Ohulehule SE - June 11, 2014 

This hike had kapu written all over it. In 1993, Hiking on Oahu author Stuart Ball wrote the [Southeast Ridge of Ohulehule is the most dangerous hike on the island] (Ball, 237); he also mentions it again in his 2000 revised edition (Ball, 314). In 1999, two Danish girls got stranded on the Southeast Ridge for 8 days, they were rescued by a HTMC rescue team. The amazing story, accounts from the women is on this link (https://archives.starbulletin.com/1999/08/24/news/story5.html) 

Will wanted to do this hike for the past two years. Every time he planned it, it rained so he had to cancel the hike. With the Kamehameha holiday coming up, it was now time to coordinate it again. He started a message thread and invited people in the hiking community. I didn't think the hike would be too bad, but you never know. With good weather in the forecast, this hike was on. For my prep, I packed 100 feet of webbing, a bivy, a trash bag, a steripen, extra food, and of course my normal hiking gear. I woke up early and drove to pick up The Judge at 6:30am, then to Jay's house by 7:00am. We got to the trailhead a little before 8am. Joining the hike today was Aaron, Will, Merv, The Judge, J, Kikaida, Mateo, and I. 

Merv is the only one who did this trail and we relied on him to get us started. However, there wasn't a path up the mountain and Merv said they just bushwhacked last time. So that is what we did. It took quite a bit of energy out of us. In addition, the sun was beaming down relentlessly. We bushwhacked for an hour until we picked up the ridge. The ridge is severely overgrown. There is no path. The trail is also very narrow (sometimes less than a foot wide in some parts) with plants impeding progress all the way to the summit. There is somewhat of a swath, but not the greatest. I told Kikaida, we have to earn every step on this hike. Let me put it this way, on every step we either were unbalanced, grabbing something, breaking off branches, slipping, taking false steps, and contorting our bodies. It gave an uneasy feeling. The views of Hakipu'u Valley were money and helped a lot on the traverse over the Southeast ridge. 

We started hitting the rocky dikes about 2 hours into the hike. We didn't have to crossover all the dikes, there were contours, somewhat. The contours were thin ledges with big drops beneath, it wasn't all roses. People compare this rocky section to Kalena, but it’s not Kalena at all. At this point Will was struggling to keep up. He sucked it up the best he could, but had nothing left in the tank at the rocky dike sections part of the trail and we were only 1/3 of the way in. Will decided to bail, Merv went back with him to make sure he would make it out okay. We were nearing the 4 hour mark at this point. We would come to find out that they bailed down a ridge in Waikane Valley. 

During one of the sketchy dike sections, we contoured left. Mateo took hold of a green rope attached to a few trees like a hand rail. Just then, the tree he was holding with his other hand snapped off and he fell about 5 feet. He dangled on the side of the mountain with the green rope in one hand. He quickly found a hold with his foot to stabilize, pulled himself up to branch and got back onto the trail. Aaron and I were like "holy shit, he's going to fall off the mountain!". If Mateo fell, he probably would have tumbled about 40 feet to a ledge, if that ledge didn't hold him, he would have tumbled hundreds of feet into Waikane Valley. He shook off this tumultuous situation quickly though and continued on. 

After the dikes, was our first major obstacle. I name it the "wall". The wall was maybe around 10-15 feet high vertical 90 degrees of smooth rock, with an additional 15 feet of scrambling uphill thereafter to a rest spot. There was a thin piece of strap dangling about 30 feet tied to a tree. I saw J and The Judge take some time climbing up it which made me worry. Normally these guys can easily get up obstacles. Mateo went next with what seemed like ease. Then Aaron went up and was perplexed at the problem he was seeing. We waited about 5 minutes before he decided to make a solid move. Then we waited another 10 minutes for him to scramble up to the safe spot. I was next. I was like shit where are the footholds at the bottom? There were none. After trying to feel my way around, I went for the gusto and grabbed two holds with my arms located higher up the wall, swung my left foot on the tree and pulled up hoping the rocks wouldn't crumble when I pulled down. I easily pulled up, but desperately tried to find a foothold. I tried to stick my spike on the smooth rock, but it just slipped. Instead of panicking, I said "fuck, ahhhh" and pulled myself up with only my arms, all the while lifting my left foot up to a foothold near my shoulder, so frickin' dangerous! At the time, that was the only way to solve the problem. I didn't waste any time on the vertical wall, placed my right foot on a hold and figured out the next couple of moves quickly and got to a tree to pull myself up to the top of the wall. I told Kikaidai to wait as I needed a short break before scrambling the rest of the way up the hill. Kikaida was after me, but he had no problems and I left him to pursue the mountain.   

We had a few more scrambling sections until we got to what I call “the rock". There are three options 1) contour right 2) contour left 3) go over. The best option is right, but it was still super sketchy. J and The Judge went right, but told us to check the left contour. Aaron in his one track tunnel vision mind, said "we have to go right, we cannot go left". I checked the left contour, it kinda looked bad. After watching Aaron butt scoot around the rock, I decided to do the same. On my ass, I scooted around the rock with a massive 1000 foot drop into the valley below. I had about a foot ledge to scoot around, and then I had to climb up to a safe spot. After butt scooting, I stood up and tried to climb my way to the safe spot. But my left foothold disintegrated and debris from the mountain went falling thousands of feet into Hakipu'u valley. Aaron put his hand out to give me a hold, I took it, but it wasn't enough, I was still slipping. With my right hand, I used all my upper body strength and got up. 

We were already 6 hours into the hike already and still needed to do the steepest climbs. This was going to be grueling, I thought to myself, it was! Next were the cable sections, near 300-400 feet of scrambling up a vertical mountain with minimal footholds and plants covering the trail. I shit you not, the angle of the mountain was near 90 degrees. Some plants would break off at the slightest touch. Tree branches got into our path making it difficult to climb up. This section was relentless with multiple cables and minimal vegetation to grab onto, it was scrambling up some of the steepest mountain I have ever done. It was harder than Piliwale scrambling sections. I couldn't believe I didn't cramp, my upper body was strong today. But I got so tired having to climb up hundreds and hundreds of feet up the mountain. I remember Aaron saying "I'm frickin tired already". I remember responding, "yeah but were almost up there 150 more feet or so". After climbing a 100 feet to a false peak, we had another 200 feet of steep scrambling section to climb. Aaron was all pissed off at me, and he said "you fuckin liar". I was like "okay maybe another 200 more feet then" and laughed my ass off. 

Finally at hour 7, we summited Ohulehule socked in where you couldn't see anything. I gave a chuckle. Only 10 minutes after summiting, we were like, 'let’s just go already' looking at the white curtain of clouds in front of us. Our exit ridge was the Northwest ridge created by the HTMC. This ridge is actually steeper than the Southeast ridge, but with more ropes and appropriately placed footholds, the climbing is way easier than what we just did. We descended 1500 feet in a little over an hour and made our way to the valley floor. I ran out of water already and at one of the stream crossings, filled my camelbak up and tried to steripen it. I got this steripen from Ali who bought a few about a year ago for us while she was in the mainland. Being new at the steripen, it probably didn't work and I may get lepto soon. We exited the trail before 7pm, a little under 11 hours into the hike. Will was there to give us a ride to Mateo's truck and dropped us off at my car. 

The post hike meal was at El Mariachi in Kaneohe. Mexican is da bomb after a hike. We all talked about how we handled the obstacles, typical male macho bonding. Its so weird how males act around males, but when females are there, the conversations are totally different.