Ain’t No Mountain High Enough for Sheri
Local adventure-seeker, Sheri Thomson has experienced her fair share of thrilling journeys, but her latest expedition was one she will never forget. After hearing of the beautiful view from the summit of Mount Kosciusko from her friend Joanne, who had recently hiked there with her daughter Monica, 9, Sheri started planning a camping and hiking holiday. This was with her friends, and her children – Hannah, 8, and Daniel, 6, to experience the view for herself.
In April this year, Sheri and her travelling group, including Joanne, Monica, and another friend Alesha and her children, Chloe, 8, and Lucy, 4, headed off to Thredbo. The first night camping got down to a bone-chilling -4°C. Sheri was sleeping in a tent with Hannah and Daniel, and claims it was the coldest she has ever been in her life. Despite the sub-zero temperature the night before, they decided to tackle the hike up Australia’s highest mountain the next day.
Mount Kosciusko is a thirteen-kilometre return trip from the Thredbo chair lift. Sheri explained to the Gazette, “Once we got off the chair lift, there was a sign that said how far it was to the top. We purposely didn’t tell the kids, especially the younger ones, how far it was. Daniel saw the sign, figured we’d have to get back down, calculated the distance in his head, and said he didn’t think he could do it. I kneeled down and had a chat to him about how strong he is and how I knew he could do it and that if he believed in himself, he would be able to make it all the way there and back”. Once at the peak, they ate lunch and then it was a race against time to get back down before the last chair lift. To Sheri’s surprise, Daniel started running because he didn’t want to miss the last lift. He was the first one back and the rest of the group only just ended up getting to the chair lifts with ten minutes to spare before it shut for the day.
In total, the hike took them four hours and thirty-nine minutes. It will be a memory that the children will hold for a lifetime, and as for Sheri, the view from the top was definitely worth it!
Article: Sara Drebber