AUSTRALIA might not be renowned for their inspiring tall sharp mountain peaks, but when you want to climb all seven summits of the worlds’ continents, Mt Kosciuszko is on your bucket list.
When Scottish alpinist Richard Hamilton decided on a last minute Australian visit to climb his sixth peak, you might think just an easy walk to the summit. But that was not case.
Richard made contact with Doug Chatten from Snowy Mountains Backcountry via an online search. “Googling Mt Kosciuszko I came across Doug’s company, we exchanged a few emails and my flight details,” said Richard on his visit in May.
After a long flight originating in Edinburgh and ending up in Sydney, Richard hired a car and made the whirlwind journey to Jindabyne.
On the day they climbed Kosciuszko Doug said on his website blog, “Yesterday wasn't a day for the faint hearted in the mountains with 70kph winds, -4.2c temps, -15.5c wind chill and snowing.”
“He was expecting sunnies and shorts but not to be underestimated the Australian Alps whipped up an autumn storm to treat the Scottish hard man,” said Doug.
“My expectations were it would be easier than what happened. The conditions weren’t great,” said Richard.
“In terms of height you know it’s not going to be a problem here, I’m not going to get altitude sickness or anything like that, But in terms of distance and terrain, I've recently recovered from achilles tendon rupture, I've got an operation on my leg in December. So, this has really been the first outing really since then. When Doug was saying it’s probably 18k round trip, I’m on snow shoes, uneven terrain, I'm thinking okay, so I think in terms of expectations, it probably ticked every single box.”
“There was snow drifts today that meant you couldn’t see the path. The visibility at some points almost invisible.”
Doug said “there were faces that were 50 degrees and we had to take our snow shoes off and post hole in front ways to get around the cutting at Rawsons.”
As he settled into the Park Café to recite his story, Richard said “I’ve done six of the seven, I have Everest in 12 months’ time. It’s the expensive one.”
He estimates his Everest expedition will cost about 70 thousand sterling, approximately “130,000 aussie dollars”.
“I said to my wife once I went past halfway, once I did four I wanted to go to the end. If I had failed on one of them, or something went wrong I may have just stayed on three or four.”
“I started off on Kilimanjaro, did that and luckily my next move was to go to Elbrus in Russia. You can’t do that now, so I feel quite lucky to have done that. A few guys I know in the climbing circuit haven’t done that one, so the magic seven is not there (for them).”
Richard said he rapidly completed the rest including Vinson in Antarctica, Aconcagua in Argentina and Denali. He described Denali in Alaska as his hardest so far. “Coming from Scotland as well, Alaska, it’s sort of like coming here (Australia), it’s into the complete unknown.”
Describing his journeys so far was quite compelling to listen to, especially for people interested in mountains. Climbing is an expensive activity when you are at that level. A far cry from his home town of St Andrews in Scotland. Richard said he had been a good golfer in his younger years, his family associated with the home of golf for generations. On his journey here to the mountains Richard commented on the snow covered golf course at Berridale, and unusual site in May.
On his trip to Argentina he said the timing was not right finically, but the opportunity to join a group came up unexpectedly. He did not have the money, so applied for a new credit card. He phoned the tour guide and said here’s the 18k and off he went.
You can read the blog of Richards Australian climb on the Snowy Mountains Backcountry website.