Route: Australian Alps Walking Track

Location
New South Wales, AU
Distance
594.2 km
Description


"The Australian Alps Walking Track is a long distance walking trail through the alpine areas of Victoria, New South Wales and ACT. It is 655km long, starting at Walhalla, Victoria and running through to Tharwa, ACT near Canberra. The track weaves mainly though Australian national parks, such as Alpine National Park and Kosciuszko National Park, though it is not exclusively restricted to national parks. It ascends many peaks including Mount Kosciuszko, Mount Bogong, and Bimberi Peak, the highest points in mainland Australia, Victoria, and the A.C.T. respectively. The AAWT crosses exposed high plains including the Victorian Bogong High Plains and the Main Range in NSW. To walk the whole trail can take between 5 to 8 weeks. It has been signposted for part of its length in a tri-state agreement. However, most parts of the Track require hikers to have highly developed navigation skills." -- from the Wikipedia

The official site for the track is here. More information about the Track is on guidebook author John Chapman's site.

Here's a summary of what's known about early FKTs:

Karl Miller appears to have had the fastest time for hiking the AAWT, 28d6h. John Chapman, who wrote the definitive guidebook, has written that a 22 day trek is possible. But, when asked by Phil Murphy and Andrew Hewat, who have had two attempts at this record, Chapman couldn't name anyone who had done it. Murphy and Hewat regarded Miller's time as the one to beat, the fastest one with documentation and names attached. Note added Nov. 7, 2015: John Chapman now credits American hiker Li Brannfors with the fastest "unsupported walker" time at 19 days. Chapman was unable to recall details, so I am trying to find out more about Brannfors' trip.

"The walk took 28.5 days and included 2.5 rest days. 28 day 6 hrs clock time. Route taken included the main range, while anyone trying to set a record would take the valleys." -- Karl Miller

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Comments

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Commencing 0600 on 13 November 2019 at Walhalla, an attempt will be made by myself and (up to) 3 others on the male and female self-supported FKT for this route.

I will post a link to my Spot Gen 3 tracking website closer to the departure date. 

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Profile picture for user John Riley

Just following up on my above email.

At approximately 1500 hours on Tuesday 26 November 2019 in Tharwa we were successful in completing the 660km Australian Alps Walking Track in 11 days and 9 hours.

We commenced our ultra-run at 0600 on Friday 15 November 2019 in Walhalla.  

I have submitted our FKT for approval. 

Spot Gen 3 Trekker link for our run is:

https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0unGC47eGMSqlieAgtZ0qVb9UiYp9C8VU