Summiting the Kalahaku Teeth, to Waimalu Middle Ridge – June 2012

[Part 1 – Reconnaissance] [Part 2 – Summiting and Descent]

The following documentation describes an unsafe activity and extremely dangerous, NO ONE should attempt to repeat this unless willing to accept consequences such as serious injury and/or death, etc.

Now, after summiting the teeth and descending from Waimalu Middle Ridge, it is now also the longest hike I have ever done at 15 HOURS. Say whuh???

The day started at ~sunrise and in unusually clear weather for the windward side of the island. Note the amazing weather from the panoramic “makai” view at the 4th tooth. Retracing our steps and we (Jeremy, Rhonda and I) soon reached our terminus from our last trip. Since I’ve detailed and photographed the first 6 teeth in the initial post, I’m going to fast forward to the approach of the 7th tooth from here…

The descent from the 6th to the 7th tooth was as overgrown as what we already encountered, but the ascent up the 7th had the biggest risk factor of all the teeth. Jeremy was ambitious enough free-climbed it up (left), tying off to some heavy duty webbing in anticipation of a “worst case scenario,” and to secure an anchor for Rhonda and I to more safely climb up (right).

Beyond the 7th, there were no more deeply incised teeth, but the ridge did have some mild saddles… of insane overgrowth.

The overgrowth was sooo bad up here, and pushing through the Uluhe fern and Ieie tangles was extremely slow. Not only was this taxing on our energy levels, but it was also on our moral.

Further up the mountain, we were finally able to see the junction to the Koolau Summit, or at least behind the cloud bank that started to roll in.

About 9 hours up the ridge, we started to make better headway, as the overhead-high vegetation had now become closer to between waist and below head-high.

A quick glance at Eleao Ridge, north of Kalahaku, shows how deeply incised and gnarly the windward ridges are here. Look at those teeth!

The sunlight and Koolau Summit began to disappear as we gained in elevation and the cloud cover began to thicken.

The gusts also became more intense, as the tradewinds were getting deflected and funneled upwards towards the summit.

The drop offs on either side of the ridge were ridiculously steep,

but the vegetation on the windswept ridgeline gave us a better sense of security when compared some of the bare, crumbly segments we encountered earlier.

At this point, our visibility and ability to communicate with each other had been decreased by half from the intense wind and cloud cover… But we still reached the summit, in an arduous and grinding 10 hours…

We had heard that the view from the grassy plateau at the top is one of the best on the island, but, it obviously was not meant to be viewed by us today.

After a short break, we had to make our way down Waimalu Middle Ridge, which was easier said than done. The socked in conditions made it difficult for us to determine which ridge was the middle ridge… and there is NO TRAIL down the ridgeline. Neither of us had been to this junction before, except Jeremy, and nothing looked familiar to him due to the awful 50-100ft visibility. And therefore, we resorted to navigating with phone GPS/mapping applications through the clouds. Jeremy and I both knew which ridge to go down on the map, so we had to rely on “the little blue dot” and “trial and error” process to pick the right ridge down. Ridiculously frustrating, but we found it.

Once on and further down the correct ridge, the swath became more apparent from the large group of friends/hikers who had gone down earlier that day.

Below the clouds and rain, the scenery of Waimalu Valley had become more familiar, which boosted our drained morals. The sun was setting, but at least we had no problem getting to valley floor by dark… Jeremy and I had all been on the junction from Waimalu Middle Ridge to the Waimalu Ditch Trail on a recent scouting mission, so there was no problem navigating out in the dark from here. We had our headlamps and extra batteries, so it was clear sailing to 7-11 and junkfood from here…

But it did take almost 5 hours to get back to the Waimalu Ditch trailhead from the Koolau Summit, where we staged my car earlier… a little longer than we anticipated, but still understandable given the rainy/socked in conditions we faced. So kids, don’t trust weatherman Guy Hagi, even when he tells you it’s gonna be sunny on the windward side today… nah nah nah, but really. O_o

So yeah, that was my longest hike in a nutshell… 15 hours. I’d highly discourage anyone from doing it, so just enjoy the photos if you value your safety. Unlike myself, adventure safe out there friends.

For more adventures of the Lost Trailblazers, either look at my other blogposts and “Adventures with the Lost Trailblazers” photo gallery. Thanks for visiting and come back again soon!

Questions??? Do not ask.