Hello everyone,
today I want to share with you a special experience for me, with Mountaineering-hiking club of Rethymno, Crete, Greece.
The route was: Night climb to Psiloritis (Timios Stauros) [Honest cross].
Psiloritis is a mountain that has five peaks above 2000m altitude.
Its highest peak is the Timios Stauros with 2456m altitude, the highest peak of Crete, Greece. Up there, there is a stone church Timios Stauros.
Let's start the tour...
We started from Rethymno with our own cars on Saturday afternoon to destination the shelter of the mountaineering club in the location Toumpotos Prinos.
The shelter.
When we arrived there we started settle in for a short night, some would sleep inside the shelter and some others outside, so they had to set up their tents to sleep there. The wind was strong and the process was difficult, as well as a difficult night.
The view from the shelter.
In our team we had Chloe. She managed to climb with us on the peak.
Later we ate something and made hang out between us, expecting to see the setting sun along with the rising moon.
The moon has just begun to appear.
The sunset.
The colours in the sky.
From the left side the moonrise and from the right side the sunset.
The moon before sleep.
The moon before we start the climb to the peak.
Here the time is 03:00am and we are ready to start the night climb with the help of our flashlights and the light of the moon.
We started from Toumpotos Prinos at 1510m altitude.
The first station was in Kalogrades at 1810m altitude for 15 minutes.
We passed Platia Loutsa at 2180m altitude without station.
The view some meters before the peak.
And yes that was it. After 3 hours and a lot of effort we managed to reach the peak at 2456m altitude.
We arrived almost a half hour before the sunrise. There was cold and medium wind.
While we were waiting for the sunrise we worshiped in the church of Timios Stauros.
The sunrise had already started and the view from the highest point of Crete was beautiful.
With the sunrise we lived a wonderful moment of love!
A pleasant surprise awaited a lucky girl, her lover made a propose to be his wife with a ring inside of the church at the highest peak of Crete and outside the church their friends were waiting for them with fireworks and songs.
There was still some snow left on the slopes.
The time to return back at the shelter.
The view while we climbed down.
Finally after few hours we managed to get down to the shelter, tired but excited.
Personally for me it was a big challenge to be at the peak, I finally made it and I feel satisfied.
It was the first time I climbed this peak and the first time I was at such a high altitude.
In closing I want to thank the mountaineering club and all the people who helped me in every way to climb the peak.
Now I am waiting with expectation for the next activity on the mountain.
@nikoleondas