Godspeed to Olympos, Sun, 10 Sep 2023 | written by Simon
Simon with Antigone, Edward, Michał at a Mountain, UNESCO site in Europe, Greece

10/09/2023

Today we started the hike. We walked up to the Spilios Agapitos refuge at 2050m, hung up the for some time, then did another small hike up to a viewing point. The hike itself wasn’t too hard so far, and we were mostly in a forest.

The views are pretty stunning already, with clear skies we can easily see the Mythikos and Skolios summits we’ll be going for tomorrow. The view of Litochoro and the seaside are pretty awesome, too!

So far, it feels a bit unmythical, I have to say. I think I’ll try to get into a more mythic mood tomorrow.

11/10/23

I couldn’t sleep last night. Was it the little cup of Buckfast, the altitude, the dorm room? I don’t know. I missed the sunrise to get more sleep.

By 8:30 we were on the track, heading straight for the highest peak: Mythikos. The ascent to a peak before, Scala, is just a regular mountain walk. Steep, tiring, but easy. We were there before midday. But to get to Mythikos, that’s a whole different story. Now it gets interesting. Only fifty one people died here over the last couple decades. Helmets on.

The path goes through the jagged rocks on a very exposed rocky slope. It’s some great scrambling, fantastic views, and we had perfect weather. The view of the clouds from above was definitely one of the most beautiful things. Anti wasn’t sure at first, but under Michał’s expert guidance it was all easy. Early on, we were joined by Jaden, a British guy who is most impressive – not only is this good first hike ever, but he’s doing it after a major inquiry! He sounds great and we’ll keep in touch.

On the peak, we met no gods. They sit in the clouds, I hear. Convenient. But they did grace me with inspiration today. I had many thoughts about confidence, and how it can be trained through doing difficult tasks like this.

It took us almost three hours to get to Mythikos and back – with some generous time spent hanging out on the peak. Next, we went to Skolio, the second highest peak. Anti and Michał wanted to go back then, and I split of to climb the last peak in the loop: Agios Antonios.

On the way back, it was so quiet and beautiful that I decided to spend some half an hour just hanging out on the plateau and admiring the view.

I caught up with Anti and Michał on the way back and we had a nice chill evening in the refuge. Only minimal Buckfast this time!

12/10/23

Edward is feeling unwell and decided to go back today. After a slow morning, Anti , Michał and I set off on a long and picturesque route towards the Plateau of the Muses. We checked in the Giosos Apostolidis refuge and went around the peaks surrounding the Plateau.

The highlight was the church of the Prophet Eliah, a small temple built out of the flat stones which make up the higher levels of the mountain, just arranged on top of one another without mortar. Standing on top of one of the peaks, it’s the highest temple and building in Greece. From there, we watched a beautiful sunset.

13/10/23

It’s time to descend. We watched a beautiful sunrise and after spending some more time on quiet reflection with the Muses, we wend down towards the Petrostrouga refuge. We were planning to stay there for another night, but we arrived super early and decided to just keep going and get back to Litochoro today.