Anamolo (Olomana Reversed) – March 30, 2013

Last year on my birthday, I hiked the Pupukea trail with Merv, Ikaika, & my wife. That was such a great birthday hike (cake, alcohol) that I wanted to do it again. I wanted to choose my own hike, but many of the hikers I generally hike with were doing Olomana Reversed a.k.a. Anamolo.

The bad part is that my wife couldn’t join because of the danger level, but I guess it was my day. Really, no better way of celebrating a birthday than doing a difficult hike, but I would have to minus the cake and alcohol. I always categorized a difficult hike as a hike that HTMC wouldn’t do because of the danger factor. The club does Olomana to peak 3, but they don’t do the backside (Ahiki).

Last year, I went down the backside of Ahiki which I thought was difficult, but I was still relatively new to hiking and really didn’t understand the magnitude of what I was doing. Added to that, I had a passion for doing dangerous stuff. A year later, I’ve been focusing more on grinders and/or long routes which I think is more my niche as a hiker. I’ve been shying away from the dangerous stuff for many reasons, #1) I have a family I have to take care of. Last time I did a hike this dangerous was the Pohakea Pass, which broke me down mentally.

Today’s crew was huge. The list doing the backside was Merv, Proo, E, J, Jenelyn, Noe, Lisa, Bill, Agnes, Alan, and Art. Also hiking (to Olomana) were Sensei, Bob, and DJ. It was a big group. Granted, I haven’t hiked with many people in the group, but what surprised me was how each hiker was able to handle this dangerous hike.

The plan today was to go onto the Olomana trail, then veer off and take a contour trail to the backside of Ahiki. We would then go up Ahiki encountering 4 or 5 near vertical rock faces before finally finishing up with peak 2, 1 and looping to the beginning. I thought this hike would be 7+ hours, but this group was so capable, we finished under 6.

It took us a little over an hour on the contour trail to reach the backside. J led a frantic pace. I think he just hikes fast. From there we encountered the first obstacle. It was about a 30 foot vertical climb with rope. J, Jenelyn, and Art went up first. Jenelyn and Art were on ledges coaching us one by one until we got up. It was way harder than I thought. Last time, I didn’t remember it being this hard. My blood was pumping. Like I mentioned earlier, it has been a while since I’ve done a hike this difficult. The exposure is great and the climb is technical.

J led the charge. He and Bill free climbed the second obstacle (though the second obstacle did have a rope, which we didn’t trust). Bill dropped the webbing and we used it to our advantage. J and Bill coached us as we got up. The second obstacle was near vertical, but what made it hard was that near the top, this rock sticks out, and you must navigate your way over it somehow.

Then it was some scrambling up the mountain. The ridge is more exposed on this part and drops were deadly. One thing good, was the holds. The holds were awesome. From this point, I stayed with the front of the group who were Bill, Lisa, Proo, E, Noe, and Merv. We hit the third major rock face. This was a bitch coming down, but going up was way easier. I remember this being the hardest obstacle last year when we did it, this time I don't think it was as difficult, maybe it's easier climbing up.

The last section was short, but awkward. There is a pvc ladder, but nobody uses it because it isn’t stable. When it was my turn, I had a hard time. E gave me a small boost to get up. Finally, at the top of peak 3 known as Ahiki. I thought the rest of the hike would be cake, but forgot that Olomana is a hard hike as I was soon to recall. Going down peak 3 is not that easy. Exposure is still great, not as exposed as the backside though. We got to the infamous keyhole. The keyhole can scare a good hiker away, but I’ve navigated it before and so have many hikers in our group. It was no problem for us. Jenelyn and Agnes free climbed to the top of the keyhole, which is frickin’ insane. Holy Shit they're crazy! As we got down peak 3, the rains came down hard.

Nobody panicked, we methodically climbed up 2. Climbing up 2 is not that easy as well, especially in the rain. I can’t tell you how good this crew was. No complaining, no panicking, very supportive, it was impressive in my book.

The sun came out as we got to peak 1. For some reason, everyone started running down peak 1, which you can after the rock scrambling areas. Instead of going back the normal way, we took another trail to the guard shack, bypassing most of the road walk.

We sat down on some grass near the guard shack as Bob, DJ, and Sensei came walking down the road. There, we talked many fun stories.

The post meal hike was in Kailua at a place called Pepper’s. They claim to have the best cheesesteak, but they don’t. The food was average. Everyone wished me a happy birthday which was so great. I really appreciated it. Agnes bought some pie to eat, a great gesture.

Though the backside of Ahiki is littered with rope, the route is obvious, and the climbs are doable, but to give this mountain respect, many people have called for rescue in the past for a variety of reasons.