Razor Ridge, West Oahu

Playing the safety card, and bailing out on our first TWO attempts due to rainy weather, we decided to make the third time the charm and summit “Razor Ridge” on west Oahu.

Although previously thwarting our prior attempts to summit “No Name” Peak from the ridge, the rain did make for exceptionally cooler weather and a gorgeous rainbow over the valley below, on our second attempt.

In addition to the slick terrain, we also had a large number of attendees (14 hikers) on the that day, making our progress across the several geographical obstacles quite tedious.

…and therefore forced us to bail out on a contour route, in the notch just before the first significant up-climb.

Not taking any chances on our third attempt, we chose to ascend Razor Ridge on a voggy weather day… when the volcanic pollution from the south is heavy. Unlike the tradewinds from the northeast which are cool and moist, the Kona winds are often hot, humid and just pretty much unpleasant.

However, forecasted rain would at least be a lot less likely, and we’d able to climb the rock without having to worry about slippery foot/handholds.

At the first significant obstacle, we also had a far smaller crew of seven hikers, which made our progress much quicker. Here, Pete guides some 80 feet of webbing for others to use while climbing out of the notch.

After being subjected to several challenging scrambles, the heavily overgrown ridge became more exposed…

…as we intersected a prominent fenceline.

Continuing further, we viewed what appeared to be the second geographical obstacle in the distance.

Upon closer inspection, the near-vertical route was on no one’s agenda today, and an obvious contour on the left was a much better option to summit “No Name” peak. The only hiker I know of to ascend this was Marcus Griego, although I’d highly discourage anyone from repeating the climb as the contour route is much safer.

Upon summitting via the contour route, we made our way over from No Name Peak to the massive Tiki Boulders on the Kamaileunu Ridgeline.

Where the familiar trail down was quick means back to our staged cars in the adjacent valley. A bit gnarly at times, but a moderately quick route (~5 hours). Off to Brick Oven Pizza for some post-hike grindz. 🙂

The not a particularly long route, many ridge hikes on west Oahu can be dry / hot, with many potentially dangerous geographic obstacles along the way. If attempting, please exercise extreme caution and have the appropriate equipment / water to make it out safely. If any of the obstacles are out of your physical abilities, please make the safe decision and be prepared to turn back or bailout. There are other shorter and/or safer routes that will have similar views of these ridges in this area… Do your research and map which route(s) works best for you.

Aloha and mahalo nui for visiting… Come back again soon!