK’nPAY app. Since we were arriving late we paid the fee when we had dinner at Jindabyne. In the app, swipe the map to Island Bend Campground (it didn’t show up on the search bar for me) select the parking spot and pay in the app.

$6 For the campsite which can be booked on NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Mount Kosciuszko is best hiked during December through to March. You will need to check the snow levels before attempting this walk out of season.

🏞️ Which direction?: I recommend doing the Main Range Trail anti-clockwise. Starting right from the toilets, you will be taking the Guthega to Charlotte Pass walk (google maps name). Your first stop should be Blue Lake Lookout, and I recommend doing it this way so you can finish on a decline!

⏳ Time: We started at 10AM and ended at 7:30PM. I recommend allowing at least 8-9 hours so you can have plenty of stops to soak up each view.

🥾 Distance: 22km

🚽 Toilets: We had to poop pretty bad mid way through the hike. Luckily there are a total of 3 toilets in the area. The first one is at the start of the track, the second one is at the base of the summit, and the third one is besides Seaman’s hut. We used the one at the base of the summit and there were around 5 stalls, and one baby change room. There is also a bike rack besides this toilet.

Hiking Mount Kosciuszko’s Main Range Track: A 22km Journey

Last week, I returned to a place I hadn’t visited in over a decade: Mount Kosciuszko. This time, I was accompanied by a close friend, and our goal was simple — to reach the top of Australia via the Main Range Track. Spanning 22 kilometres and winding through the country’s highest peaks, it was a challenge we both wanted to tick off.

For me, it was more than just a hike. I wanted us to complete it together. On a past trip to Guatemala, this same friend had fallen sick and couldn’t join us on our summit of Acatenango. A hike that had been the centrepiece of our trip. So for me, this hike felt like a new chapter in the year while also closing a loop that had been left open since Guatemala.

Because of our last-minute planning and limited time, we decided to tackle the Main Range Track and summit Mount Kosciuszko in a single day, camping overnight at Island Bend Campground. We chose this over the 10 Highest Peaks hike — a multi-day, 50-kilometre trek that takes you through, as the name suggests, the ten tallest peaks in Australia.

In hindsight, I think it was the right call. The Main Range Track offered more than enough to satisfy our craving for alpine views and rugged beauty, while still leaving something to return for. Island Bend Campground made for a stunning base. Just a 25-minute drive from the start of the Main Range Track at Charlotte Pass, it was nestled beside the flowing waters of the Snowy River. Peaceful, quiet, and the perfect place to rest before the big day. There is a $6 booking fee for the campsite which can be found on NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service however, there is no need to book specific campsites in the area , and we had no trouble finding a great spot by the river.

The Hike 🏔️

Despite being a 22-kilometre loop, and housing the tallest peaks in Australia, the Main Range Track isn’t particularly difficult. The trail rolls gently across the alpine ridge lines, with only a few moderate inclines and plenty of flat, open sections. If you’re physically fit, you’ll likely find the hike straightforward. We undertook the hike in April, and the weather was very pleasant with only a slight wind chill and no bugs in sight.

But for me, the hardest part wasn’t the walking. It was the silence. The mental space that comes when you’re off your phone, away from distractions, and facing ten hours of uninterrupted thought.

Without endless scrolling or much external noise, you’re left with yourself and, in my case, a close friend I hadn’t properly sat with in a while. As the hours stretched on, our conversations moved past surface-level conversations. We talked about where we were headed in life after both graduating, our differences in values, our differing thoughts on faith, relationships, and what we wanted in our lives.

Some parts were uncomfortable. We didn’t always agree. But that was the point.

Hiking here has a way of softening the edges. The open mountain ranges, the rhythm of footsteps, and the steady pulse of Kosciuszko’s wind. I feel like they create the kind of environment where difficult conversations can actually breathe. There’s no room to run off, no signal to scroll through. Just the person next to you, and the path ahead.

By the time we reached the summit, we hadn’t talked about everything. But we had listened, understood, and shared some genuinely deep conversations. And in the end, that made the summit feel all the more meaningful.

We set out to reach the highest point in Australia and we did. But on the way back down, I realised the real value was in the time we spent walking together.

There’s something strangely powerful about having only the changing landscape as a distraction. Nothing to interrupt the flow of uninterrupted conversation with a close friend. It felt like a kind of flow state, an antidote to the routine check-ins and text conversations I’d grown so used to relying on for connection.

It’s easy to miss these realisations in everyday life. You get swept up in work, your phone, all the small distractions that keep us comfortably distant from our own thoughts. But out there, with nothing but the crunch of gravel underfoot and the wind rolling over the peaks, you’re given time. Not just to think, but to feel.

Sharing that space with someone who’s been there for both the summits and the missed ones made it all the more meaningful. After Guatemala, it felt like something unfinished had quietly found its closure.

This was a bit of a long one, but let me know in the comments if you have any questions about the trail or campsite.

Until next week, thanks for reading 🤠