Personal Experience: The Transition Of Mount Bogong
I first thought about climbing Mount Bogong early in the year when I learnt that I had a family connection with my Great Uncle dying up on Mount Bogong in 1943. I thought it would be good to visit three main spots, Mitchell Hut (very close to where Martie Buckland died), the summit (highest point in Victoria) and the Gadsden Memorial (where my great uncle is memorialised). At first I thought that my uncle David (mentor) and my two cousins Andrew and Michelle and I should go, that didn't work out as Andrew and Michelle weren't that interested in coming. I then moved on to doing the climb with my uncle David and a family friend in Sydney named Nick and his dad Will. The dates didn't work out as they were going on a family holiday at that time.
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My uncle David had showed a big interest in coming so I appointed him as my mentor so we could be in contact frequently with how the organising is going. I then moved onto Plan C, inviting school friends. I decided on inviting Archie M, Ollie T and their dads. On the 4th of October all 6 of us climbed Mount Bogong. I feel my choice journey went pretty well, I kept on top of all my plans on what I wanted to do, I was able to get the amount of time (20 hrs) done on my Fitness Plan and the climb went perfectly. Most of the journey went as expected, I wasn't expecting that I needed to see a physio multiple times, I wasn't expecting how often I would have to be emailing everyone to keep everyone informed with what was happening. I also wasn't expecting how much my backpack would weigh me down on the climb, I had put everything in a couple of nights beforehand and had put it on to check if it was ok. It was just under 10kg packed with a first aid kit, clothes for the climb, food for the climb, 15m rope, blister pack and more plus extra clothes and food in case we had to overnight on the mountain if the weather turned really bad. I don't feel it slowed me down but my back was hurting throughout the climb and still was a couple of days after. There were only two main problems that occurred during my choice journey. The first was trying to find enough people for the climb, we needed at least 4 people for safety reasons if someone got hurt up there and it was tough finding people for the first couple of months. The second problem was my knees, from about January of this year I had been getting pain in both of knees when I was climbing up and down stairs. When I first started my fitness program it was pretty noticeable that my knees were hurting and I wasn't able to do some exercises eg. Step ups because my knees were so sore. Over the next two weeks I stopped doing those exercises until I met with a physio.
The physio told me that the muscles in the left knee were considerably smaller than my right knee, this was because I have a tendency to put more of my weight on my right foot. This meant when I put an equal amount pressure on each knee there is pain as they are not used to it. The physio gave me exercises to do for the next couple of months to build up my knee's muscles before the climb, he also took a couple of things out of my fitness plan. 3 times a day I would do 20 one legged squats on each leg with the left leg at 11 o'clock and my right leg at 1 'clock. I also had two stretches I did twice a day for 30 seconds on each leg. This was the biggest obstacle during my choice journey as there was a big chance that I wouldn't have been able to go on the climb. Over the next few months kept on doing these stretches and I could see a considerable difference in my knee muscles around 1 month after I started doing the stretches. After the second visit Phil told me that I could go back into running, step ups and lunges. I took out the normal squats as I felt the 1 legged squats were better and I was doing the same area while making my legs stronger at the same
time. I then had my last session with the Physio 3 weeks out from the climb. He told me that my legs looked strong enough that they wouldn't give me any trouble and that I should be fine for the climb. The other obstacle I faced was finding people for the climb. At first the climb was going to be my uncle David (mentor) and my two cousins Andrew and Michelle, they weren't that interested in doing the climb so I then moved onto my uncle David, a friend who lives in Sydney and his dad. This didn't work out as they were going to be away for a holiday at the time of the climb. I then went to plan C, which was to invite school friends on the climb, so I asked Archie, Ollie and their dads. All of them accepted and it was the 6 of us who did the climb. I feel this project was very worthwhile, I challenged myself physically during the journey and it payed off when I had finished the climb. Over the journey I learnt a lot about the two stories of both Martie Buckland and particularly my great uncle Edward. Over the project I think I learnt two main skills, the first one was organisational skills, I learnt this as I had to keep on top of all of the work I needed to do and I always kept the work from the choice journey in one place so I could always access it. The other skill I learnt was communication, I learnt this by keeping in constant contact with both my mentor and the people going on the climb. An example of this was when I rang up the Malvern Map shop in April so I could see if they had a map of Mount Bogong, checking the price and setting up a meeting to get the map. Overall I think my choice journey was a success, I did all the work I needed to do, I completed my 40 hours of work and I reached all the points of Mount Bogong I wanted to reach. I really wouldn't have changed anything for my choice journey, maybe next time I would try and do it on a day where it's a bit cooler.
