Olomana's Three Peaks & Backside - September 27, 2011

Today was the day I would do all of Olomana's Three Peaks and go down and up the backside. Ted scheduled this hike early in the week and I was game. During the week, I had to compartmentalize the hike and put it in the back of my brain because every time I would think about the hike, I would get excited.  Throughout the week, I had to forget about the hike and do my duties as a school teacher.

On Friday, Ted messaged me that he came down with flu-like symptoms. I got kind of worried. Who would lead me down the dangerous third peak? Ted assured me that his friend Steve would do a great job. Okay I thought to myself.

Again, doing Olomana's three peaks is a dangerous hike. Stuart Ball lists it as an expert hike. Why? Let's just say, crumbly rock, near vertical descents, a lot of climbing, extremely narrow spots, and plenty of exposure. Going down the backside is super dangerous. There are 3 or 4 sections that are near vertical. It is an intimidating and daunting task. Hikers who finish it should be commended.

I got up at 5 am, got my stuff ready and headed towards Maunawili Park. I've been on Maunawili road many times before and didn't know the park I always passed was Maunawili Park. I waited for 5 minutes and only one car arrived. I thought that more people were coming. The guy who got out was Steve. He is from Indiana and moved to Hawaii 1 year ago. We chatted for a while waiting for others to arrive. By 6:50 am, no one arrived, so we headed towards the Royal Hawaiian Country Club. We checked in with the guard and off we went on the Olomana Trail.

The initial climb to Olomana is still grueling. I got freakin tired and fell behind Steve. Damn I was breathing so hard. I felt sick for one second and regrouped quickly. Doing interval training really helps with recovery. We got to the first peak in a little over one hour and took a ton of pictures. One thing about Steve, he pays close attention to details. We looked at the KSRT starting from East Oahu to Honolulu and went over the names of each peak.

We quickly descended down to the second peak. We took a short break and started our descent down the second peak (Paku'i) to the third peak (Ahiki). On my last Olomana hike, which was in August, I scouted the Ahiki from Paku'i. It did look dangerous. Steve started and got to a resting point. Now it was my turn. Steve coached me well and I got down with little problem. We still had to descend down Paku'i. When it was my turn, I had some minor difficulties on the last part with the footing. I put all my weight on the rope, which is a no-no in hiking, but I just couldn't get any foot holds. Thank god, my upper body was strong and the rope was strong to hold all that weight. The rock is crumbly as hell and debris fell near Steve below. After we got to the bottom we took a short break.

We talked for a little while, and then started ascending up Ahiki. Just like I thought, a steep climb with a good amount of exposure. Since I've done so much hiking recently, the heights did not bother me. However, if you are scared of heights, don't do this. It is also 4 point climbing, so you have to use all your climbing limbs. We ended up near the middle and to the infamous key hole. Steve says most people trying to do Ahiki turn around at this point. But I relished the challenge. 

Steve gave me a few pointers and I easily made it around the key hole. What makes the key hole so intimidating are the few steps you have to take over some narrow rocks in the midst of a thousand food drops into the valley. A hiker passed us on their way to Ahiki and took a nice picture of us in front of the key hole. However, the picture above is just Steve with the key hole. We ascended towards the top of Ahiki and I took a nice picture of some other hikers in the back of us.

At the top of Ahiki, I felt some sort of accomplishment. Not too many hikers' have the courage to tackle Ahiki. It is dangerous, but our motto for the hike was, “methodical”. We were methodical, one step at a time. I walked towards the end of the summit and peered down towards the backside. It was scary and looked unclimbable from our vantage point.

