Climb Every Mountain....

Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Waikiki, Hawaii, United States
Today's outing had to be the most strenuous one this entire trip to Hawaii; we hiked up Diamond Head. Having been turned away on Sunday, we tried again and didn’t have to wait long until we found a parking place. It was only just 10:00 and people were already leaving. They must have got there at the crack of dawn – the park opens at 6:30.

The volcano, called Lē’ahi (forehead of the 'ahi fish) locally, was formed about 300,000 years ago during a single brief eruption . It occurred under the ocean where the magma was broken down into ash by the water and steam. Blown into the air, these ash particles were stuck together like cement into a rock called tuff and eventually formed into a tuff cone. The cone looks lopsided because winds were blowing south-westerly at the time, so this side of the crater is far taller. Since the eruption, the sides of the volcano has been eroded by rain, wind and the pounding waves.

The trail to the summit was an historical one. It was built in 1908 as part of the coastal defence system. Access to the car park was through a tunnel, the Kapahulu Tunnel. The path, only a small portion of it was paved, meanders up the interior western slop of the crater. The path was designed in such a way that it was easy for mules and humans to haul up building material for the construction of the Fire Control Station Diamond Head situated at the summit. The trail wasn’t very long – 0.8 mile (1.3km) one way but it was steep . But the sun was beating down on us with little shade along the way, it certain was a sweaty trek. From the beginning of the trail to the top was an elevation of 560- ft (171m) and there were many stairs and steps. At the top was a pill-box bunker with a small opening which all visitors had to squeeze through to reach the top observation platform. It was amazing, and alarming, to see some rather large people trying to squeeze through the tight opening. Some of the people looked very sweaty and hot along the path, other looked as though their hearts were about to give out and expire at any minute. But others super fit human beings practically ran up the slopes. It is definitely not a nice saunter but people looked very unprepared; I never thought flip-flop was the ideal footwear for this. On the way down we saw a woman with crutches looking up the path and no doubt thinking to herself that it was not such a good idea.

The panoramic view from the top was spectacular and made the hard climb worthwhile. At a height of 761 ft/232m the view of Waikiki and Koko Head was breathtaking. There were many people up there, all getting very excited that they had made it to the top and, perhaps getting too much oxygen into their lungs, felt that they had to shout to each other all the time. There was even a woman who had schlepped a tiny, squalling baby all the way to the top. Poor thing was so hot and miserable.

The descent was easy – gravity played an important part here. We were very happy that there was shave ice available by the car park. We were hot and wanted desperately something cold and didn’t care that the flavoured syrups poured over the ice were absolutely luminous.

Comments

Etsuko
2011-04-07

Mirando esa cuesta, debéis tener la tableta del chocolate en el abdomen.

2025-02-08

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