More than 650 kilograms (1,433 pounds) of trash was removed from Mount Olympus, the legendary home of the ancient Greek gods, during a major cleanup operation on Greece’s highest mountain.
The cleanup operation took place below the “Throne of Zeus,” a prominent rock formation near one of Mount Olympus’ highest peaks. The initiative was undertaken by Ecogenia in collaboration with the Christos Kakalos Mountain Shelter. Among the findings were soda cans from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, TA NEA reported. The mountain of trash had been collected at the end of July and was stored away until removal.
During the clean-up, sheet metal, pieces of old generators, and old electrical appliances were found, buried in the rocks for almost half a century. “It was a small dump,” Michalis Styllas, geologist and manager of the refuge, said in speaking with TA NEA. It was reportedly located at a height of 2,648 meters (2,896 yards). “I discovered it when I was there for geological studies,” he added. “It is at the deepest point of ‘Zeus’ throne’ and was not visible from either the refuges or the trails. It is a place that no one goes to.”
The extreme conditions in alpine ecosystems, as Ecogenia notes in its publication, can slow down the natural decomposition of materials, resulting in garbage abandoned decades ago remaining on the mountain and burdening the ecosystem. Among the finds was a container of olive oil from the 1970s.
The mountain of the gods is now a tourist attraction
Styllas pointed out that findings such as the olive oil container were a sign of a different mentality that prevailed in past decades before the mountain of the gods was developed as a tourist destination and mountaineering became popular as a hobby. As he says, the older managers of the shelters hosted very few mountain climbers, and they were mainly used by the mountain muleteers who were, perhaps, not as aware of issues of cleaning and recycling. The people who climb the mountain now are aware. This situation has nothing to do with today’s climbers, he clarifies.
It is estimated that around 30,000 to 50,000 people make it to the 2,000-meter mark on Mount Olympus every year, although there is no official record of climbers. The Christos Kakalos refuge was established in 2003 and hosts around five thousand people per year. The Throne of Zeus, or Stefani, is the second highest peak of the mountain, with a height of 2,911 meters (9,550 ft), while the highest peak of Olympus and all of Greece is Mytikas at 2,918 meters (9,573 ft).
A similar clean-up action was organized by the refuge in 2013. At that time, a small landfill was discovered behind the peak of Prophet Elias, at 2,803 meters (9,196 ft), where garbage left from the 1980s and 1990s once again been found.
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