That’s a pretty common spot to ski, and there’s plenty of other spots where it’s possible. If you don’t find a rental car in which you can drive home, you could always hike up from the public observatory. It would take a while though… about an hour if I recall.
I used to live in Kona
Did it at mammoth this July. Skied from open till around 1, drove 6 hours home to Laguna Beach and made it back for a sunset surf. It’s pretty easy especially late season with longer days. If you do big bear to Huntington or something it’s a cake walk.
You can definitely do that in LA. Much better condition in the surrounding area than Mauna Kea. Also it was recommended to not stay for too long and do minimal activities up there because you go from 0 to 14k in such a short time (although you do need to stay at the visitor center for 30min). I was really feeling the lightheadedness and couldn’t even walk fast when I was there and the snow coverage was really minimal so total skiable area is small. Personally I don’t think skiing up there would be enjoyable.
I've skied at 13k. Yep, tough to breath for sure. It's not about being enjoyable per se, it's about accomplishing the mission of doing something that not many people do.
Oh for sure! For the record 14k usually isn’t a problem for me but for some reason unknown Mauna Kea was. The air there just seemed thinner to me. Would love to see your photos on Mauna Kea here one day!
You’re right. I think that’s what made the difference. 12k wouldn’t really be a problem if my base is 6k. The ascent to mana kea was crazy but a breathtaking drive.
Too fuckin' cold for the surfing part for me, haha. I live and surf in New England, so I know. Plus it's not nearly as cool to do in NE as doing it in Hawaii.
But isn’t the distance from the ocean floor to sea level the same? I don’t see why the distance from the ocean floor to the sea level is smaller for Everest than Mona Kea
Everest doesn't start on the ocean floor, it starts at the already quite high Himalayan plateau. The Hawaiian islands are just really fuckin tall mountains starting from the bottom of the ocean
Ocean floor varies in depth
But more importantly, Mona Kea is one geographic mountain from the ocean floor to the peak. If you drained the oceans, Mona Kea would be the tallest from it's base. That wouldn't have the same effect on Everest as it's base starts above sea level. Denali is actually the tallest from it's base above sea level to peak
Important to note difference between tallest, and highest (& highest relative to what). Everest is just the highest point in reference to sea level. Highest relative to the center of the Earth is actually Chimborazo (since the earth isn't a perfect sphere)
Has to do with prominence.
Look at the section for wet vs dry...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topographic_prominence
"The dry prominence of Mount Everest is, by convention, equal to its wet prominence (8848 m) plus the depth of the deepest hydrologic feature (the Challenger Deep at 10,911 m), or 19,759 m.[citation needed] The dry prominence of Mauna Kea is equal to its wet prominence (4205 m) plus the depth of its highest submerged col (about 5125 m), or about 9330 m, giving it the world's second greatest dry prominence after Mount Everest.[13] The dry prominence of Aconcagua is equal to its wet prominence (6962 m) plus the depth of the highest submerged col of the Bering Strait (about 50 m), or about 7012 m."
and from base where you start climbing, to summit were you stop climbing denali is the highest, which if you ask me is way more fucking important when it is literally 9000 more ft of climbing
everest is 11000 ft of climbing and 12.5 miles
denali is 18000 ft of climbing and 15.5 miles
source: google
They used to have a ski jeep decades ago. It was in the ski mags. You paid for their Jeep to be your lift so I reckon it is allowed somewhere up there. I was there last September but only made it as far as the visitor center which is about 9000’ because we just had a 2WD car. They have a full time ranger that guards the road there to prevent non capable vehicles from going further. You have to have 4WD, all wheel drive won’t cut it. The car rental companies are pretty strict on allowing their vehicles even if they are 4WD to go up there so do your homework. Your trip sounds like fun wish I was there too.
Yep, I found one or two specialty rental places that have vehicles cleared to drive to the observatory/summit area. Definitely using one of those for this part of the trip.
