Peak 20 | Mount Olympus, Greece | 2917m | 19th June 2019
- Adam Stevenson
- Jun 19, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 13, 2019
Home of the ancient Greek gods.
Quick Summary
• Starting point - Priònia car park
• Route taken - E4 Path
• Total ascent - 1900 m
• Total length - 15.5 km round trip
• Total time for climb - 2½ + 8 hours
• Expense - #Modrate
• Equipment - #StandardHike
• Difficulty - #Level3 of 5
• Enjoyment - #5stars of 5*
My friend Iain managed to join me on this one. He's the guy who led me on this crazy adventure! So it was great to do such an iconic mountain alongside him. Iain had been back home in the UK for a few weeks and we had arranged to meet again in Thessaloniki, North Greece. After a quiet catch up we spent the night there and the following day we set off towards the mountain, but much later than what we had planned.
It was at least noon before we left Thessaloniki and we sent our Sat Nav straight for the Pronia restaurant that is located at the start point for Mount Olympus, 1050m above sea level. Neither of us had eaten by this point so we had a quick sandwich there. Then I had a proposal offered to me...
Iain would buy my food for the journey if I would carry his heavy items for him up the mountain. This included 8 liters of water, food, and clothing for the two of us. As any passer-by looking at this deal, it would seem a bad deal for me, however, I didn't mind so much. Firstly I really wanted for Iain to make it up to the top and I would do what I could to help that. Then secondly, I was looking at every mountain at this point as training for the real beasts of Europe. Carrying the extra weight would help me build that strength.
It was by far the heaviest backpack I'd taken on a hike. In the hot humid air, it didn't take long for the sweat to be pouring off me.
This would be my first multi-day hike to a summit on my list. But annoyingly in our rush to start it, I didn't get the chance to refresh myself on any information before we set off. I knew that there were refuge shelters at several locations up the mountain, but I had no idea of what facilities they had. So we had packed for the worst and got all the food, water, and other items we would need for the two days.
So we were presently surprised when we arrived at our accommodation for the night 2.5 hours later. Known as Refuge 'A' or Spilios Agapitos, it is 2100m above sea level so neither of us was expecting much to be up there. I suppose my expectations were as I had never stayed in a mountain refuge was just to have a roof over my head and I would have been happy. There were proper beds, electricity, food, water and beers! It had meant however that I had lugged all that extra food or water up for no purpose other than to save one of the donkeys doing it.
I was excited to spend the night on the mountain as I was looking forward to getting up for a sunrise hike. Iain was less convinced with the early start but we knew that it would be more enjoyable out of the sweltering heat of the day.
We got an early night but It didn't seem like 5 mins before our 04:45 morning alarm was going off. We seemed to be the only ones in the entire refuge to leave so early but we got lucky we had a whole dorm room to ourselves so we didn't disturb anyone.
Not long after we left the accommodation the morning red glow from the coming sunrise started to appear on the horizon.
As the sun started to appear. The photo opportunities were like nothing else. I take most of my photos on the trip with my Huawai Mate 20 Pro phone. It saves weight by not than taking a DSLR up and its always very quickly accessible.
The last part of the hike to get to the highest peak of Mount Olympus involves doing a grade I scramble. It is quite well marked and I think that this may have been my first entry into actually climbing on a mountain. There were one or two sections where there was some exposure to some large drops so this section if not for everyone.
We arrived at the top just after 8:00am and there were maybe just 3 or 4 other people around the summit that must have started from the higher refuge.
We hung around the top for 10 mins or so, took in the view and debated which way to head back down. I initially wanted to do a loop and descend the other way towards the Giosos Apostolidis refuge. However its a steeper decline down in a gully, and with the other groups now around we didn't want to take the risk to go down it without a helmet. Falling rocks are the biggest cause of deaths on a mountains and it only takes one loose rock to be knocked accidentally to have the potential of causing serious trouble.
So we doubled back the way we came. On route the first crowds of other tourist started emerging as well as the clouds in the sky started rolling in. The clouds quickly began to shroud the summit until any views from the top were no longer visible. It appeared that we had timed it to perfection. No crowds and a view is exactly how I like my summits.
This was a certainly a stand out mountain for me on this project. I couldn't recommend this experience more if you are visiting the area. I would love to do this again at some point and perhaps try starting on the trail that comes all the way from the coast to do the full 2917m climb. We had meet people on route that had done this.
Olympus marked the end of my 11 peak stint that took me from Spain, through Italy and all the way down the Balkan coast. I planned to fly back home for some family visits before my next phase where the schedule would really start to pick up the pace.
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