Mountains: Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Mauna Kea, Hawaii

2007 June

Mauna Kea, Hawaii
Easy 10-minute climb

Taking a breather from heavy duty climbing ...

Prolog

After seeing an article in a magazine about
red hot lava flowing out from a volcano in Hawaii,
I just had to fly out to see it.

Although friends suggested the red hot girls
on Waikiki beach would be far more interesting.

Anyway, since I was in Hawaii,
I just had to climb Mauna Kea,
highest mountain in Hawaii at 4200 meters,
and higher than Malaysia's Kinabalu.

( Kinabalu is one of my overseas climbing trips.
See this link:
https://mntviews.blogspot.com.au/2009/03/2005-sep-malaysia-kinabalu.html ).

Road to Mauna Kea

In typical American fashion,
a beautiful road was built all the way to the its top.

No wonder so many Americans are so fat.
They don't need to do much exercise !!!

This road is described as narrow and treacherous
in the Mauna Kea Visitors' Center website,
but that is because they have never seen
some of our Aussie roads !!!

It took only about an hour and a half to drive
from Hilo, a coastal town
on the east side of Big Island,
to the top of Mauna Kea.

The road doesn't quite reach the summit.
You need to park the car,
then take a 10-minute walk.

Mauna Kea summit

Aside from a few astronomers
working on their telescopes,
there was no visitor at the top ...
very quiet.

This was amazing !!!

I had only climbed two big mountains so far ...
Kinabalu and Kilimanjaro.

Both had heaps of people paying heaps of money
for climbing permits
and braving the torturous hikes to the summit.

In contrast, here,
one can visit such a big mountain
in the comfort of a car for free,
yet there was not a soul around ... amazing !!!

Just proves when a thing is free,
no one wants it.

Put a large price tag on it
then everyone thinks it is valuable
and wants a piece of it !!!

Road side scenery to Mauna Kea

Scenery is beautiful !

1, 2, 3) Road side scenery on the way to Mauna Kea.

4) The 4-wheel drive I hired.

All car hire companies stipulate you can't take
a 2-wheel drive car to Mauna Kea.
You must hire a 4-wheel drive.

Mauna Kea summit

5) Mauna Kea is in the distance.

6) This is Mauna Kea.
You can see the 10-minute track
leading to the summit (from a carpark).

Because of the short drive from the coast
at sea level to here at 4200 meters,
you can feel the effect of low oxygen level.

Each step in the walk takes some effort
and some panting.