Follow the Mountains : Greece - Day 23: What a day: waaay out of my comfort zone!

During the night I was cold, so I had a late start. The E4 took me past some burnt hills around Kastania, up to the church Mone Panagias Giatrissas and then further up into the mountains, where I took a shorter route than the E4. It was nice sunny but cool with some cold wind.

I met a German-English couple hiking a part of the E4, before I decided to take the trail up to the 2400 m high Profitis Ilias, despite the clouds forming around the peak.
The lovely path took me through some forests, before I had to walk up a little meadows, where there were the first snow fields, but also some crocuses. It must have been hailing a lot the last days, because the pebbles were still visible.

The trail went up over the ridge of several stony mountains and clouds were getting denser below me. I passed a small but very steep snow field, that I didn't dare to cross - not even with my microspikes! So I climbed up a bit and was able to go around! My first bit, where I was wondering, if I do the right thing and if I'll make it up and down alive - more than way out off my comfort zone! But so far I was convinced, I could go back and the next part looked good.
Below the last ascend to the peak, I had some more snow fields to cross and up to the peak was a mixture of snow, rocks and grass. Everything was really slow and exhausting, because I had to make steps in the snow fields. There were moments, where I didn't really feel safe. I think I made it to the peak at around 5 pm. I had hoped to be already down by then... so there wouldn't be enough time to go back the way I came. There is only one way: continue!
Up on the peak, there were some ruins, I was above the clouds and had some nice views, which I couldn't really appreciate. I was worried about getting down again - how will the north side be, when the south side was already that snowy????

And yes, there was a lot of snow and a really icy strong wind was blowing and making me shiver. But I was too concentrated to go down the steep icy snow field to put on more cloths or worry about being cold. At first I hoped I could just walk down the snow along the ridge, but it got too steep and icy. Luckily, some people had tried to walk up the peak from that side. They hadn't made it all the way up, but had stopped and left some footprints between rocks. Now I just had to climb down there. Not so easy: in the deeper snow, where my microspikes would have helped me, the snow was pure ice - in the rocks, the snow inbetween was so shallow, that it didn't work with the microspikes. But I finally made it to the footprints and was so happy: now I new I would be able to make it down. Plus, there were already steps in rhe following snow fields, so basically easy going and I should be in the forest before ots getting dark!

I passed a refugio, where I quickly talked to a German girl, before descending a little bit further into the forest. It was already 7:30 pm, so I set up my tent and hid in my sleeping bag - it's going to be a REALLY cold night!