We Come From All Over
From Queensland to Victoria, Western Australia to New South Wales, Couch to Mountain women join the program from wherever they live, training online for five months before they ever meet in person.
That first in person meeting happens right at the airport – where excitement and nerves merge. But soon our bus journey relieves the mind as conversation flows and friendships form. The night before the summit. Dinner in Jindabyne, bags packed, mountain waiting.
The nerves are real. Nobody pretends otherwise. But something happens at that table every single time, you look around and realise everyone feels exactly the same. That shared feeling becomes the thread that holds the group together for everything that follows.
Summit Morning
Lunches made. Breakfast done. Bags by the door.
The training is behind us now. The summit is in sight.
The day is long and the mountain asks something of you, but it is within reach. Somewhere along the trail, without quite noticing when it happens, it stops being about your own effort and becomes something else. A team. Women watching out for each other, adjusting pace, offering a hand, sharing the hard sections without needing to say much.
You don’t plan for that moment. You just find yourself in it.
At the top: views forever. Cold air. A quiet pause to remind yourself of what you have just done. Photos, laughter, the kind of relief that comes from doing something you genuinely weren’t sure you could.
Back at the hotel, showered and changed, we sit down together to celebrate. The mountain was worth every early morning, every training session, every moment of doubt along the way.
No Two Summits Are the Same
Three groups hiked to the summit this year. Same mountain, three completely different moods.
One group woke to sunshine and a cool breeze, the kind of Alpine morning that feels like a reward in itself. Another stepped out into a very cold start, layers on from the first minute, finding their stride on the slow ascent until the summit appeared above them. A third had a skills day first, think Alpine bush, a waterfall, a coffee in Jindabyne to finish, then woke to a clear warm day and hiked to the top with views that went further than you could process.
Each group had a day two that reminded them why Alpine conditions demand respect. Weather moves fast up here. We train for exactly that. And when the conditions changed, the group was ready. Jackets on, pace adjusted, eyes on the trail. That’s preparation doing its job.
Same summit. Different weather. Same outcome.
What We Came Home With
Every single woman made it.
Not because they were experienced hikers when they started. Not because they had some particular advantage. They made it because they showed up consistently for six months, kept training when life got in the way, and arrived at the mountain more ready than they felt.
The celebration dinner on the final night always ends the same way. Someone asks the question that’s been sitting quietly under the whole trip.
What’s next?
Hiking to the highest point in Australia has a way of making that question feel very answerable.
Couch to Mountain 2026 registrations are open now.
If something in you has been quietly wondering whether this could be your year — it probably could.
