Quotes of The Day

The end of the ridge and the end of the world... then nothing but that clear, empty air. There was nowhere else to climb. I was standing on the top of the world.
~ Stacy Allison, first American woman to summit Everest

Europe, Greece, Mount Olympus (2917 m)

Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece. In 1981 UNESCO declared Mount Olympus a "International Biosphere Reserve" and in 1987 it was declared a National Park of Greece. The highest peaks there are Mytikas (2917m or 2918.8 according to the latest measurements), Skolio (2911m), Stefani (2909m), also known as "Zeus' throne", Skala (2866m, Agios Antonis (2815m), Profitis Ilias (2803m) and Toumba (2785).

NASA Earth Observatory
Climbing Mount Olympus is a non-technical hike, except for the final 30 minute section from Skala summit to Mitikas summit, which is Yosemite Decimal System class 3 rock scramble. That class means scrambling with increased exposure; a rope can be carried but is usually not required; falls are not always fatal. It is estimated that 10,000 people climb Mount Olympus each year, most of them reaching only the Skolio summit (which does not involve rock scramble). Most climbs to Mount Olympus start from the town of Litochoro, which took the name City of Gods because of its location on the roots of the mountain. From there a road goes to Prionia, where the hike begins at the bottom of the mountain.


Mount Olympus

Coordinates 40°5′00″N 22°21′00″E

Live cams in the area - Plaka-Litochoro

Used information, pictures and video from http://en.wikipedia.org/, http://www.summitpost.org/ and http://www.youtube.com/

Quotes of The Day

For me, the value of a climb is the sum of three inseparable elements, all equally important: aesthetics, history, and ethics. Together they form the whole basis of my concept of alpinism. Some people see no more in climbing mountains than an escape from the harsh realities of modern times. This is not only uninformed but unfair. I don’t deny that there can be an element of escapism in mountaineering, but this should never overshadow its real essence, which is not escape but victory over your own human frailty.
~ Walter Bonatti, The Mountains of My Life

Quote of The Day

Mountains are not fair or unfair - they are just dangerous.
~ Reinhold Messner

Quote of The Day

You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.
~ Rene Daumal

Europe, Slovenia, Postojna - Postojna cave

Postojna Cave is a 20,570 m long Karst cave system near Postojna, Slovenia. It is the longest cave system in the country. The caves were created by the Pivka River.



The cave was first described in the 17th century by Johann Weichard Valvasor, and a new area of the cave was discovered accidentally in 1818 by local Luka Čeč, when he was preparing the then known parts of the cave for a visit by Francis I, the first Emperor of Austria. In 1819, the caves were opened to the public, and Čeč went on to become the first official tourist guide for the caves. Electric lighting was added in 1884, preceding even Ljubljana, the capital of Carniola, the Austro-Hungarian province the cave was part of at the time, and further enhancing the cave system's popularity. In 1872 rails were laid in the cave along with first cave train for tourists. At first, these were pushed along by the guides themselves, later at the beginning of the 20th century a gas locomotive was introduced. After 1945, the gas locomotive was replaced by an electric one. 5.3 km of the caves are open to the public, the longest publicly accessible depth of any cave system in the world.

The caves are also home to the endemic olm, the largest trogloditic amphibian in the world. Part of the tour through the caves used to include a pool with some olms in it, though these have been removed recently due to the effect of flashes from visitngs tourists cameras had on the sensitive skin of the olms.

Used information, pictures and video from http://en.wikipedia.org/ and http://www.youtube.com/

Quote of The Day

The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, "What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?" and my answer must at once be, "It is no use." There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It's no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means and what life is for.
~ George Leigh Mallory, 1922