Greece’s highest

After our cultural Disney experience at Meteora, we are heading back to the mountains, to a mountain that everyone should have heard of.

Last night was not one of the most pretty of stops, stuck behind what seemed to be an abandoned trailer, and in front of a piece of land only occupied by noisy dogs, sometimes though you have to deal with these things. Finding the mobile phone shop and topping up with credit had taken time, so the nearest spot would have to do. The advantage it was not far from our objective of the day, Mount Olympus.

The journey to Litochoro does not take long, and lets us circumnavigate around the south and west of the mountain.

Mount Olympus is a substantial mountain over 2900m. It is also very close to the sea, so your starting point is quite close to sea level. This was not going to be a summit we could manage in a day. Luckily, the main refuge was open. It had opened for the first time this season last weekend, so we were lucky. The walk in to the refuge should take about three hours, so we were in no real hurry to start the walk.

Litochoro is a small town, nestled in the foothills of the mountain. We visit the local supermarket for bread and a few lunch items for the next couple of days. We fill Dora with water and we get some cash out to pay for the refuge. We also go to a local shop who offers information on the treks. She kindly rings the refuge for us to reserve our places and to find out the conditions on the mountain.

Apparently they have had recent snow up there, which is a bit of a shock this late in the season.

Olympus is made up of numerous peaks, the highest being Mitikas at 2918m. This is a steep rocky ridge, which requires a bit of scrambling to reach the summit. In summer conditions this might not be a problem, even in proper winter conditions this would probable be OK with the right equipment. The problem is we are in this interim faze, between the two. Mitikas may not be possible.

However, just a few metres below lies a dome of rock, Skala, which doesn’t require any scrambling and has excellent views across the range. Maybe this will become our objective.

We head out of Litochoro and start climbing the road towards the trailhead. The road winds up through the mountains, with ever increasing views back towards the crystal clear waters of the Aegean sea.

The drive takes longer than expected as we have to continually stop to admire the view.

The road is surprisingly good, and shows off the impressive mountain range it heads towards. Until it eventually disappears completely, leaving an unpaved track, which Dora deals with in her stride. We pull into a car park with a surprising amount of cars, minibuses and coaches. It appears that tour groups journey up here to the small restaurant, but it looks like this is a far as most of the visitors get. I am sure they still tell their friends, we went to Mount Olympus though.

We still have some time before we want to head off. We don’t want to get to the hut too early!

We have lunch and do a few IT bits, although up here the reception is pretty bad and the internet is a bit slow, still it is a productive hour or two.

We then pack up all our stuff for the two days, lock up Dora, wish her well and head off.

It is surprising how much we still have to take:

Wet weather clothing; salopettes, jacket, gaiters, gloves and hat. It is still gonna be cold up there.

Layered clothing for two days; extra fleeces, long johns, trousers and mountain socks.

Crampons and poles, we are leaving the ice axes behind.

Water; 3 litres each and lunches for tomorrow, we will eat at the hut tonight.

Bed sheets; they will provide blankets and pillows we hope!

Emergency stuff; first aid kit, silver blankets, whistle, phone, penknife.

Oh, and some wine, which is usually really expensive at a mountain hut, and maybe not a very good vintage!

The path leaves the restaurant and hordes of visitors behind and quickly finds solitude except for the cascading of the mountain river which it follows.

Woods are not usually our favourite of paths, but today the sun is streaming down upon us, we are carrying a heavy load and we are grateful of the shade from the trees.

The paths is good and not too steep, but we know this will change later down the track.

We cross dry stream beds several times, surprised that at this time of year they are not full of meltwater from the snow high above, maybe this will come later on in the season.

As we climb, occasionally the trees clear to give constrained views of the surrounding hills, so we can roughly work out where we are and where we are going.

We have a trekking map, so we can get a good picture of where we are, but the map shows our river to be permanent, rather than seasonal. There should be water here. Maps should never be taken too literally!

Susana makes light work of her heavy sack.

It is a beautiful afternoon and the trail is pretty much deserted. We see just a handful of people.

As we get higher we see our first snow, remnants that are clinging on, in shaded places, gullies and behind trees.

Here is creeps down a river bed, which rarely sees water, except when the snow melts.

On the peaks, snow still exists, but it is melting rapidly.

We are climbing more steeply now, and soon the trees begin to thin and the views get better.

And the patches of snow get more extensive. This one we cross tentatively, without crampons. The snow is thick, but soft and sticky. Our boots sink in up to the ankles.

and eventually we arrive at the refuge. The first thing to do, make sure the white wine gets cold, ready for dinner. We find a large pile of snow and bury it. That should do the trick.

As the refuge has only just been opened they are still clearing it. These volunteers make light work of this pile. We just hope they don’t have enough energy to start shovelling the pile where our wine is buried.

We have a good look around, searching for the route we will take tomorrow. It all looks pretty obvious. Up there, off to the left. There are many clear footprints to follow.

As the sun begins to set we head inside to glean whatever information we can about the peak. Although Mitikas is still covered in snow, the other peak is possible with the equipment we have with us. It might be a bit heavy going, what with the sluggish condition of the snow.

We order dinner which is fairly basic; spaghetti bolognese. It is made more palatable by some extra bits we have bought with us and the wine.

After dinner, we sit by the fire. The temperature is dropping, and the building has yet  to warm up properly from its winter hibernation. Two women pensioners have walked up here, spent two nights at the refuge, ventured out onto the ridge and will be walking back down tomorrow. Amazing, we hope we will still manage such exertions when we are their age.

Another girl has also been out and about on the mountain today. She says the snow was terrible, sometimes waist deep. She has no equipment though, and it seems as though she ventured out onto the snow at midday, when it was really starting to soften. We plan to head out early, hopefully it will still be crisp after a night of low temperatures.

Some people really don’t think things through. Setting off at 13.00, with 20 degrees in the shade, on sluggish snow?? What do you expect? SM

An early start requires an early sleep. We have a small room, not the dorm that others are sharing. We will have the company of a Serb and an Austrian though. Hope they don’t snore!

They bloody do!! Even with my earplugs on I could still hear them!! But at 6.00 am here comes my revenge, it is time to climb the mountain! So I switch the light on. Everybody has to get up. SM

We carefully wrap ourselves up in our three blankets and try to get some sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GDR