Distance from Thessaloniki:\u00a0 111 km<\/strong><\/p>\n European emergency number: 112<\/strong><\/p>\n Fire brigade: 199<\/strong><\/p>\n AMBULANCE SERVICE: 166<\/strong><\/p>\n Forester\u2019s office Serres: 2321046262<\/strong><\/p>\n www.katafigiolailias.gr<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We left from Thessaloniki with cloudy weather and in an hour we arrived in the beautiful city of Serres . From there, we followed the signs to Lailias ski center<\/p>\n On the 25Km (from Serres), there is a road sign to our right-hand, leading to the refuge of Serres Mountaineering Club. Outside the refuge, there are two trails that lead us through the forest, in aprox. one hour and a half , \u00a0to Pr.Elias (called also Alibaba) \u00a0summit. It is early April and the heavy weather is accompanying us till the refuge parking lot. We are parking our cars , we are setting up our gear and off we go.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Circular route , EOS Refuge- Pr.Elias Summit (1849m)-Ski resort base \u2013EOS Refuge<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Outside the refuge, a good mountaineering path begins and for about 900 meters it moves north between an amazing pine and beech forest. With very good signing, it leads us, in a while, to turn east. At the spot, there is a sign indicating the route that we have to follow.<\/p>\n To our right, going up, is the route to the summit, while straight ahead is the route leading to the ski resort. We are ascending higher and higher and the beeches have given their place to the firs that begin and appear scattered among the pine trees.<\/p>\n We continue until our first small stop, a natural balcony at the end of the slope, where we can admire the view and the beauty of the plain of Serres. A little water to drink, the necessary photos to take \u00a0and off we go again.<\/p>\n As we are ascending higher we can observe the forest changes. There are only fir trees now and their population is getting thicker and thicker as we are approaching \u00a0the summit.<\/p>\n We are now at the top of the ski resort, the landscape is bald and in the jorizon , not to far away, \u00a0we can see an abandoned fire lookout tower. From this point, \u00a0the summit \u00a0is a few meters away. From the fire lookout tower, we turn southeast toward the large pile of rocks that we see on our right hand. We climb the rocks with caution and here we are, on\u00a0 Pr.Elias summit. The view is magnificent, fantastic. We have in front of us , the plain of Serres, on our left Menoikio mountain, on our back Orvilos mountain and on our right \u00a0Belles mountain and Kerkini Lake.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/lailen.jpg\")
<\/a>The route is an easy ascent and does not have any technical difficulty. Note that even if it is April, half of the route was in snowy terrain. This justifies the duration times in route information section.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/theursaminor.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/going-up.png\")
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