Fourteen specialist alpine firefighters and thermal drones are searching the upper peaks of Mount Olympus for a 25-year-old Spanish climber who failed to arrive at his destination after setting out solo toward Mytikas — the mountain's 2,918-meter summit — and did not appear before nightfall on Wednesday.
The search was triggered after the climber's father reported him missing to the Spanish Consulate, which alerted local police in Litochoro.
Rescuers from the 2nd and 8th Special Disaster Response Units are scanning deep ravines alongside drone pilots as the operation continues.
The incident is the second significant rescue operation on Olympus in just over a week — emergency crews successfully extracted two overdue climbers nearby in the same period.
Park rangers have warned that unseasonal high-altitude weather shifts pose particular danger on the mountain's heavily fractured upper limestone terrain, especially for solo climbers.