Vic Climbs the Peaks of Olomana

Aloha,

I've climbed the First Peak of Olomana several times, but never had the time to climb all 3 peaks in one day. Thanks to Ted Mura and his friends I was able to change that on the first day of the Fall Break.
Saturday, 3 October started early. 0430 get up to take the Special Forces Team for Adventure Training competition at the Campbell Triathlon. The team, by the way, did very well: Ricky Baez was tops in swimming, Pauliasi Tamale won the prize for the longest basketball throw and the team came in 4th in the state.

I swam all the laps with each of the students for a total of 1,300 meters or about 3/4 of a mile.

Ted and his friends then picked me up at school and we started up the Olomana climb at 1315, finishing 5 hours and 7 minutes later. Time from the start to the Third Peak was 2:19:20. From the Third Peak back to the car was 2:02:11 for a total climbing time of 4:21:31. Total time on the trail from start to finish was 5 hours and 7 minutes as noted above which means that we rested about 7 minutes each hour for each hour on the trail.

The weather was mostly good with overcast skies and strong trade winds for most of the hike, but it started raining of the final leg down from the First Peak to the car, turning the dirt parts into something resembling greased eel snot on sheet ice. Many of the rocks were equally slippery, so we came down the First Peak a lot slower than we went up.

This is a fantastic hike and climb, but I would not recommend the Third Peak to anyone except an experienced mountaineer. Getting to the top of the First Peak is do-able for most hikers and we got there 1:08:08 into the hike. Going up the Second Peak is also do-able. We got there at the 1:21:34 point. After that, the descent from the Second Peak and subsequent ascent of the Third Peak and re-ascent of the Second Peak is extremely difficult and potentially very dangerous. Sort of like going up the face of Eagle Peak behind the Zoo which George Levitsky and I did in the dead of winter in early '65.

If you want to learn more about Olomana, sometimes called "the Matterhorn of O'ahu", go to your favorite search engine and "google in" Olomana or Peaks of Olomana. You can also hit the "images" option to get a closer look at a very beautiful and challenging mountain.

Hope you enjoy the photos.

R/

Vic
Click on thumbnails for larger images
Vic1.jpg Vic2.jpg Vic3.jpg Vic4.jpg Vic5.jpg Vic6.jpg Vic7.jpg Vic8.jpg
Return to Photos

Created by IrfanView