Mount Olympus, a 3000m+ standalone summit in mainland Greece offers visitors fantastic hiking and climbing from sea level to the summit plateau in beautiful peaceful surroundings.
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 | | Alpine Butterfly |
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High on the windy isolated plateau is the excellent Christos Kakalos refuge. Myself and a group of three other friends experienced the hike up to the plateau starting in the village of Litohoro. The plateau is extremely beautiful however it is a bit of wind funnel. We camped outside the refuge (thanks to the refuge guys for lending us tents) and had to fight to put the tents up against gusting winds.
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 | | 40MPH gusts. Tents just staying grounded |
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 | Me with the Throne of Zeus behind....windy as...
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 | | Beers and guitars in the Christos Kakolos hut. |
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On our fist day on the plateau we summited the highest peak Mytikas (Scrambling Grade 2) in perfect weather…
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 | | Memorial to climbers lost |
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 | | Grade 2 terrain |
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 | | Perfect weather on the Mytikas scramble |
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 | | Summit shot |
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We climbed Comici-Escher (IV, 200m) as a group of four on the following day. The route runs up the large cliff that dominated the summit plateau called Stefani and is calling to be climbed. Steady climbing all the way with a few pegs for protection it is apparently the first route climbed in Greece. There is a lot of lose rock on this old mountain as we had to duck for cover whilst gearing up at the bottom as the sound of fast moving rock whistled past!
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 | | Strolling in - A 20min approach | |
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 | | The rough line of Comici |
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 | | Erik comforts Stana having trouble with the exposure |
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 | | Gemma at a belay |
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After the seven hour hike down we were back down at sea level only hours after summiting. A dramatic contrast to be on a Greek beach after being over 3000m up on the mountain. A great end to the holiday.
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| From Summit to Sea |
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