Tragedy in Olympus

15 March
16 March - video
17 March
21 March

21 March The operation to retrieve the bodies of the 3 mountaineers ended this afternoon. The bodies were carried away by a group of 10 soldiers, 18 mountaineers and 9 men of the Special Forces from Rachi, a site 1700m. high, where the group arrived by helicopter.
17 March The operation to recover the bodies is done under bad weather conditions. A member of the rescue team of 7 who were trapped near the bodies, is carried away due to an injury. Dimitris Kallos, leading the group of 7, experienced mountaineer and member of the Greek expedition to Dhaulagiri last March, explains.


16 March

	We tried to reproduce the real scenery of the accident, using photoes from TV news. Below, scenes from the rescue and recovery preparations. The film shows the exact route of the 3 mountaineers, by the camera of a member of the rescue team, who also narrates.



15 March
	click on the map for details The accident occured in the region between Kokkinopilos (left) and Mytikas (right), in the Xerolakki ravine.
From TA NEA, 15.3.99
The bodies of three young mountainclimbers who fell off a slope on Mt. Olympus yesterday were found today in an 800-metre deep ravine. The climbers, aged 19, 21 and 37, were part of a group from the Thessaloniki Mountaineering Club attempting to scale the mountain when one of the three fell into the ravine, situated 1,600 metres up the mountain, dragging the two others down with him. Rescue teams who found the mountainclimbers placed them in sleeping bags to prevent wolves and other wild animals from devouring the bodies until an operation mounted to recover bodies could be completed. Rescue team member George Kalogeropoulos told the ANA that recovery of the bodies was "tremendously difficult" as rescuers would have to climb down 500 meters into the ravine then suspend themselves for the rest of the way down, as approach by helicopter was impossible.