Distance

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Elevation

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Vertical

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Time

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I drove my 9 meter Cat 100 miles north from Nukualofa to Kao.
It was roughly a 4 hour run, we had calm seas.
When we arrived we went straight to the landing zone I heard rumors of and we're able to jump on the rocks without getting wet. 4 of us did the climb, we left our youngest (16 year old) to anchor the boat in the lee of island. We arrived at the landing at 10am. Also used handheld radios to keep contact with boat.

I had to plot my own path using Google Earth and a handheld gps, wasnt sure what to expect.
The ferns bushes were very stiff, sharp and chest high, had to take turns leading to trailblazer the path as it was very exhausting. What looks like grass in satalite pictures is actually those ferns.
Once in the treeline it wasnt as difficult, though it was hotter without any sort of breeze, one of the guys git a bit overheated at this point.

The vegetation would change the higher we went up, very interesting, lots of fern species that I had never seen anywhere in the country were on this island. Out past the treeline the ferns were back but much shorter in height, we found pools of water that helped replenish our water supplies.

We pushed on and made it to the summit, fairly steep angle, had to be on hands and knees to reach the last bit.
It took us 5 hours or so to make it to the top, at a fairly easy pace. Only took 2 hours to decend, we practically ran down to make it to the boat before dark.

We stayed around the island the next 2 days spearfishing, was a blast!

I have lots of pictures on my facebook page, Ben Carlson
Also had a good video of the trip.

Unfortunately the summit was cloudy and we didn't have the view we wanted.

The climbers were myself, Vaea Kama, John Reke, Eli puku and Richard Herrera.

Route name

Southern end

Obstacles

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Key gear

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