My uncle David had showed a big interest in coming so I appointed him as my mentor so we could be in contact frequently with how the organising is going. I then moved onto Plan C, inviting school friends. I decided on inviting Archie M, Ollie T and their dads. On the 4th of October all 6 of us climbed Mount Bogong. I feel my choice journey went pretty well, I kept on top of all my plans on what I wanted to do, I was able to get the amount of time (20 hrs) done on my Fitness Plan and the climb went perfectly. Most of the journey went as expected, I wasn't expecting that I needed to see a physio multiple times, I wasn't expecting how often I would have to be emailing everyone to keep everyone informed with what was happening. I also wasn't expecting how much my backpack would weigh me down on the climb, I had put everything in a couple of nights beforehand and had put it on to check if it was ok. It was just under 10kg packed with a first aid kit, clothes for the climb, food for the climb, 15m rope, blister pack and more plus extra clothes and food in case we had to overnight on the mountain if the weather turned really bad. I don't feel it slowed me down but my back was hurting throughout the climb and still was a couple of days after. There were only two main problems that occurred during my choice journey. The first was trying to find enough people for the climb, we needed at least 4 people for safety reasons if someone got hurt up there and it was tough finding people for the first couple of months. The second problem was my knees, from about January of this year I had been getting pain in both of knees when I was climbing up and down stairs. When I first started my fitness program it was pretty noticeable that my knees were hurting and I wasn't able to do some exercises eg. Step ups because my knees were so sore. Over the next two weeks I stopped doing those exercises until I met with a physio.
The physio told me that the muscles in the left knee were considerably smaller than my right knee, this was because I have a tendency to put more of my weight on my right foot. This meant when I put an equal amount pressure on each knee there is pain as they are not used to it. The physio gave me exercises to do for the next couple of months to build up my knee's muscles before the climb, he also took a couple of things out of my fitness plan. 3 times a day I would do 20 one legged squats on each leg with the left leg at 11 o'clock and my right leg at 1 'clock. I also had two stretches I did twice a day for 30 seconds on each leg. This was the biggest obstacle during my choice journey as there was a big chance that I wouldn't have been able to go on the climb. Over the next few months kept on doing these stretches and I could see a considerable difference in my knee muscles around 1 month after I started doing the stretches. After the second visit Phil told me that I could go back into running, step ups and lunges. I took out the normal squats as I felt the 1 legged squats were better and I was doing the same area while making my legs stronger at the same
time. I then had my last session with the Physio 3 weeks out from the climb. He told me that my legs looked strong enough that they wouldn't give me any trouble and that I should be fine for the climb. The other obstacle I faced was finding people for the climb. At first the climb was going to be my uncle David (mentor) and my two cousins Andrew and Michelle, they weren't that interested in doing the climb so I then moved onto my uncle David, a friend who lives in Sydney and his dad. This didn't work out as they were going to be away for a holiday at the time of the climb. I then went to plan C, which was to invite school friends on the climb, so I asked Archie, Ollie and their dads. All of them accepted and it was the 6 of us who did the climb. I feel this project was very worthwhile, I challenged myself physically during the journey and it payed off when I had finished the climb. Over the journey I learnt a lot about the two stories of both Martie Buckland and particularly my great uncle Edward. Over the project I think I learnt two main skills, the first one was organisational skills, I learnt this as I had to keep on top of all of the work I needed to do and I always kept the work from the choice journey in one place so I could always access it. The other skill I learnt was communication, I learnt this by keeping in constant contact with both my mentor and the people going on the climb. An example of this was when I rang up the Malvern Map shop in April so I could see if they had a map of Mount Bogong, checking the price and setting up a meeting to get the map. Overall I think my choice journey was a success, I did all the work I needed to do, I completed my 40 hours of work and I reached all the points of Mount Bogong I wanted to reach. I really wouldn't have changed anything for my choice journey, maybe next time I would try and do it on a day where it's a bit cooler.