What is it with these dogs!

A bright start to the day, the perfect conditions to attempt Greece’s highest mountain, Mount Olympus.

We won’t be trying the highest peak, Mitikas. The closest and third highest, Skala, will have to do us.

It has been a long night, the orchestra of snoring that emanated from the adjacent bunk bed didn’t stop until sunrise. I rarely sleep well in a refuge; the different bed, the dry air, the high altitude, the cold, the excitement. It is no wonder really. I never find it really matters. Your body gets time to rest, just by being still, gently recuperating from the exertions of yesterday. And as soon as we see outside, all fatigue drops away, what a glorious early morning sight.

It is quite rare to get such a high mountain so close to the coast.

We grab some bread and jam, but most importantly, some coffee. Reorganise our bags leaving left over clothes behind and packing our essentials, food, crampons etc. into one sack, which I will carry.

Our room companions, the Serb and the Austrian, are also up and preparing themselves for a summit assault as well.

We are the first to head outside, the first to leave the safety of the refuge, but the pair will surely shortly follow and a group of five young French guys are also soon to set off.

The mountain has yet to warm, but I don’t think we will need the thin fleece for long. We are both wearing our gaiters, which should keep the snow out from our boots as we anticipate some deep wading through drifts later on.

We soon pass through the last of the trees.

And then the snow starts, and sure enough it is fairly crisp this early in the morning. It holds up well, although occasionally your foot lurches into a deeper drift.

We traverse across a steepish slope. For me this is more intimidating than walking up, partly when you walk up you rarely seem to realise the steepness.

Walking up; a few kicks into the snow, making a small platform, small steps, quick and efficient. There is no need for crampons yet.

But I can imagine what this would be like later on in the day, when the snow has had the sun on it for a few hours, then it would be much harder work, no wonder the lone girl from yesterday had such a hard time!

We quickly ascend the ridge, below us we can hear the other pair. We stop to take off our fleeces off. They catch up but also stop, taking the opportunity to rest. We continue.

The snow is still a little sporadic, interspersed with rocky patches. It still isn’t worth putting on the crampons.

And there to the right is our final destination, or it would be if we were going to climb Mitikas, our summit must be further beyond this, just out of site, behind the ridge in the centre.

And the other way, this ridge faces north, so it is still carpeted with a thick layer of snow, although in this heat perhaps not for much longer.

And it was up this valley we climbed yesterday, up through all that green.

The young French group have now caught up and overtaken us. But then they stop to take a rest and we pass them, we rarely stop. Shortly after they overtake us again, only then to stop at a sign post. They seem unsure of which way to go, straight on off to the right? Maybe they have no map! We pass them yet again, heading straight on, we know which way we are going. After a few minutes they follow us, catch us and once push on ahead; this is the tortoise and the hare!

We scan the surrounding landscape. We hope to do a large loop later which may take us down this ridge. We can just make out a zig zagging path. It doesn’t look too steep or intimidating.

As we come around the mountain we enter a large cirque, filled with snow and we can see our immediate objectives; up there to the right, Skala, which then leads down and up to Mitikas, off to the left. We continue to the second highest point Skolio at 2911m.

The woman at the refuge warned us that the snow to Skolio could be soft and deep. No one has yet attempted this mountain. As we can’t climb Mitikias, we have decided to give Skolio a go and be the first ones to reach the top this season. SM.

If the snow is good and firm we will continue heading left and around. We will see how we feel.

We are mainly on snow now, but there are still the odd patches of stone. The going is still pretty easy and before long the summits seem in easy reach, below us the Serb and Austrian are following us up.

And the cirque from above, still deeply filled with snow, maybe some of it will stay late into the summer, or will it be gone within a month?

Not too far now and we will be at the top of Skala. The French are nearly there, just a few metres in front of us.

And before long we also step up, but the French are nowhere to be seen. Eventually we see them, a few feet below us on a rocky and snowy ridge, they are traversing across, going towards Mitikas.

And there is Mitikas in all its glory. There does not appear to be as much snow as the refuge guardian spoke about, maybe a lot has melted in the last few days. You can see a fairly clear route, snow and ice free, but that is from here, maybe on the ground it is more tricky.

You also have to cross the colouir, that large ribbon of snow caught in the gully, that could be difficult, it looks quite steep.

We watch the French move tentatively forward. They do not move as a group, one heads on, the others hold back. They don’t look very confident. We are not sure what equipment they have bought. It doesn’t look like they have ice axes, poles, crampons. I hope they know what they are doing!

One of them edges very slowly around the top of the colouir. It certainly doesn’t look safe, not the way he is moving anyway.

We don’t have the equipment or the inclination to follow them, maybe with a little less snow, but not today.

Instead we will wander over to Skolio where we should get an even finer view of the summit ridge. But before we head off the Serb and Austrian join us and also comment on the French adventure taking place.

We tell them of our plans.

Your are heading on, we ask.

No, this is far as I am going, the Serb asserts. There isn’t going to be any discussion over that decision!

We  will wave from the top. And we will take a photo. Must remember to email them to get a copy!

They take the obligatory photo for us here anyway.

And we take in the scenery, before putting on our crampons and heading across the virgin snow.

Leave only footprints, a good mantra in the mountains.

It only takes a further twenty or so minutes to traverse across to the summit of Skolio.

Once there and you get an amazing view of the rocky ridge. We can just see one of the French at the summit of Mitikas

Those last few steps to the summit.

 

Beautiful, except for the graffiti!

Quite relaxed after all that exertion!

And balancing the camera precariously on the cairn, we manage to get the summit photo.

We never get bored of these landscapes, our solitude versus the magnitude of them.

That is our next objective, down the slope, along the right hand ridge and then left.

The soft snow is easy to lollop down as we cross the slope.

It is always nice to create a somewhat circular walk.

The faint white line on the left is the path we headed up to the summit on. Our route down will take us across more snow and then down the steep ridge, but there is a fairly easy zig zag path we saw on our way up.

Not a bad route.

Suddenly Susana sees an animal.

Another dog. Up here amongst the snow. What is it doing! It stays with us a few minutes before heading off. We are a bit concerned, he does not seem to have crampons!

So now we have paw prints amongst our footprints.

The Serb and the Austrian have also made their way down and are just ahead of us.

It has been a fine walk. We catch up with them back at the refuge. They soon head off, but we stay to have our lunch. We thank the refuge guardian and also head off. Further down passing the pair yet again, they are taking it easy.

We quickly pack up Dora and head off. We find a town and a supermarket to replenish our stocks, but after the exertions of the day, we get a bit lost leaving the village and spend an hour driving around a countryside which looks much like the British landscape, except for the fact that Olympus is always in the background!

It is getting late, so we head for the beach, a well deserved meal and a relaxing evening with the waves as a lullaby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GDR