Just wanted to share one of my photos of my recent rides.
I rode solo from Charlottes Pass up to the highest peak of Australia Mt Kosciusko 2228m and back down which was a 19km return trip. Highly reccomended. Obviously you need to keep the season, and weather in mind as it was -3 degrees when i reached the top.
Buried in a snow cloud that threatened to dump snow, my photo was rubbish for a panarama effect, however the excitement of putting such a notch in my riding belt was a huge high, and all the tourists filming and snapping photos of the highest unicyclist in Australia(that day anyway). No one expexted to see a guy riding one wheel up there !!
If anyone is considering to do this ride and needs more information of my experiences, or more photos, i would love to see others take the challenge too. While i am by no means the first to do this ride, i didn’t find much info or help when i wanted to look into doing it.
Well done! What about writing a report on your ride? It may encourage someone else to take the plunge, and it is inspiring to those of us who are new to the Uni-World.
8years ago Joel Penson and I wanted to uni down from the summit in winter but when we got to Thredbo they wouldn’t let us up in the chairlift! You could go up on skis and injure yourslef but apparently not on unis. Anyway, Joel went back in summer and rode up and back from Charlotte’s I think.
well, most of it wasn’t that steep. However, for 9.5km was continually upwards with no break except one spot. Just before you get to Seamans hut the gradient increased to a degree where even walking up was tiring. Plus the last 1.65km from rawsons was steep and winding and they put this man made sort of nylon soil control things which were a bit of a nuisance.
As far as a write up goes, it was not a thick detailed ride, not technical at all, just a fire trail really. Gravel. The biggest thing is the weather. Can change quickly. Was 3 degrees at the bottom Charlottes and about 7km up a snow cloud rolled in and i rode through it, and it was freezing at -3 degrees. Choose what time of the year you do it and constantly watch the forecast a week before you ride it. The constant uphill ride can break you too.
Tey don’t like you riding down at Thredbo, probably a profit thing, or public liability, not sure. The Charlottes to Summit side is free for all…anything goes, walking, mountain bike etc. However you’re really not supposed to ride up from rawsons pass as it says…“no bicycles beyond this point” but i wasn’t on a bicycle…
Tourists didn’t mind me doing it and moved out of my way where ever i rode, and photoed and filmed me. After all how often do you see that kind of lunacy.
In short you’ll get a good satisfaction out of it, beautifull scenery, an excellent burn in your legs.
Don’t leave it as late in the year as i did, and it will be warmer.
Also Gps doesnt work much up there, nor will mobile phones except a couple of pockets.
My time was leasurely and i left bottom at Charlottes 08:30 and reached summit 11:11. After a 30 minute rest at the top i rode down only two UPD’s, in 1 hour…passes really quickly cos it sooo fuuuun.
How steep was it? I might like to try that some day.
