Extreme Hiking Hawaii

Probably the first time the traverse from Kolekole Pass to Pu'u Kalena to Mauna Ka'ala to Kamaohanui to Waialua has been done.  The doers were Jeremy Kreis, Matt Church (left, below), and Jonathan O'Hagan (right, below).  The deed was done in July 2011.  Here is Jeremy's summation of the outing, along with some pics he took. Connected the three highest peaks on the island. Original plan was to follow Ka'ala East to Kamaohanui, and then go down Kalena. We had access problems so we started at Kalena instead. Got lost in the Ka'ala Bog so we had to climb a tree to find the FAA Installation. The descent down to Kamaohanui was not what I expected. There is a fence about halfway down, and the climb to Kamaohanui was not very exciting. At the summit, we were debating about where to go down, and, unfortunately, Ka'ala East did not happen. That jagged ridge will have to wait. We followed a fenced ridge down to Waialua instead. Came out on Farrington Highway ...

This was another one of those “Nate-inspired” adventures.  Back in April (2011) he shared with us an archived account of a group of HTMCers from the early days (1911) descending into Maunawillifrom the top of Kaau Crater.  They reportedly went top-down using ropes, and endured several scares and injuries along the way.  Nate found reports of a couple more descents, but no ascents.  We (me, August, Duc) were game to check it out.  Using a VERY old hand-drawn map that Nate provided, along with careful studying of the topo maps, I had an idea for which ridge it might be.  However, being so obscure and not standing out from its neighbor ridges, we would need great visibility (no clouds on the summit) to guide in on the powerline towers that conveniently mark the summit.  But getting there would prove more difficult then we imaged.  As it happens, a dragon lives on this ridge and fiercely guards against visitors.  See photo below.   Back-s...