Climbing Mt. Olympus

Litohoro at the bottom of Mt. Olympus
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We arrived at the small village of Litohoro at the base of Mt. Olympus around 11 AM.  Litohoro is a cute little village with a spectacular view of the mountains.  We stopped at the tourist office where the man was very helpful, even going as far as reserving us a room up at the mountain refuge and calling a woman who had rooms for rent (as the hotels were booked up for some occasion).  We spent the evening just checking out the village and relaxing.  We met a French couple at the place where we were staying who were also going up Mt. Olympus the next day and made plans of sharing the taxi cost to get up to Prionia.

Us at the top of Scala (2866 m)
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The next morning, all four of us dropped off our big backpacks at the tourist office and caught a taxi up to Prionia.  Prionia is a tiny settlement 18 km from Litohoro, with only a car park and a taverna.  This is the start to the most popular trail up Mt. Olympus.  From there, it is a steep, exhausting trek up the mountain, through the trees.  It took us about 2 hours to reach Refuge A at Spilios Agapitos (probably because there were some wasps and flies chasing us up the mountain -- we'd never thought there'd be so many at such a high altitude).  We rested there for an hour or so, then started our trek to Scala, Mt. Olympus' fourth highest peak.  It was very steep and there were sections of loose rock, but the views were amazing.  It took us about 2.5 hours or so to get to the top of Scala at 2866 m.  We had considered attempting the highest peak, Mytikas (2918 m).  However, we could see the sort of rock scrambling we'd have to do and decided that it had been scary enough to get up to Scala.  The hike down was not as bad as we had feared and we were back at the refuge in time for dinner.

View from Scala
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The refuge has about 90 beds.  When entering the refuge, you have to wear the provided slip-on sandals.  Rather than the bunks we expected, the sleeping rooms are lined by long beds, sleeping about 10 people.  Woolen blankets and pillows are provided.  The rooms are coed and filled in order of arrival.  For dinner we had a bean soup, greek salad, and potatoes in some sort of sauce.  There was a water shortage due to low snow pack last winter.  This meant no showers (which would have been cold) or drinking water (so we had to buy bottled).  It was very chilly outside in the evening -- the first time all trip we'd worn our jeans.

Sleeping area at the refuge
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The next morning we got talking to a girl (Alex) who turned out to be from Ottawa.  We ended up walking down the mountain with her and we all caught a ride from Prionia to Litohoro from another hiker with a car.  It turned out Alex was also heading to Meteora, so we all ended up travelling together.