Pali Notches to Wiliwilinui Ridge Trail

Gen, Jose, Matt and myself met up at the Pali Lookout with the goal to traverse to Kuli’ou’ou. The hot weather would have a say in those plans.

Hiking with headlamps underneath the thicket of hau branches.

Looking across to the other half of the Nu’uanu saddle.

After climbing down the first notch, we hung out for awhile to catch the sunrise. The clouds did not cooperate.

Gen and Jose coming down the second notch.

Making our way to the Chimney.

Admiring the view. Photo by Matt Vidaurri.

From this angle, going up looks like a walk in the park. All about angles. Photo by Matt Vidaurri.

Everybody waiting their turn. Photo by Jose Luis Delaki.

Gen making her way up. Photo by Jose Luis Delaki.

So many shiny new ropes. Which ones to use? All ropes are suspect and should be treated as such.

Group photo at the Chimney, left to right: Matt, Jose, Gen and myself.

More climbing ahead.

Matt making his way to the contour section. Climb or contour?

Gen contouring around the rock. This is the same area where another hiker fell 300′ and survived to hike another day.

Grab that tree! Grab that rock!

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All the hard parts behind us. Cruising on the KST.

The sun breaking over Olomana and Kailua.

Abundant uki grass that we used to pull and move ourselves up on the ridge.

Matt coming up the ridge with stunning Windward views behind him.

Splash of color on the ridge.

The mud wall had turned into mud steps. When trails become popular, ropes and increased erosion in the form of handholds and footholds shows up. A good and bad thing.

Almost there.

Matt at the Windward spur ridge junction, named after Silver Piliwale who pioneered the trail back in the 1980s.

Sharing a bag of tasty beef jerky at the 3,150′ summit.

We soon headed to the other peak or “testicle” of Konahuanui.

Geodetic mark that was emplaced back in 1927 and used for triangulation surveys.

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Gen and Jose making their way down to the saddle.

We left the twin peaks of Konahuanui behind us as we descended down from the highest points on the Ko’olau Mountains.

Who brings hot soup and rice to a hike? Something else was getting hot. The weather.

We ran across two other hikers who had come from Ka’au Crater and were going down Manoa Middle.

Jose passing the sedan rock section of the trail.

Group photo at the top of Awaawaloa with Ka’au Crater in the background. It was unusually clear. And hot.

The heat had started to slowly roast us from the inside and we collectively gave up on our goal to reach Kuli’ou’ou. Dwindling water supplies had a say in that too. Somebody kept saying Makapu’u.

Jose coming down from Mount Olympus.

The twin power lines that mark Ka’au Crater.

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Looking out towards Ka’au Crater and town views. Photo by Matt Vidaurri.

Hikers with a European twist coming down the trail that looped around Ka’au Crater. We also met some channel swimmers who were taking a “break” hiking.

Jose pointing out the big hill that we still had to climb.

What goes down …

… must go back up. It was a steep hill.

We took a short break at the 2,520′ summit.

Clouds and the attendant cooler temperatures rolled into the mountains. Somebody repeated Makapu’u.

Matt looking back at the summit and Mau’umae Ridge.

Geodetic marking the 2,600′ summit of Lanipo.

Gen making her along the cloudy ridge.

Making the steep descent down towards the row of power lines on the ridge.

Looking back at the ridge that connects to Aniani Nui Ridge and Olomana.

Almost there.

Matt coming up the trail with the summit of True Lanipo behind him.

Group photo at our last summit on the Ko’olau Range.

It was all downhill from here.

I found out that a girl named Tina put up the original swing here. Don’t even know if this is the original swing anymore.

Our hike was over. Now all we needed was a ride since we came down a different trail than originally planned. Who can we call?

While our hike did not end as originally planned, it was still quite a day that covered 7.56 miles with great company. Shout out to Justin for picking us up and shuttling us back to our cars. Post hike meal at Thai Valley Cuisine. Tasty tom yum soup. Matt’s treat.

Tagged as: awaawaloa, chimney, k1, k2, kainawaaunui, konahuanui, koolau summit ridge trail, ksrt, lanipo ridge trail, manoa middle ridge, mau'umae ridge, mount olympus, nuuanu saddle, pali lookout, pali notches, true lanipo, waahila ridge trail, wiliwilinui ridge trail