'There's been a slight change of plan,' our guide, Glen, explains as we check our gear at the hiking headquarters at Lake Crackenback Resort. 'We'll be more or less doing the day-two part of the walk first and day one tomorrow, because the weather could turn against us by then.'
In the high country of Australia's Kosciuszko National Park the weather is an important consideration and the head guide with Kosciuszko Alpine Guided Walks makes decisions with safety in mind. So it's off to Thredbo, where we ride the chairlift up the first part before starting the hike to Australia's highest peak.
Mountain ridges form an eerie landscape from granite boulders, while near the trail the ground is covered in wildflowers.
Flowering species include mountain celery, lilac-coloured eyebright, the sweet-smelling yellow flowers of alpine stackhousia and silver snow daisies. Much of the track comprises a raised metal walkway constructed to help prevent erosion and safeguard the flora.
During a midmorning break we shelter beneath a ridge and look back over the ground we've covered. At the moment the sun is out and the path is proving quite popular. Along the next leg, walkers pass us, oblivious to the significance of the small stream just off the trail. This is the beginning of the Snowy River, a waterway that became legendary in the late 19th century because of Banjo Paterson's poem The Man from Snowy River.
Next, we stop to see Lake Cootapatamba, which is naturally dammed behind moraines - piles of rock left behind by receding glaciers.