We couldn’t have asked for a better day!  The weather was absolutely spectacular!!  Amazing views at every turn.  We started for the summit just before 7am and arrived at the summit in just under 4.5 hours.  It was not only emotional, because we were standing on sacred ground, but astonishing, as the views were overwhelming.  When you look at the photos below, you may think some of what you see in the background is sky, but it’s actually the ocean.  The lake on the mountain is Lake Wai’au, also very sacred to the Hawaiian people.  I’m so very thankful to have had a safe journey up and down the mountain and for my friend Tom Murphy who was awesome company and encouraging.  I can’t thank him enough.  I also want to thank Andrew for his dedication to filming in such extreme conditions, as he ran across rock of lava to get the best shots ever.  It was fun to see him working with the drone.

Thank you to everyone for being so encouraging and supportive.  Love you all!  6 down, 44 to go…

 

 

 

 

 

 

We caught our first glimpse today of the summit of Mauna Kea at 7,000 feet during our helicopter adventure today.  It was inspiring and over whelming.  The mountain soared above the clouds and our pilot got us high enough to be able to see both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa above the clouds.   We also saw active volcanoes and lava that flowed down to the ocean, burning the landscape along it’s path.  Then we flew up the coast line watching enormous waves hit the shoreline.  An unbelievably awesome experience.  The series of waterfalls from the air was absolutely beautiful.

The weather is looking great for tomorrow’s climb.  The weather prediction is 100% sunshine.  We couldn’t ask for a better day.  We will be up before 5am and will be at the trailhead of Mauna Kea by 6:15-6:30am local time.  We are ready to rock and roll!

We had another awesome day on Mauna Kea (White Mountain in Hawaiian) today.  Great visibility.  Fantastic views.  And great weather.  We have decided to climb this Saturday, December 5th starting at 6:30am (11:30am EST).  We estimate the climb will take approximately 8-10 hours.  We will begin at the Visitor’s Center at 9,200 feet and climb using the Humu’ula-Mauna Kea Summit trail and finish on the summit at 13,796 feet (4,205 meters).  Not only is this mountain the highpoint of Hawaii, but it is actually taller than any other mountain in the world, as its base is on the ocean floor and it rises over 33,000 feet (or 10,000 meters), making it significantly greater than the elevation of Mt. Everest!  We plan to stop at a sacred lake on the descent called Lake Waiau (Swirling Water) and KuKa’lau Cave.

I know some of you are not on Facebook, but if you are Tom Murphy is still posting on his Sweethearts and Heroes Website and it appears the local St. Messenger is copying it to their website located at http://www.samessenger.com.  So if you don’t do Facebook, check out their website!

The photos from today’s journey also include a pic of Rainbow Waterfall located in Hilo, Hawaii.  We are anticipating tomorrow’s journey to be quite unique as our acclimatization to high altitude may include a helicopter ride over active volcanoes (weather permitting).

Stay tuned…

 

After a 24 hour delay in our arrival we finally made it to Hilo.  Today we headed up the Saddle Road to the Mauna Kea Access Road for our first day of training and to acclimate at just under 10,000 feet.  We drove through heavy fog and light rain, but once we arrived at the Visitor’s Center the sky cleared up.  Absolutely beautiful… We spent two hours there exploring and getting used to the Mauna Kea Trail and the altitude.  Andrew did some drone filming while Tom and I ventured out to the mountain trail.  As you can see in the two photos below, the views were awesome.  The first photo was taken at the Visitor’s Center looking over at Mauna Loa.  And the second pic was taken at the trailhead to Mauna Kea.  It was fun to be above the clouds!  (p.s. for those who don’t do Facebook I will continue to post on this blog so everyone can follow the journey!).  Stay posted…

Tom Murphy is posting updates on our journey this week on his sweethearts and heroes face book page.  Click on the link below to follow us!

S&H Face Book

Aloha!