…today is the day, the day with my highest milestone on this trip. My trip and hike to the summit of the Mauna Loa. I already mentioned that there is an 3-4 day hike to the summit with register to get an permit for overnights in the cabins, but i read there is another route, which starts on the opposite near an observatory. The Mauna Load Observatory Trail, starts at its named Observatory in an altitude of 3.900m which can be reached by car easily. What do i have to pack? As i am hiking alone, i took all this warning messages serious, who covered about all possible messages you can imagine. Only sunny day like it would be tomorrow, there are about 10-20°c possible at day, but if something happens to you and you have to stay, it will go down till 0 till -5°C and they warned you have to be prepared for overnight. There are some emergency shelters on the trails, old lava tubes where you can seek safety. And of course you should plan your travel so you will be back before it’s getting dark. The LP Guide suggested and 8-10 hours hike. Therefore an simple hike with the daybackpack wasn’t an option. The ranger on Mauna Kea also recommended to take enough isotonic drinks and water with me and enough water because the humidity at this altitude is about 10%, so i bought 4L Powerrade, 7,5L water and enough bars for snacks during the hike. Sleeping bag, pillow, 2 sheets as sleeping underground, hoodie, long-sleeved T-shirt, regular T-shirt, 20AMP USB batter pack, USB lights and some more stuff where packed in my big backpack. The weight of the liquids was already about 10kg, because one isotonic drink i will drink on my way in the car up. In summary it must had been about 18-20kg. That is an very ambitious hike, to get with that load on the summit of +4.200m. My alarm clock for this day belt at 6:30am, got up and took a small breakfast and started with my car the way up to the Saddle Rd. The morning dawned cloudy with some parts of sun and it cleared out to completely sunny as i drove above 2.500m. I reached the observatory at 3.900m at 8am, repacked my stuff, tied my hiking shoes, filled my camelbag, took a picture of the Mauna Kea on the other side and one of the overview sign of the trail. 8:27am, i started the hike. Wow, the fist mile felt worst, turn back, go to the car. It was really exhausting, i took an short pause for 2-3 minutes about every 15-20 minutes. It was sunny but cold in the morning, so i had my long trouser, long-sleeve, regular T-shirt, hoodie and my big burner hat on, to protect me from the sun and coldness. A benefit of being an burner is, that you know how to stay hydrated 😉 The trail, wasn’t like expected, there was no real trail, it was cross field over all different kinds of old lava flow, it was beautiful. It’s difficult to describe the way, you have to walk it on your own, WITH hiking poles. I had none, which made this hike above the big gravel old lava fields not easy. I always had an thought what i should do if i break my ankle. Luckily, you could not imagine, there are lot of spots with LTE and 4G receptions up there. Insane, in Munich you have not that good coverage with LTE as here on the islands and on top of summits with 4k…. After hiking a while, i felt much better and i reduced the short pauses to every 30 minues and an bigger pause with eating snacks every 60 minutes. This was a good way, i setup the alarm timer for doing this reminder. On an difficult hike like that you should set always an alarm timer at least for your own point to return and descent, mine was set to 2pm. As you might have seen, the Mauna Loa looks really flat, but its very high. You’re always thinking behind the next curve or hill the summit will appear. Reached at the junction of my trail and the original ones, there was a sign with told me, “only” 2.6 miles left to the summit. Following the edge of the old and impressive crater, to the summit, passed some technical installation for earthquakes and other sensors (Mauna Loa is still an active volcano) i left behind the 2miles marker. Now on this altitude it was incredible exhausting to achieve every 100m. My own limit seems to be reached soon, always thinking behind the next small hill will be the summit. Every 10 minutes i had to reset to get energy for the next steps. I already started feeling a bit sick, a small headache started and my lungs made some noises which i know already from my allergies. Checking my clock and the suggested distance to the summit (compared to the distance of the trail, they have near no signs which tells you how far it would be now), it was already 1:30 pm, i decided to stop here and make a long rest, enjoy the silence, no tourists, no other hikers. Sometimes it’s better to give up an target, instead of taking a higher risk, to get to the summit and in chance not to make it down during sunlight, or worser, being so exhausted you reached the summit and wasted all your energy, that you wouldn’t have enough savings left to hike down. Even hiking down was very high energy consuming. So i set down, chilled, put some music in my earphones and relaxed. That was a great feeling of happiness and satisfaction. It was already noon and the coldness was gone, so i enjoyed the sun, the music and the awesome overview on this top of the world. While filling up my backpack, i gifted several swallows of water to Pele and began my decent. Drinking that much water had an benefit, my backpack started to get more lighter, which made the decent more pleasant. WOW, decent, that felt so easy, so light, like flying the Mauna Loa downwards. On the way back, you can enjoy al the way again in an different angle you haven’t seen before, because your focus was only directed to the summit. Now you realise more the nature, or better the non existing of vegetation, lava rocks, different size and shape, flat, peaked and always dangerous. Very dangerous, each of this wiggly stones can cause an injury of ankle, hands, feeds and more. The sun began to set and the shades where getting longer and the observatory, my starting point, was getting closer. Would that be an regular trail, i would be down very easy. Hiking in the shade of the mountain was tough, because now this small cones of lava rocks which guides you through this lava desert where more difficult to spot. I had the first thoughts if i will reach the car in time, before the the sunset or i would have to hike down the last meter with my (bruner)headlamp. Timing, i reached the car at 5:21pm, that was near exactly 9 hours hiking. On the way back i rewarded myself with an 800g New York Cut steak. That was an awesome hike, still in mind that i didn’t reached the summit. Back in the hostel i was talking to an other backpacker who did the 3 days hike, overnights in the cabins and the summit. I showed him my pictures how far i got, and he said that i really missed the summit just about 300m, you can see the huge stone cone at the summit on my picture. I said to myself, hey, that was almost close, close enough for me. I wasn’t really sad not to write my name in the book at the summit, i was more happy that i have heard to my body and mind. Sometimes it’s not worth to reach this secondary target, risk a death or serious injuries, WHile your mosT importaNt goal is sitting somEwhere else, Yay, i did it…(2014/12/11)
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