After hearing about groups of people being guided up by extreme hiker Marcus. I decided that maybe I should check this out! My initial plan was to do the route that madman Jeremy Kries did a few months back which was from bowman to red hill. That route would cover the whole entire saddle and MORE! Unfortunately I wasn't up for that challenge! So instead we did a loop going up the saddle and back down Moanalua middle. Joining me on this hike was Albert and Christina. With a 8am start we headed towards the saddle. Once at the saddle we could see the ridge that would lead us up towards Haiku Stairs. The wind was BLAZING and it seemed like I was gonna fly off the ridge!!!!!! Looking towards the summit I could see a few obstacles but the ridge looked super fun! At 930 am we set off for the summit. There were a few rock faces that needed to be climbed and there was a few that we could contour. There was one triangle that needed to be contoured to the town side and then back up a steep grassy near vertical slope. It was sketchy making our way up that slope being that the ground was ripped apart by the previous group that came through. I was over slipping and sliding so I decided to to make my own route up by grabbing on to the loose vegetation! I was the first one up and followed shortly after! Christina made it up with ease but a little shaken up from that slip and slide crumbly fest! Back on the main ridge we headed towards the next set of rock faces. Roped was laid out already so making our way up was fairly easy but each footing needed to be checked due to the crumbly mess! Once passed the rock faces the route up to the summit was open and easy to follow! At 12pm we were at the top of haiku stairs "stairway to heaven". Had a quick lunch and then descended back down Moanalua Valley via Moanalua middle ridge! By 3pm we were back at the car.
It was a fun hike. Short but really fun.
Next stop Kalihi saddle. yeah right.. =)
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