Why We Race Here: Jindabyne & the Snowy Mountains
Every great expedition race needs a great stage. Alpine Quest has the best one in the country.
We could have run this race anywhere. We chose the Snowy Mountains - the highest, most spectacular alpine country in Australia - and we chose Jindabyne as its beating heart. When you sign up for Alpine Quest, you're not just entering a race. You're coming to one of the most beautiful corners of the continent, and bringing your team, your support crew and maybe your family along for the ride.
Here's what's waiting for you.
The Town: Jindabyne
Jindabyne sits on the shore of a glittering alpine lake at the edge of Kosciuszko National Park, about five to six hours from Sydney and two hours from Canberra. In winter it's the launch pad for the ski fields. In the green season - when Alpine Quest runs - it transforms into Australia's premier warm-weather adventure town, with far fewer crowds and endless room to roam.
It's the perfect race headquarters. The town has the accommodation, the cafés, the breweries and the gear shops to look after several hundred athletes and their crews. After you cross the line, there's a cold drink and a hot meal waiting, a lake to soak tired legs in, and a genuine mountain community that knows exactly what you've just put yourself through. Jindabyne lives and breathes the outdoors. Your race finish will feel right at home here.
Stocking up is easy. The Woolworths at Nuggets Crossing is open seven days a week and has everything you need to load the support vehicle with race food, fresh supplies and crew provisions - with a BWS right next door for the finish-line celebration. For anything you've forgotten, the town is genuinely well set up for an event like this. Outdoor and camping outlets such as Wilderness Sports and High Country Outfitters carry trekking, paddling and expedition gear, while dedicated bike shops including Sacred Ride and Gravity handle last-minute servicing, spares and rentals - exactly what you want on hand the day before a 500-kilometre course. Arrive, restock, fine-tune the bikes, and roll to the start line ready.
The Playground: Kosciuszko National Park
Beyond the town lies more than six thousand square kilometres of protected wilderness - the largest national park in New South Wales and the most dramatic high country in Australia. This is your race course, and there is nothing else like it.
The Main Range carries the five highest peaks on the continent, crowned by Mount Kosciuszko itself. Up here the landscape opens out into glacial valleys, alpine tarns, wildflower meadows in full summer bloom, and historic stone huts that have sheltered travellers for generations. Wild brumbies move across the high plains. The light at dawn and dusk turns the whole range gold. It is rugged, remote and genuinely wild - and for a few days, it's yours to navigate on foot, on bike and on the water.
The resort villages of Thredbo, Perisher and Charlotte Pass sit just half an hour from town, threaded together by old hydro trails and some of the best mountain biking country in the nation. The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme - one of the engineering wonders of the modern world - laid down the dams, tunnels and access roads that still shape this landscape today. You'll race across a piece of living history.
The Water
The Snowies are defined as much by water as by stone. Cold, fast alpine rivers tumble out of the high country, carving the white water that will test your nerve. Open lakes stretch out under enormous skies, calm one moment and wind-whipped the next, where flat-water paddling becomes its own quiet battle. Whether you're reading a rapid or grinding across open water with the breeze coming off the high tops, the water here will earn your respect - and reward the teams who read it best.
Bring the Crew. Make It a Trip.
Expedition racing is a team sport, and so is the journey to get here. There is no better place to base your family. While you're out on course, support crews and families can hike to the roof of Australia, swim and paddleboard on the lake, ride the Thredbo chairlift for the view, sample handcrafted spirits at the local distillery, spot brumbies on the plains, or simply sit by the water and watch the mountains change colour.
The Snowy Region Visitor Centre in town is the place to start planning. Many teams turn race week into a proper mountain holiday, arriving early or staying on after the finish to explore. We'd encourage you to do the same. You'll have travelled a long way to be here - make the most of it.
This Is the Place
Some races are defined by their finish times. Alpine Quest is defined by where it happens. You'll remember the climb over Kosciuszko, the cold rivers, the long paddle, the 2am ridgelines and the sunrise over the Main Range for the rest of your life.
The mountains are ready. The town is ready. All that's left is your team.
Alpine Quest. The Roof of Australia awaits.
