NSW’s Snowy Mountains a haven for hikers and bikers
Expect thrills, hills and home comforts on a summer stay in NSW’s Snowy Mountains.
It’s been the wettest summer in the Snowy Mountains in living memory, or since 1998, depending on who you ask. The last of the winter snowdrifts cling stubbornly to the highest peaks of Kosciuszko National Park, like spots the spring cleaner has missed. Lake Jindabyne has flooded the town’s foreshore, inundating walking paths and drowning the trunks of poplars. Kids cross Banjo Paterson Park on boogie boards rather than bikes. If you’re here to ride – as we are – it makes sense to head for higher ground, and that can only mean Thredbo.
Many of the mountain bikers, who look like helmeted and armour-clad baddies making a getaway from a bank robbery, wouldn’t have been alive in 1998. The sport’s reputation as a young man’s game, however, is changing. According to our guide Jo Larkin, the fastest-growing demographic is women aged 40-plus. Larkin, who runs Thredbo’s Gravity Girls women’s mountain biking clinic, says the corporate community is also embracing the sport. “Business deals these days are more likely to be sealed on a MTB course than a golf course.”
Chairlifts are a great way to cheat gravity before yielding to it, and Thredbo offers the only lifted access to mountain bike trails in the country. The new Merritts Gondola hoists you and your bike to Merritts Mountain House in six minutes, where you can have lunch on the sprawling deck under a shady umbrella, watching riders weave their way down the switchback tracks that intersect the bald winter ski runs.
I’m a mountain biking novice but after a two-hour lesson I’m confident enough to negotiate all but the most advanced runs down the mountain. But not everyone will be.
“You need either some mountain biking ability, or a ‘can-do’ attitude,” says Larkin. That applies even to the beginner runs, including the new Sidewinder trail that flows from Merritts Mountain House under the shade of snow gums.
Larkin describes mountain biking as, “physical meditation”. And while the environment here is undeniably beautiful, it’s best not to get too immersed, especially when cornering on the tight berms. Larkin puts it another way: “If you look at the tree, you will hit the tree.”
I save my tree-gazing for the Kosciuszko Express chairlift, which delivers me to Eagles Nest, at 1937m Australia’s highest restaurant. The endorphins pump and I feel a strange mix of inner peace and adrenaline, descending the loose shale of the famous Cannonball run, before merging to the Kosciuszko Flow trail for a thrilling 5km ride. It’s exhilarating not knowing what the next corner holds, or exactly how I’ll cope with it. Parallels with the business world suddenly seem compelling. I arrive back at the village with aching hands and a tremendous feeling of achievement (but without cementing any deals).
Riders who prefer their gravity less precipitous will love the Thredbo Valley Track. The cross-country route follows the Thredbo River 20km to Lake Crackenback Resort & Spa, crossing suspension bridges and taking in eucalyptus forests and open woodlands. It has recently been extended to Gaden Trout Hatchery, and will this year be further lengthened to the Thredbo River Picnic Area on Kosciuszko Rd, just 10km from Jindabyne.
Our second day sees us swap wheels for walking shoes. From the top of the Kosciuszko Express the usual course is to hike the 7km to the summit of Mount Kosciuszko, along an elevated walking track that can be more congested than the Tokyo subway. We opt instead for a private guided hike off the beaten path, exploring the granite tors and alpine meadows of the Rams Head Range.
Our guides, Alex Parsons and Kayla Mackey, pick a path through a wildflower wonderland, the alpine heathland blooming with white snow daisies, yellow billy buttons, violets, alpine sunrays, and eyebrights in all shades of purple. Parsons leads a rock scramble to the top of North Rams Head, where the view is breathtaking, extending to Victoria’s highest peaks of Mount Bogong and Mount Feathertop, the endless swath of the Australian Alps laid out in a procession of deep blue ridges and valleys. We traverse one of the lingering snow drifts, the melting snow feeding waterfalls and trickling into the sphagnum bogs that hold water and provide critical habitat for endangered species such as corroboree frogs and freshwater crayfish.
There’s incredible detail everywhere and our guides spot it all, from the tiny burrows dug by alpine funnel-web spiders to the eucalyptus-scented alpine mint shrub, which Parsons explains was mixed with animal fat and used by the Indigenous Ngarigo people to make a eucalyptus tea.
We pass through a gap between two giant granite tors known as The Portal, sublime reflection pools cradled in the passage. And while the regular clumps of horse dung and a sighting of deer are reminders that conservation remains an ongoing imperative, it’s a privilege to be granted a private backstage tour of this alpine summer show, staged on the rooftop of Australia.
After a day of activity, I’m craving a rejuvenating bath, and evening soaks don’t come more restorative than at our alpine digs. Located just off Alpine Way, 15 minutes’ drive from Thredbo, Tinkersfield is a boutique retreat that marries the enduring folklore of mountain cattlemen’s huts with a modern industrial aesthetic.
Bathroom doors open to kangaroos grazing metres from the clawfoot bathtub, while the view from the leather lounges leads to a reed-fringed pond, ripples radiating as light rain falls. We light the fire and watch the clouds roll over the hillside as a long summer day fades to cool dusk.
The exquisite design is courtesy of Thredbo local Sonja Schatzle, who together with husband Warren Hickey renovated the old Pender Lea Post Office (now part of the accommodation offerings) and added new timber and corrugated iron retreats, artfully styled with retro and recycled objects, all self-contained and sleeping between two and 11 people.
Tinkersfield takes the dog-friendly accommodation concept to a new level, offering “doggie daycare” while we visit the national park. It’s a joy to be greeted by our excitable red heeler, who does her best to fill us in on her day, which apparently included ample walkies, a ride in Hickey’s ute to run some errands and some quality time with a juicy bone.
We humans don’t miss out on the pampering, either. Hickey doubles as our personal chef, arriving with a feast befitting the most discerning cattleman and family: local beef ribs with roast vegetables, and a decadent homemade chocolate brownie with fresh fruit.
On our final morning the sun streams in through the windows, mocking the bleak forecast. We send the youngster off to walk the dog and take our coffee outside. Steam rises from our mugs into the crisp mountain air, as though taking cue from the dissipating mist, lifting like a veil from the landscape. For a wonderful moment it feels like we’re a part of the high country, writing our own folklore.
In the know
Thredbo’s hiking and mountain bike season runs until April 25; one-day mountain bike lift pass from $79 for adults, $59 for children. One-day lift pass for hikers from $49 for adults, $12 for children. Gravity Girls mountain bike clinics run on February 27 and March 20, and two-hour mountain bike clinics for all levels run daily. Book clinics and private guided hikes through the Thredbo Resort website.
Tinkersfield is at 1 Post Office Lane, Crackenback. Accommodation ranges from $345 a night for a two-person studio to $980 for The Barn (sleeps 11). All stays two-night minimum.
Ricky French was a guest of Thredbo Resort and Tinkersfield.