"Mount Taygetos is a spectacular rock mountain comprising five peaks, the highest of which is an impressive pyramid, with an old stone chapel on top dedicated to the prophet Elija, hence the peaks name "Profitis Ilias". There is an annual pilgrimage on the 20th July to the top. It is very popular to sleep on the summit and to watch the sunrise with its magnificent pyramidal shadow. Perhaps the ancient greeks believed this was the chariot of Helios. When we climbed Mount Taygetos (Profitis Ilias peak) we had no intention of bivouacking on the top and opted for a light and fast day hike from Taygetos Mountain refuge(1550m) run by the local mountaineering club of Sparta. The refuge can be accessed by car on a rather rough and rocky dirt road. Some consider this cheating, and by doing this we missed by far the prettiest part of the route which climbs up steeply through beautiful pine forests from the Manganiari Springs 500m lower down. From the hut it took us just two and a half hours of steady walking to reach the top. The path is very rocky and it demands good footwork as well as study footwear! It is very well marked with red paint and even signposts. From the hut it climbs steadily..." — chrispatient • May 27, 2024

"Was a walking group trip to Pachnes via the standard path from Roussies after drop by pick up and then walked out cutting across Zaranokefla and following the mule track under the peak towards Agios Ioannis to be collected to pick up. " — WayneB • May 20, 2024

"What a great day. After foggy tuesday got rewarded with nice weather. Apparently I did not take any pictures on Mytikas which is a shame. This route up was much more fun than the normal route to Mytikas via Spilios Agapitos." — LadislavT • Jul 7, 2023

"At Skala I could not see this mountain as it was hidden in cloud. To be honest I was a little disorientated and didn't properly check my bearings. Rather I set off after checking the way with another climber and misinterpreting his directions, I ended up heading straight down the gully to the east rather than turning north almost immediately. I was about 100m down before I fully realised my mistake. It could have been more costly than the calories and pride spent, because the rock was very loose. After finally establishing the mistake I'd made, I made my way back up, and on to the right path which was well marked. What hadn't been well marked was the turn off from the gully, and the advice of "straight down" was taken too literally. The other mistake I had made was not really researching this top and its difficulties. I had planned to go up the next day but as the weather was turning, I did it earlier and didn't do any real preparation. It is described as a class 3 scramble and to be honest I'd have preferred to have been roped up, but as it stood I continued. The first part is a steep descent though on quite solid rock, and one with natural steps, a recurring feature on this clim..." — vygodski • Jul 4, 2023

"This hill is relentlessly steep, until you get to the top that is, and then it is an awkward hobble over quite rough knobbly terrain, avoiding a hollow by the south summit. I took it from the south east at around 1100m. It starts relatively ok, then shoots up on a fairly loose but relatively well marked path. A couple of sections required scrambling, the worst of which over quite smooth rock which would be a devil when wet, but nothing too challenging. I'd found my mountain legs by this point and stormed up (good thing really as I had left it quite late in the day) although I was disappointed to find the highest point quite far away once the height had been gained. I read somewhere that this is statistically one of the most dangerous Greek hills. Not sure how true that is but there are a couple of plaques commemorating people who didn't make it. Oh yes, and I worked out that what I thought was some kind of bumble bee was actually the local horsefly. I got bothered by these quite a bit, but fortunately only the males which don't bite, thankfully." — vygodski • Jul 2, 2023