BACKOlympus 2024- Summit-ting to Greatness
31st July 2024
This year the Messagemaker Displays Team and our friends at D2D Associates Limited, Tenzing Search, Seymour Civil Engineering and Clearview Intelligence climbed ‘The Home of the Gods’ Mt. Olympus! A massive 9500ft mountain in Greece for a The Children’s Trust!
Let’s hear from Dave Cload, The Captain of our climb! Who tells us what happened as the team climbed to the top?
Friday 21st June
We started our Greek Odyssey on a dark Friday morning in our car park at Stocksigns. For some, a meeting time of 4.15 am was as much of a challenge as climbing a huge mountain! We met a few new faces (and a few old ones) and got all our kit together ready to start our journey.
Security & airport checks completed we all grabbed some well-needed breakfast and headed to the gate for departure. We managed a quick group photo in our gate room before boarding the plane.
After all passengers were boarded we were advised of a technical issue with the aircrafts back up radio system. Without it functioning, we were going nowhere.
After an hour we were given an update and advised that a technician was on board and trying to remedy the situation.
Another hour along and we were advised that the plane was not fixable and that they would have to perform (in their technical jargon) what they call ‘a plane change’.
Luckily we grasped the concept and within half an hour we sat on another plane waiting for the luggage to be loaded. 3 hours late, but still taking off!
We landed 3.5 hours later in Thessaloniki, collected three minivans, and drove just over an hour to the seaside town of Olympic Beach, nestled in the shadow of the mighty Mt Olympus.
We had enough time to grab some dinner, breakfast supplies for the next day and get our kit ready for the off. The next day we were climbing the might Mt Olympus, steeped in myth and legend.
Saturday 22nd June
Another early start and with some trepidation, we tucked into a continental breakfast ready for the off.
Another early start and with some trepidation, we tucked into a continental breakfast ready for the off. We donned our boots and our branded charity shirts, then set off to the mountain. On route we had to make a quick detour to mountaineering guides who would help us on the final ascent to the summit. We collected harnesses and helmets, signed some disclaimers, then set off to the start point.
When organising an ascent of the highest mountain in Greece, we didn’t really think about the possibility of a heatwave. At sea level it was 37c. I don’t think anyone would have made it if we had started there. Luckily, the mountain is so high that the trek’s start point is 1130m above sea level (3710ft).
It was still a very, very tough start. There was no air movement in the lush green forest that rings the mountain. We immediately started to drip with sweat!
We plodded on for around three hours, stopping very regularly for water breaks. For this first stretch we were all quite quiet, just trying to keep going through the beautiful woodland. We stopped for 45 minutes at a mountain refuge and fuelled up and took on supplies before heading to the second part of the day hike.
At this point we had climbed 815m in elevation, comparable to the size of England’s highest mountain, Scafell Pike. Ahead of us was a much longer stint taking us up to 2600m.
The paths started getting narrower and would go up as well as down in sections. The higher we went, the better the views got.
We finished day one by following a spine of the mountain up along to the Muses Plateau, home to some 150 Balkan chamois goat-antelope and many climbers. The plateau is a huge grass tundra under the gaze of the mountain Summi, which is called Mýtikas (translates to ‘the nose’).
Sunday 23rd June
We had a beautiful sunrise over the Aegean Sea that illuminated the summit with an orange glow.
we donned our climbing harnesses and helmets and made the hour-long hike round a huge depression, directly under the summit.
After much slipping and sliding on loose scree we made it to the start of the summit ascent, a near vertical gulley with plentiful ledges hand holds it was very steep, but not technically a climb. In fact it is classified as a YDS Class 3 grade scramble, in sections if you fall the chances of survival is minimal.
Luckily this is where our team of professional mountain guides came in. We were belayed up in groups of 4, so although it looked very dangerous, it was about as safe as we could possibly make it.
The scramble took around an hour as we made it to the very summit of Mt Olympus, a mighty 2,917m, or 9,572ft high. The views were amazing, we had a 360 panoramic view around the mountain. On one side the mountain sloped off into the Aegean Sea, on the other huge vertical drops that looked out over mainland Greece.
We had made it to the Home of the Gods! After precariously making our way back down the gulley, we circled back to the overnight refuge, collected our belongings and started the epic walk back. The last hour was absolute agony. Everything Hurt! Everyone was in a massive state of relief when the vans and the starting point came into view.
Later that evening, once showered and changed it finally felt real.
This charity fort his years climb is The Children’s Trust. Every Year the Trust support thousands of children and their families across the UK. Based in Tadworth, the Trust provides rehabilitation as well as a range of specialist care, education and therapy for children and young people to make the best recovery after a serious illness or accident.
Thank you to our friends from D2D Associates Limited, Tenzing Search, Seymour Civil Engineering and Clearview Intelligence for joining us on our ascent up Olympus for this amazing charity.
We are so proud to share that we raise £17,036 for The Children’s Trust.
Thank you for all your support and donations, this phenomenal amount of money will go a long way in helping this brilliant charity.