Neither Steve nor I have done the backside. This is where Ted's expertise would have aided us greatly, Oh well, I wanted to do it, and Steve was game. Steve led the way. The first section required some focus, but wasn't too bad. The second vertical section was difficult. I decided to go for it. The rope is nailed into a piton of some sorts. It was solid, so I did trust it. Going down this section was daunting. I couldn't get any foot holds and dangled from the rope. I just hoped that it wouldn't snap. I would be in big trouble if it did. I repelled to a foot hold and continued my way until the last 8 feet. There appeared no foot holds and I blindly felt for one. To no avail, so I just put all my weight on the rope again and repelled down to the bottom. Very dangerous! Now it was Steve's turn to go down. Steve is more technical than I, and wanted to keep his points of pressure. He had some difficulties, but I verbally tried to explain where the foot holds were, Steve did the rest. We went down the fourth section slowly and continued onto the final section. This section was steep and was the longest out of all the sections. The rock was extremely crumbly and brittle. Steve appeared to get down with ease. Now it was my turn. I had some trouble, but Steve was telling me where to put my feet. I followed his instructions to a tee and got down with no incident. We did it! We celebrated for a little while and took a picture of Ahiki. This section was steep and was the longest out of all the sections. The rock was extremely crumbly and brittle. Steve appeared to get down with ease. Now it was my turn. I had some trouble, but Steve was telling me where to put my feet. I followed his instructions to a tee and got down with no incident. We did it! We celebrated for a little while and took a picture of Ahiki. This section was steep and was the longest out of all the sections. The rock was extremely crumbly and brittle. Steve appeared to get down with ease. Now it was my turn. I had some trouble, but Steve was telling me where to put my feet. I followed his instructions to a tee and got down with no incident. We did it! We celebrated for a little while and took a picture of Ahiki. 

We were supposed to go back up to Ahiki, but Steve needed to do something, so we went to find the contour trail back to the Olomana trail. We followed ribbons until it apparently ended. We then followed a pig trail until it apparently ended. We then followed a dried stream bed until it apparently ended. Damn it! Where were we now? One thing about Steve, he likes to explore, it's in his blood. He started trampling over some vegetation for about 20 minutes. We stumbled upon three bathtubs. It looked like a meth lab or something. Then it was 30 more minutes of going through thick vegetation. Steve is like an ox. He plowed through that shit like it was nothing. I just followed him. We then got on a beautiful maintained trail. Wonder what the name of it was? We could have either gone left or right, we chose left. We walked on that trail for about 15 minutes before we reached a dirt road. The dirt road turned into a paved road. We figured that this was the Royal Hawaiian Golf Course. It was. We walked further along until we reached the actual golf course. We neared some golfers and Steve took one of their scorecards to see where we were on the map. The golfers started screaming at us in Korean. We tried to tell them that we were lost and wanted to find our way out. They kept on yelling wanting Steve to put the scorecard down or something. One of the golfers figured something out. We neared some golfers and Steve took one of their scorecards to see where we were on the map. The golfers started screaming at us in Korean. We tried to tell them that we were lost and wanted to find our way out. They kept on yelling wanting Steve to put the scorecard down or something. One of the golfers figured something out. We neared some golfers and Steve took one of their scorecards to see where we were on the map. The golfers started screaming at us in Korean. We tried to tell them that we were lost and wanted to find our way out. They kept on yelling wanting Steve to put the scorecard down or something. One of the golfers figured something out and told us that we were on the 10th hole. Steve looked at the map and so we went on our way. We passed a number of golfers on our way to the clubhouse. We ended up walking past the clubhouse and on the road towards the entrance. We've been hiking for a little over 5 hours now and were getting tired. The road was long. It took us 30 minutes to get to our car. Finally it was done. To me, it was another great adventure story. Funny as hell. I went home, drank a few beers and made a huge hamburger deluxe. You need the deluxe after a hike like this one. 

I did my first expert hike. I do feel some sort of accomplishment and would do another expert hike. Am I ready for Pu'u Manamana, or Kalena? Will see, only time will tell. But when that day arrives, I will be ready.

Before doing another expert hike, I want to do Bowman, Moanalua Middle to the Stairs, and Pu'u Keahi a Kahoe.