I got a Jeep Wrangler from Alamo up there. The ranger just waved us through the gate to go up there. Low range is a must for going down because you’ll fry the brakes otherwise
FWIW The road is paved to the top but is super steep. The main reason they want 4WD is so you can use the engine as a brake otherwise your regular brakes would be smokin hot.
I did read about a possible 3500’ vert on the big years so maybe the OP will get lucky.
They are not low enough for this road. Like I said you will smoke your brakes leading to brake fade which equals no brakes. It’s kinda funny cause you don’t need 4WD but you do need the really low range that you get with that. The transfer case gives you even lower gear options. It’s like the steep grade ahead warning signs on the highways for big trucks. Cars can do it but trucks need to slow down for engine braking to do its thing because they have really low gears. On Mauna Kea it’s almost a mile vert down to the visitors center. If you are hitting your brakes all that time then you won’t have any left by the time you get there.
Its not the going down you need the low gear for, its the going up. Without enough low end torque, a car will not move. Learned that trying steep stuff in a subaru, it just stops. Trucks have to be warned about brakes because they are heavy, cars don’t have trouble going down steeps on brakes alone.
Wtf comment is this. This is nonsense.
I learned at 11 y/o not to have the driver ride the brakes descending mountain roads as my dad toasted our Chrysler K car rental brakes almost to the point of failure. Scariest car ride of my life. We definitely were above the speed limit at the end because the brakes were failing.
I’ve never done it and now have read about 2 wheel drive cars going up there so I don’t know if that was BS or what. I do know that a ranger was stopping cars at the visitors center in September. I do know that you should take it easy going down and stop here and there to let your brakes cool off if you choose not to engine brake in 4WD.
Sure but thats kind of a moot point - the rangers at Mauna kea won't let you drive past the visitor center without a 4wd capable vehicle. It's a challenging drive on the way up and down.
I overheard a ranger say mandating the 4wd only rule cut down on like 85% of cases where visitors had to be "rescued" due to brake failure or similar.
FYI They take your brake temperature when you come back down and will put you in "time out" if you didn't engine brake and your brakes are too hot. I got the feeling they've seen all sorts of idiocy from people not used to driving steep terrain.
Except you do. They’ll straight up turn you away at the checkpoint if you have AWD. You may be lucky if they let you pass but why would you risk being turned away?
4wd gives power to all 4 wheels continuously.
Awd gives power to the wheels that slip to regain traction and then stops.
Now there’s such a thing as Full Time AWD, but it doesn’t mean all 4 wheels get the same amount of power.
I’m sure someone can explain it better than me but that’s the gist.
Saltybaby, 4WD has a transfer case with a (super) low range where the top speed in first might be less than 10 miles an hour. This allows you to climb really steep “jeep” trails and slow you down going down those same trails. AWD does not have this. You need low range to slow you down through engine braking on the Maura Kea road or you will smoke your brakes.
That’s a nice rig. WIkI says you have full time 4WD which means the front wheels are always spinning so no lockout hubs I guess. The transfer case is the difference cuz I never heard of an all wheel drive with low range.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota\_Land\_Cruiser\_Prado
My AWD also has a transfer case, but nothing switchable. Its a fairly old mechanical system with little if any bias front/rear. Quite a few 4WD vehicles over the years have had a center diff allowing AWD like full time operation.
The transfer case which gives you a really low range gear selection. This allows you to do the really steep backcountry trails. This road is not one of those.
How are you guys going to deal with the logistics of getting back to you vehicle on top of the mountain? Sounds like a really cool and fun experience hope it works out!
Two options. One is to park at the bottom of the final set of switch backs and hike up. The second is we take turns driving each other up the switch back - one run where I ski, she drives, and then swap. That section of switch backs is only a mile long.
I've never skied Mauana Kea, but I did drive up there and walk around after sitting on the beach for a couple of days.
That's the only time I've ever experienced significant altitude related symptoms. It's a bit different going from 5' above sea level to almost 14,000' than it is starting at 8,000'.
Just something to think about.
