Mt. Olympus, 2918M or 9573 Ft tall, the tallest mountain in Greece, the tallest mountain I have ever attempted to climb. Somehow I found myself leading an expedition of my predominantly ill prepared malaka friends; Sam Chris and Rick to the summit. The hike up Olympus was part of a larger trip through Greece and Ukraine, continuing a tradition we have shared for years. The hike had originally been planned by, and was going to be lead by my friend Tyler. But life being the way it is threw some different challenges his way which he was busy tackling. This is the reason the request to lead the expedition up Olympus came to me.

The request found its way too me as I was traversing the Fagaras mountains in Romania. The message has flown across the Atlantic, across Europe, crossed the iron curtain, routed through some small country town at the base of the ridge, squeezed through a gap in the mountains, culminating in the ping of the notification on my phone ripping through the calm mountain air. Sighing I accepted. I would be going up Olympus regardless, so what was a little extra responsibility? I wonder if that was the sentiment of Scott prior to leaving on his Terra Nova expedition?

Tyler had done his homework and had been sending the group outstanding resources to prepare for the endevor. Hike itineraries, packing lists, descriptions of the hike and other resources. I assumed I would be simply sliding into the driver seat of a broken in, well-oiled machine that would only require someone to point it in the right direction and yell go. That thought was of course anomalous, and I should have known that.

The night before the start of the hike we descended, like Spartans, into the small town of Litochoro, not searching for Helots, but for food to keep us going during the hike. We found a small corner bodega and crammed inside, jockeying for the food we wanted. I grabbed the ingredients to make my newest hiking food staple, Romanian mountain hut sandwiches, and some bananas to supplement my supply of Cliff bars. I checked out and turned to see the rest of the party struggling to buy two days worth of food that would be appropriate for hiking… Fair enough, I should have given them a primer. Let’s call this strike one.

After buying food we headed back up the hill toward the Pension we were staying in. The shopping experience had inspired some questions as to how prepared everybody was. I had failed to take into account that my friends had not spent the last few months hiking through assorted mountain ranges and they might need slightly more help than I had anticipated. We reached the Pension and I began my line of inquiry.
“Did you guys bring any long pants or jackets to wear when we are above the tree line? Or only gym shorts and V neck white tee shirts?”
Blank stares except from Sam who atleast brought pants and a hoodie.
“Hats?”
More stares, Sam pointed at the hood on his sweatshirt.
“Rain jacket? Poncho?”
The zombies never even blinked. With a shit eating grin Sam held up his sweatshirt once more.
“Flashlights for the morning hike on day 2?”
Sam held up a headlamp. Give that man a gold star. This question elicited the first reaction from the other two. Rick furrowed his brow in deep concentration…
“This should be good” I thought to myself.
Suddenly his eyes lit up. Pulling his phone out of his pants he turned on the small light people seem to associate with a flashlight.
“Check!” He exclaimed glowing with pride.
By this point a weak man would have also awarded Rick a gold star. I am not a weak man. there was no star for Rick.
I gave a half hearted nod of approval to the group and retired to the Pensions balcony to work out the probability of my friends survival. No rain in the forecast. That’s the rain gear problem solved. Temperature at the summit about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. That should mitigate the freezing to death problem, although there will probably be some discomfort. 40 mile per hour winds above the tree line… Problem… Here’s to hoping we nail the timing and miss the worse of it.
Survey says… we most likely will not lose any group members during the hike. The outlook may not be as cheery as I would have liked but I have gotten used to working with less over the past weeks. I was finally looking forward to starting up the mountain in the morning.