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Ascent of Haleakala on 2013-01-02

Climber: Rob Woodall

Date:

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Ascent Type:

Successful Summit Attained

Motorized Transport to Trailhead:

Car

Peak:

Haleakala

Location:

USA-Hawaii

Elevation:

10023 ft / 3055 m

Ascent Trip Report

I summitted this peak two days after Guatemala's Volcán Acatenango, having spent a long New Years Day travelling east to Hawaii.

I take a day's car rental, and driving up from Kahalui at 5 a.m. I join a procession of cars climbing the switchback road to the summit. It's raining intermittently and only near the summit is there promise of any view. When I reach the summit parking lot there's already an impressive light show and at least 50 folk gathered at the summit. I climb the short staircase trail to join them, find a decent vantage point and keep busy with the camera for half an hour until the sun finally appears, the magic is dispelled and the audience disperses.

I waypoint the summit: top of boulder at N20.70983 W156.25283, 3060m: this may have been placed there; the summit has evidently been levelled to construct the small shelter building.

I wander over to the little ridge (a few metres lower) on the far (west) side of the parking lot (the observatory area, also lower, is not open to the public), then pay a visit to Magnetic Peak about 500m southwest of the summit and just 5 metres lower according to the Park map I was given when I paid my $10 Park pass fee on the drive up. My GPS locates the highest boulder at N20.70822 W156.25058, 3057m, just 3m lower than my summit reading. On the way down from Magnetic as I return to the road a park ranger pulls up and advises me it's a Federal offence to go off trail. Oops. He's OK about it but I'm to consider myself warned. I forget to check the col but the prominence is probably about 20-25m.

I spend 2 hours exploring on the way down: Shifting Sands trail (i descend 200m getting nice views of the washed out bowl known incorrectly as the Crater); White Hill N20.71385 W156.24985 (probably less than P30m); Kalahaku overlook N20.73682 W156.23400; Leleiwi overlook N20.74421 W156.22839; finally the first part of the Halemaku'u trail (trailhead N20.75231 W156.22845), although I don't go far as it's down in the cloud - on a clearer day it's probably worth walking the first mile to get the view into the "crater".

I drive back to the airport by midday and take the little ten seater Mokolule plane across to Kona on Big Island ready to climb Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

Summary Total Data

Elevation Gain:

33 ft / 11 m

Elevation Loss:

33 ft / 11 m

Distance:

0.2 mi / 0.4 km

Grade/Class:

YDS 1

Quality:

6 (on a subjective 1-10 scale)

Route Conditions:

Maintained Trail

Weather:

Cool, Breezy, Partly Cloudy

Ascent Statistics

Elevation Gain:

33 ft / 11 m

Distance:

0.1 mi / 0.1 km

Route:

Summit trail

Trailhead:

Upper parking lot 9990 ft / 3044 m

Time Up:

2 Minutes

Descent Statistics

Elevation Loss:

33 ft / 11 m

Distance:

0.2 mi / 0.3 km

Route:

Summit trail

Trailhead:

Upper parking lot 9990 ft / 3044 m

Time Down:

5 Minutes

GPS Data for Ascent/Trip

GPS Waypoints - Hover or click to see name and lat/long
Peaks: climbed and unclimbed by Rob Woodall
Click Here for a Full Screen Map
Note: GPS Tracks may not be accurate, and may not show the best route. Do not follow this route blindly. Conditions change frequently. Use of a GPS unit in the outdoors, even with a pre-loaded track, is no substitute for experience and good judgment. Peakbagger.com accepts NO resposibility or liability from use of this data.

Download this GPS track as a GPX file

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