Departing for Sydney, Australia

Mt. Kosciuszko

7,310ft / 2228m New South Wales, Australia

We will update this blog and Facebook pages as the trip progresses. Stay tuned! And please spread the word to a friend, family, or co-worker. We want all Americans to know about this program, about our pride in being military members, and our desire to put the USA into the record books!

The highest peak on the Australian continent, Mt. Kosciuszko is the sixth peak in the USAF 7 Summits Challenge. Several Air Force members departed for Australia on Sept 26th, with the plan to meet with at least five more US Air Force members on Oct 4th for the climb. It is early spring in Australia, so conditions are expected to be cool, wet, and snow covered for the most part.

For the first time ever, the USAF 7 Summits team will be joined by members of the host country's armed forces. Several Australian Air Force and Army members will hike to the summit with our team- a classic show of unity and friendship between the two countries. It will make for an excellent 'combined forces' effort on what is the sixth peak in a bold and historic attempt to reach the highest peak on each continent.

If successful, the team will be just one peak away from making the US Air Force the first military in the world to have its flag flown from the summit of the famed '7 Summits'. This group of active duty Airmen is not funded by the USAF or DoD. Rather they use their own money and time to climb. By spreading goodwill and generating positive press about the Air Force, they hope to boost pride among military members and give the American public a program to rally around. They also climb in memory of fallen Air Force colleagues who have died in the line of duty since 9/11. On the summit of each peak, the climbers do pushups to honor the dead and to highlight the Air Force's focus on physical fitness.

--==Climb High, Fly Low==--  Rob Marshall