Greece. Mount Olympus. Day 64

 Day 64:

Views from the refuge

The Team

7:30  We woke up and had a heavy breakfast. Surprisingly for us, the day appeared absolutely cloudless. We had seen a positive forecast for this 23 October, but we didn’t expect that. In a conversation with the guard, she said that climbing Mt. Olympus’ highest point (Mytikas) that day wasn’t a good idea, because we would find so many ice in the top of the peak, which is quite steep. We decided to climb first to Skala point (2.880 m), and then there we could decide between Skolio (2.911 m, an easy and plain peak) or Mytikas (2.918 m). We didn’t see our new greek friends that morning… Where were they??  

Having a rest in the Greek mountains

Kakalos refuge

9:00  We started to walk, carrying light bags. It was sunny, but cool. Although the views over the valley were superb and we were enjoying them a lot, we had 2 hard hours to Skala passage (2.880 m). There, a strong wind surprised us, coming from the north face. We took a look over that isolated face, dark and iced. Not for us… frightening! We talked about trying  (or not) the climb to Mytikas. Ronnie (especially Ronnie!), Adri and me were determined to try it, but Josemi preferred to stay there and wait for us. A clever decision, considering that was his first time in a high mountain. The wind was cold and persistent there, but we felt encouraged when we saw that the path (marked with red points) went through the east side of the mountain, which were sunny and protected from the wind.

Ronnie, with Mytikas behind him!

A look over the north face

The "rescue" team

So we continued moving forward carefully, this time with the help of our hands. The only people we found on the way were some kind of mountain rescue team. But some of them were very clumsy (we didn’t understand that, maybe they were training because some of them were new), and we finally overtook the group. The pass to Mytikas has some tricky points, but it’s quite easy if there is not ice. We found two iced zones, and we took some risk stepping on them witouth crampons or ropes… but is what we decided. It’s always hard to decide to turn back so close from your objective.

The best "path" is easy to find if you follow the red marks

The "rescuers" in one of the trickiest parts, using ropes

Mytikas, top of the Olympus

12:00  Finally, at Mytikas peak (2.918 m). Highest point in Olympus, and by extension, Greece. Impressive views from here. Rewarding feeling. We had a quick meal, while watching the “rescue” team advancing toward us using ropes in the iced zones. Surprisingly, a young couple appeared behind us. 

–“Errhh… Hello!”, I said. 

– “Ohhhh… at last!!! Hi!”, replied the boy. 

–“From where are you coming from??” 

-“Ah, we got lost, we come from Kakalos refuge. It was an awful decision to follow that route… It was hard and risky for us. We climbed with our hands, I dunno how are we here...”.

They were quite tired, and with a scary expression in their faces. I felt that they didn’t enjoy so much the climb… We started the descent just in the moment the mountain group arrived. We were lucky, because they left the ropes put and we (and the young couple) could use them. Easier and safer. Josemi were almost frozen when we met him. Long way down until Zolotas refuge. 

Skolio peak, and the north face of Olympus

Jump!

15:00  We recovered energies there, eating a lot. Ronnie showed us all his variety: lutenitza, bulgarian cheese, vegetables… and Rakia, of course!! We ate and drank everything. The rest of the way back to the car was never-ending for our tired legs… In fact, we had made 3.000 meters of height difference today. We were in the car around 20:00, after a very hard journey. But we had work yet: 2 hours and a half drive to Kalampaka (Meteora village). We drove to Larisa, later Trikala and finally Kalampaka. We were lucky to find a cheap hotel (12 € each one, in a 4 people room) one hour before midnight. We had crepes for dinner, and was funny when we had to decide who of us would sleep together (one of the beds was double). Piedra, papel y tijera, and Josemi and Ronnie were the loving couple. 

Adri, in the middle of Mount Olympus

Although absolutely tired, we felt fortunate… happy. We had a great sunny day and we could reach our main objective: the top of the Olympus. All the views had been unbelievable, and we had been walking through amazing spots in the legendary Greek mountain. All had gone nice, very nice!! And we were excited about Meteora... but that had to wait until the next day...

Josemi, in the last kilometers

High On Fire - Snakes For The Divine 

 

Greece. Mount Olympus. Day 63

Una vez más, y para descontento de algunos de los que suelen leerme, vuelvo al inglés en esta entrada. Una buena forma de practicar, aunque agradecería que alguien me corrigiese los errores (y así aprendo...). Allá va...

