The original plan of doing the Messner version of summit could not be finished because of cancellation of the Puncak Jaya Expedition 3 times since Nov 2022. I had to complete the list by 2023, so I went for Mt. Kosciuszko in Australia. On 19th Aug 2023 I became the first person from Odisha to complete the seven summits as per the Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Elbrus, Kosciuszko (the Bass version).
I landed in Sydney Airport on 15th Aug, the independence day of India. Thanks to a good network of friends, accommodation and travel was easy because of Australian Friends.
After 2 days of trail running and rest, I drove to the tourist town Jindabyne in New South Wales
17th Aug 2023: I went to Perisher Valley and met my Dogh from Snowy Mountains Backcountry. Got it planned to go for a summit on 18th Morning. By night time the weather turned worse, and the forecast looked very bad. Dogh called and asked me to postpone it to 20th Aug. I request to try the next day on the 19th, as if I do on the 20th I will miss my return flight. So we agreed even if the weather is no good on the 19th, we will still go for it. Dogh got convinced as he came to know that, this is the last of my seven summit.
18th Aug 2023: Since the summit attempt was postponed, I went for a long trail run around Lake Jindabyne. It was amazing with kangaroos hopping around, big birds and small animals in the jungle around the lake. In the afternoon It started running, but I wanted to check the most famous waterfall and hike nearby. I braved the rain and went back to the jungle, to my surprise I was the only human being with so many wild animals at every corner of the jungle. It was a feast of wild animals.
19th Aug 2023: I woke up at 4 AM, and got ready by 5:30. Cooked breakfast and packed lunch. Around 6 AM I drove to the pick-up point where Dogh was waiting. We reached Therdo the ski resort around 7:30 AM. In spite of bad weather, snowy conditions and 50 Km wind, it was packed with skiers. It took some time to reach the half-way point by ski. By 8:30 we were ready to push for the summit. It was a whiteout day, and constant wind of 40-50 km. We braved through the weather, with nobody else following us. It was not hard but bad weather made it miserable. Around 11:33 we reached the top of Mount Kosciusko with zero visibility. The summit has a brick kiln type rock structure, which was our point of interest. Except for that structure, we could see nothing. It was sad, as I could not get a 360 view of Australia, from top of Australia.
Nevertheless, it was a moment to cherish, as my dream to do the 7 summits was complete at this peak. Thank you my family, my parents. Jai Jagannath, Jai Lingaraj, Jai Mata Di.
Came down fairly quickly and drove all the way back to Sydney, to celebrate the first Odia Seven Summit, with ORIOZ, the Odisha Society of Australia.