Well, we did it. Starting yesterday at about 12:15pm we hiked 2,807 meters (9,207 feet) to one of the highest peaks of Mt. Olympus. If we had some legit climbing gear, we probably could have gone up the Devils Staircase, or as the locals call it, Deaths Passage, but I dont have travel insurance so why push my luck with any sort of passageway to death, ya know? The hike took us around 5 hours because we kept a good pace. Kohan and Lauren did it around 4 1/2 because Kohan is a Kiwi freak of nature and Lauren was so over hiking, her shear will power flew her to the top. Some groups told us it took them upwards of 8 hours because they had to stop so many times. The terrain varied from lush forests at the bottom, to barren dry chilly desert through the middle, all the way to loose cracked rock at the top. At the first sight of the refugee camp I wanted to cry. My feet and legs were thrashed and with the sun going down, it was really starting to get cold. All I wanted was wine. Do with that information what you will, but at that altitude I only needed one glass. I had some lentils and rice with some red wine with Jack and Austin at Camp C, the smaller of the two refugee camps, and hung out with a bunch of Greek climbers. They told us stories about watching people fall and the fatalities certain trails claim each year. Over a Greek salad, they invited us to do the Devils Staircase with them the next day and swore it wasnt too dangerous- basically just like climbing a rock ladder with nothing but hundreds of meters of rocks and certain death below. We declined. However, I honestly havent felt like Ive experienced Greece and its people more than I did on top of that mountain. We crashed at Apostolides, the larger camp and maybe got a grand total of 3 hours of sleep between the snoring dudes and the chick throwing up from altitude sickness next to us. The next morning we surveyed the two options down with our new climber buddies. It was either the longer safe route or the short more dangerous route. The girl from the rescue crew gave us a concerned look about the short route and the climber dudes said it shouldnt be a problem. We just needed to take it slowly slowly over the two sketchy spots. We took the short route. Lets just say the only thing scarier than going up Mt. Olympus, is going down the short route of Mt. Olympus. There was no real trail at the two spots, just small cracks in the rocks where we had to step and hug the wall to our right. Jack has vertigo and Austin had on an 80 pound backpack, so it was... interesting. When we were safe, we looked up and saw 2 tiny specks watching us from refuge camp C to make sure we were safe. We quietly cursed them and continued on, slowly slowly.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 16:05:15 +0000
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