 Day 63:

The greek frontier is 180 km from Sofia. Too short distance to avoid the temptation… Ok, Athens and all the famous islands are in the south, far away from us (around 1.000 km), but the north of Greece also has interesting things… The main attraction for me was the Mount Olympus, the sacred mountain. All began when Ludi told me things about this region, and how beautiful is. He joked about how greek mountaineers try to exceed Musala's height, the highest Balkan mountain, putting stones one above another in the top of the Olympus. Of course it’s only a joke (I hope…), but it’s true that the Bulgarian peak is only 8 meters higher… so maybe, if they put enough stones...

On the road to Greece. South Bulgaria landscape.

So, finally I decided to look for some people interested in a trip to Mount Olympus (since Pacas and Monroy were not). I put a message in the Sofia couchsurfing forum, and one Bulgarian boy was very interested: Ronnie. I met with him in Flocafe (just in the center of Sofia) on Wednesday, and we talked about the plan. Everything was hasty; but we didn’t have so much time before extreme winter temperatures, so we decided to try it as soon as possible: this weekend!! And we added to the trip two main destinations: Meteora and Thessaloniki! I explained everything to Adri and Josemi (our new spanish friends), and they were crazy about the idea! On Thursday, the four of us visited a huge market in the outskirts of Sofia, in which we found some necessary (and cheap!) things as gloves, winter pants, etc. Ready to rock!!

Views over Litohoro and Aegean Sea. Cloudy day.

Near Litohoro... where is Olympus?

We arranged to meet on Friday (22th of October) at 8 AM, but we started with some problems: Ronnie overslept and we got muddled with our new meeting point… Result: we said good bye to Sofia around one hour later. Bad thing, considering we were very short on time (as we will see later). The journey to the frontier is easy and has great mountain landscapes, we could enjoy them with a sunny weather. We stopped to have a quick meal in our way, and we arrived to the frontier 3 hours after exiting Sofia. A greek policewoman asked Ronnie where did he meet us (3 spanish), and why were we entering Greece. She was very impolite in her manners… we joked long time about that situation. Since here, we started to drive on highway, and everything went easier: 100 km after the frontier is Thessaloniki, and another 100 more km and we were on Litohoro, a village used as a “base camp” for the excursions to Mount Olympus. The day was very ugly, cloudy and foggy in the mountains. We bought some food in the last minute, and we ate something before drove to the end of the port (Prionia, 1.060 meters high, 17 km from Litohoro) in which starts the path to Zolotas hut (or “A” hut). This hut is 2.060 meters high, so that day we had 1.000 meters of height difference, not bad!.

One more time... german motor!

Here we go...

At that moment, it was 5 PM and very cloudy. Not so much light around us. It’s 2 hours and a half walking to the hut, so we had to be very hurry, or we would be covered by the darkness. The path was very beautiful, all the time walking across a fall forest. But, at the same time, it was darker and darker. And we didn’t know the area, we didn’t see other people doing trekking around there… I had a map, but I think it's not useful in the night... These things happen when you start walking at 5 PM… botch!!

I was trying to rush the guys when I noticed that Ronnie’s bag was the biggest and heaviest, and, naturally, he was the slowest. I asked him:

–“Ronnie, what are you carrying there??”. 
–“Ahh… nothing special, only the clothes, some food, some beer…”. 
–“I see…beer... and how much beer are you talking about?” 
–“Err… around 2 liters, I think… Ah! And one bottle of Rakia!”.  
 –“Fuck!, ok Ronnie, we have to hurry up or we will get in troubles with the darkness… come on, empty that bottles and we may walk faster”. 
–“No, no, no! No way! The beer goes with me! No way! We have to drink it in the top of the peak!”. 

One of the last photos of the day... before darkness

Ok, ok… at that moment I understood that Ronnie would not throw anything of his bag, and much less the beer!. But since then, we took great pains to go faster. When the last rays of light were disappearing, we reached two exhausted Greek girls. Twenty minutes later, the absolute darkness covered us. The fog was blocking the moonlight, and everything went black, black, black. We continued walking with the help of some small lanterns, but the girls were very tired and they wanted to stop to have a rest (and they didn't have any lantern). I didn’t like the idea, because the hut was supposed to be close from our position, so we did the last effort carrying their bags until the end. We were lucky and we could follow the track and arrive to Zolotas Hut, but getting lost in that conditions would have been quite risky. 

The amazing path to the Olympus

Once inside, we received a nice reward in its warm dining room: spaghetti and some beer!! We had dinner with the girls and we all talked about our experience together, it was a perfect ending to a very long (and funny) day. After that, we went to our bunks and covered ourselves with 3 blankets each one… and they weren’t enough!! Viva la revolución, Ronnie!!!