"First time climbing up Maun Kea. Choose the perfect weather, not cold not too hot, no wind. Waiau Lake is my favorite spot from the whole trip. If it wouldn't be for the high altitude, would be a pretty easy, straightforward hike. Coming from sea level, acclimatizing wasn't as bad as I thought, but after sumitting I had a headache for the rest of the day. Great experience!" — nandorszotak • Jun 27, 2020

"This is not the typical route up Mt Olympus. This was done only by a handful of people, and is not recommended route. The route starts at the a certain point of Maunawili Demo trail, and climbs straight up to Mt Olympus. The bottom part of the ridge is overgrown with uluhe fern, so that is your first obstacle. After you bushwhack for like 0.4 miles (which doesn't sound much, but it's a lot), you get to the bottom of this hill in the middle of the ridge. The climb up is treacherous. You hit a wall and you have to contour on the right, and find a way up climbing from tree to tree in almost 90 degrees. When you top out the terrain flattens a bit, but gets more overgrown. From here just a short section and you start climbing straight up holding uki grass, clidemia plants whatever you can to ascend. At one point you get to a "lip" like a carving on the mountain side. You keep left on that making your way to the final climb. That is where it gets tricky. I know some other groups needed help from the top to climb up, but we managed to pull ourselves up to the KST (Koolau Summit Trail) without any help. Made it to the actual Mt Olympus top just under 4h, which was very pleasing." — nandorszotak • May 2, 2020

"19.6km with 850m gain in 5:30hrs. Mostly clear skies, some clouds by the end; surprisingly many cars at the trailhead upon return. Descended via a shorter route (North Pit road plus old trail). If not for the elevation, would've been an easy hike." — alexp • Nov 4, 2019

"Great, easy trail on the side of the rim. From Pu'u O Kila lookout you will see lot of tourist, but slowly you loose them on the way to Pihea. Go early for better chance of clear skies." — nandorszotak • Oct 27, 2019

"The original plan was to climb Peak 2487 after Hihimanu, but finally didn't attempt it. Next time! It was a great workout with some very steep sections, but I really liked it." — nandorszotak • Oct 25, 2019