A 25-year-old professional mountaineer, who had participated in numerous operations to rescue trapped climbers, was found dead yesterday at the bottom of a steep ravine on Mount Olympus, rescue workers said.

Constantinos Nikotzidis slipped and fell into an 800-meter-deep gorge soon after beginning his descent from the top of Greece’s highest summit with two other members of the Hellenic Rescue Team on Thursday, rescuers said.

Nikotzidis, who had been participating in a training exercise with his two colleagues while off duty, lost his footing at an altitude of 2,900 feet — very close to the summit — on a particularly dangerous slope which mountaineers generally tackle using special equipment, officials said.

A Super Puma rescue helicopter recovered Nikotzidis’s body from the ravine after a long search effort yesterday morning involving many of the 25-year-old’s colleagues.