Mount Olympus, Greece
SPECS – Mount Olympus, Greece
52 peaks – nearest town: Litochoro – hike start point : Prionia 814 m – Refuge A 2060 m – Skala 2880 m – highest peak : Mytikas 2918 m
our time: Prionia to Refuge A camp 4hrs – Refuge A to Skala 3hrs – Skala to Refuge A 1.5 hrs – Refuge A to Prionia 4.5hrs
Zion, what did it mean to you to climb Mount Olympus?
“I don’t know what it meant to me. It just felt important. It made me feel good.. my heart, me, not my muscles.. it made my soul feel good.”
“I was once looking at the map of Europe with mom and I saw Mount Olympus. I felt like I really wanted to go because I heard that it was the mountain of the gods. I was really happy because I really wanted to go and when they said I could, I was really happy. During my whole trip in Europe I was waiting to get there. When we got there, it looked really big – almost as big as it was! As I was climbing, up until Refuge A, I wasn’t tired and I was running. Just when I was getting tiered, I saw Refuge A .. the stairs at first and then the buildings. It was a very nice place and the people we saw where nice. We set up our tent, had something to eat, and then we went to sleep. During the night there was lots and lots of wind. It was making the tent bulge and blow – I didn’t think much of it – just that Zeus wanted to keep me off his mountain 🙂 Dad and I got up early to climb to the summit. It was very cold and very windy (I was thinking that I might get blown off the cliff when we took a stop). After a bit of walking from Refuge A, it started to get rocky. Further up, there was less and less vegetation until there was none. The climb was steep. We saw people camping in the little corner of the mountain, we saw mountain goats, and we were above the second layer of clouds. It was Beautiful! We made it to the second tallest summit, right beside Mytikas. It was worth the hike.”
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Eamon, what would you like to say? “I wish they come to Mount Olympus”.
How big was Mount Olympus? “HUGE!”
How long did it take to climb? “probably 2 hours” (everything in Eamon’s perspective of time is 2.. 2 minutes, 2 hours, 2 days).
Did you need help to climb Mount Olympus? “no, it gotta take me a while to do that. I do it all by mine self”.
What was your favorite thing about that trip? “um, my favorite part ’bout me being strong to helping daddy and Zion”
What would you like me to write for you? “write about you walking with me” , “my favorite part about the (tent) zipper going up and down because the wind blowing it”, “bout’ me and you having fun in the mountain, staying places, and telling me things”
Would you like to climb Mount Olympus again? “yes. yes mommy”.
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Elmir:
I watched my 3 year old son defeat a mountain. I have a picture in my head of Eamon standing with his arms up showing his musles and saying: ” I am strong” this, after 3,5 hours of intense hiking. I watched my 10 year old son follow his dream and feel excited to meet the GODs of Mount Olympus. So excited and determined that, after 4 hours of hiking on day 1, he woke up early to do a very difficult 3 hour summit hike early the next morning.
