Giona

I and a friend recently climbed Mount Giona, south Greece's highest mountain, starting from Kaloskopi village. Originally we were intending to do a round trip: coming down from the west side and covering the Vardousia range from south to north, ending up in Kaloskopi again. However, the weather was not our ally. I'd been in Greece for two months by the time, and no single drop had fallen, literally! But that the skies had decided to break open. As it was May, we were basically counting on summer hiking trip, and we were not sufficiently geared for such conditions. We approached near to the little plateau of Vatheia Lakka where we encountered furious windstorms and hail falls. We had to return further down by the spring located below Mnimata, and stayed there for that and the next day as well days as the weather remained all the same. 

The third day, finally, all came back to the normal way for being May. A brilliant day rose, so had a very pleasant ascent up the summit. Due to the last days' storms, there was unusually much snow on the peak, and we had no crampons, nor any footwear other than casual summer hiking shoes. Though we made it to the top just fine... having to stop frequently to wipe the show off our shoes and rub our toes to warmth before they turn purple. As we'd already wasted two days waiting for the weather, we had to quit the idea of the circling trip over Vardousia, so we returned back down to the car from the same way.