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It was the 19-year-old duo’s first ever major hike, and was set to be gruelling.
The mountain measures 1986m above sea level, with the trail to the peak and back totalling 21km.
Ms Badgery and Ms Napolitano were initially apprehensive about the challenge, especially with Bogong having seen deaths over the past decade.
They considered a less dangerous peak, but ultimately decided to go for it.
“As two teenage girls or young women, I think that a lot of the content we see online was a lot of men or young men doing this hike or older people, so why not we just do it?” Ms Badgery said.
“We've got legs, we've got arms, we may as well just do it.”
They did have other motives, with Ms Napolitano completing the hike as part of endurance training for a marathon later this year.
Ms Badgery, a hiking enthusiast, used the trek to help overcome her ongoing mental health challenges.
“I had an eating disorder for quite a few years which meant that obviously I was quite weak and fatigued, and I had a lot of fixation on being thin a lot of the time,” Ms Badgery said.
“The hike was really long, we went for 13 hours, which obviously if I was in the same place that I was last year, I definitely wouldn't have been able to sustain myself for that.”
One of the views the pair had while hiking up Mt Bogong.
Ms Badgery and Ms Napolitano went along the Staircase Spur walking track, encountering a very steep incline for most of the 21km.
Much of the Staircase Spur is dirt, but also moves between an icy, muddy and snowy terrain.
The girls only required two stops going uphill, with Ms Badgery outlining more challenges during the downhill trek.
Coming down in the dark, they were fighting fatigue and at one point each felt a little nauseous, with a sense of isolation also starting to affect them as their phones went into SOS.
The sudden realisation hit that the only way off the mountain was by continuing to walk, the girls found an extra gear to finish it off.
The hike was as hard as initially feared, though the eventual feeling of accomplishment led Ms Badgery to quickly set their next challenge.
“The way up was horrible, the way down was horrible. The only thing that was good was at the top,” she said.
Ms Napolitano at the peak.
“It’s obviously good we did it, but on the way down I'm like, ‘We are never hiking again, this is the worst decision of my life.
“Once we got to the bottom and in the car, I woke up the next morning, and I was like, ‘I think we should just do Kosciuszko."
Located just over the NSW border, Mt Kosciuszko is Australia’s highest peak, sitting 2228m above sea level.
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