[Fletcher]

Im hanging out on the Big Island with my family this week. I took the opportunity to bag the ultra prominent Mauna Loa yesterday. It turned out to be quite a slog, tougher than I'd imagined. A few days before my climb, I "climbed" Mauna Kea the easy way, by driving within a hundred feet of the summit. The snow I could see on the top 1000 ft of Mauna Loa was concerning.

Mauna Kea summit

Mauna Loa from Mauna Kea

Mauna Kea Observatory

Yesterday, my parents and I left Kona at sea level at 6am. Just over an hour later they were dropping me off at 11,000 ft at the Mauna Loa Observatory. The road to the observatory is pretty crazy. Its paved the entire way but only a single lane with endless bumps and dips and blind corners; drive safe! This is where you really start to appreciate the vastness of Mauna Loa's endless slopes of lava fields. I had never seen anything like it.

Mauna Loa from the drive to the observatory

I was setting out from the Observatory at 7:40. It was pretty chilly! The Observatory Trail isn't much of a trail most of the way, but a cairned route ascending the lava fields. The cairns are huge and numerous, so its easy to follow. The terrain is so uniform everywhere that it is a little easy to wander off route, but its always easy to get back on.

TH

Mauna Kea from low on the route on Mauna Loa

standard terrain low on the route

Early on, I was feeling great and moving really fast.

giant cairns

lava tube bivy shelter

cairns and Mauna Kea

Around 12,000 ft, I started running into the first patches of snow. They were easy to avoid at first. I was still feeling good and moving fast.

first snow patches

4WD road I crossed at 12k

red lava cairn

nice trail

Between 12,500 and 13,000 the altitude started to affect me more. This wasn't like climbing the volcanoes back home where you are slogging slowly up a glacier, often roped up. Here, I was in trail runners, moving light and fast, and started to feel myself getting gassed. Around 13k as you near the crater rim, things flatten out into a sort of plateau. Its like another planet up there and desolate.

around 13k on Mauna Loa

At this point, I was within 2 miles of the summit, but the altitude was really slowing me down. The snow was also becoming more of a problem, and postholing in my trail runners was demoralizing. I kept slogging.

summit area ahead, much further away than it looks.

i thought this was the summit

I came to a sort of false summit at first. When I realized that the true summit was still ~1/4 mile away, I was further demoralized. Luckily, the last bit went by in just a few minutes. I topped out right at 11:00, 3 hours, 20 minutes after leaving the observatory. I hadn't seen a soul. The crater is quite a site from here. The pictures don't do it justice.

summit, finally

Mauna Loa 3-31-18

summit cairn

crater rim

crater rim

crater

Mauna Loa summit shot

that was a sad day

Bob Burd was here

so much prominence

I hung out on top for 20 minutes or so. I was worried that the postholing was going to be worse on the way down. Sadly, I was right. As I descended, clouds rolled in. It was super eerie and surreal when I lost visibility. I felt like I was in Mordor.

poor vis

lava cracks

red lava

contrast

cairns ahead

back at the lava tube bivy

almost done

As I descended into thicker air, I started to feel better and regained energy. Once I was below 12,500 ft I felt like I was making good time again. I arrived back at the observatory just after 2, making my round trip time just under 6.5 hours. Good times improving my P-Index!

[Gimpilator]

I really enjoyed those peaks. Mauna Loa is a tough one. Really cool that you could experience it with snow.

[Jake Robinson]

Rainier is an ultra. Were you hiding something from us??

Rainier car to car 7-23-17