Greek trails: Taking the wrong step in stifling conditions

For regular outdoor enthusiasts and connoisseurs of Greece's hiking trails who understand the demands of hiking, the recent disappearances of tourists on the Greek islands, and the deaths of five visitors since the beginning of June, are not just an unusual phenomenon which characterizes this summer. Despite the - indeed, unprecedented - number of deaths in a short period of time, tourists lose their lives every year doing seemingly simple outdoor activities.

"We do not have knowledge of the particular circumstances for each of the incidents to draw a general conclusion," the editor of hiking magazine Anevenontas (Climbing) and experienced hiker and mountaineer Miltos Zervas tells Kathimerini. He observes, however, that all the deaths happened on islands, where in recent years there has been an emphasis on hiking activities, without, however, correspondingly sufficient...