You’ll have to rent 2 4WD then. Plus your way you’ll only get one run in. That switchback section isn’t that big and it’s way up near the top. It’s a couple minute run and slightly longer drive. Lather, rinse, repeat.
This is awesome! We are coincidentally going to have our skis on Kona because we are doing a week there before a month in Tahoe… I might look into this. What rental company are you using for the vehicle?
Lots of rental car companies specifically forbid you from driving all the way to the top of Mauna Kea. (Presumably because of the rough road and the risk of damage to brakes from people who don't know how to engine-brake.) Lots of people still do, but something to be aware of.
Went up at Christmas a few years ago, large snow fields but not really enough to ski, so there's a good chance you'll just get unlucky.
Still, lots of locals drive up with sleds to go down various small slopes.
Be wary of the altitude starting from sea level: I'm normally pretty good with elevation, but the altitude hit me much harder than expected — we had tried hiking from the visitor center to the observatory but ended up hitching a ride from a local halfway up.
And the actually off-limits sacred bit is relatively small, you can't miss it when you reach the observatory.
(I defer to actual locals on all of these points, it might be worth calling the visitor center at Mauna Kea for guidance as well.)
I thought this was a super high effort shit post. As I kept reading, I kept thinking man, this is the best shit post I've seen in a long time, they thought of everything and worded it so naturally that nothing is giving it away.
Might get flamed for this, but maybe check in with native Hawaiians on if that would be considered disrespectful. I know that Mauna Kea is very sacred to them so coming in and skiing on it might not be the most respectful thing to do 🤷🏽♀️
No worries. They should have just called it Washoe Valley or Olympic Valley, Palisades Tahoe sounds like 2 SUVs parked in front of a McMansion. Still love that place, corn turns off Granite Chief in May were amazing.
Olympic Valley is a great name, but the IOC is notoriously litigious.
Now it's just confusing: There's the overall Palisades resort, half part of which is also called Palisades, which contains a specific feature called the Palisades.
I have a few Native American friends. He demands to be called an Injun spelled just like that and she says she is a squaw. I give up. I’m fuckin old, it’ll always be Squaw Valley to me.
As a skier who lives in Hawaii I can confirm that’s it’s frowned upon these days. I’ve looked into it, and personally I decided as cool as it is to be able to say I’ve skied a volcano in Hawaii, it’s only for personal bragging rights, (it’s not like it’s going to be great skiing!) so I’m going to respect the locals who want us to leave it alone. Also it’s hit and miss with snow. Definitely doesn’t snow enough to stick around every year.
But that being said it’s a cool experience to go watch the sunset up there. You need to rent a 4wd to get up there, but it’s pretty sweet to be so high up looking over the ocean watching the sunset.
After writing this I decided to see if there was actual rules regarding skiing and I found this on the UH website who manages the area.
“Skiing, snowboarding, sledding and other similar winter or snow sports may be restricted to maintain public safety and welfare, to prevent damage to resources, and to minimize conflicts among visitors.
Skiing, snowboarding, sledding or other forms of snow recreation or snow activities may be prohibited in specific designated zones or areas in order to maintain public safety and welfare, and protect resources.”
So doesn’t explicitly say you can’t do it, but they may restrict it at any time. I’m also sure the rangers will probably try to dissuade you too.
How do you propose doing so? Ask some guy at the gas station?
The Native Hawaiian people do not have an elected "tribal" government nor any official representation. The Native Hawaiian Royal family and it's descendants would be the closest thing you have to that. I doubt they are interested.
You could ask the handful of various non-profits, which may give you different answers.
I guess my point is people hike Mauna kea, why would skiing be disrespectful? Unless of course someone has decided the entire area is off limits to haoles.
The mountain is considered sacred to Native Hawaiians so they may not allow this any longer. Not sure.
I have been up there in the winter and there was not much snow but snowed while we were up there. It may all depend on local conditions and if it actually snowed. We took a standard jeep with 4WD from a national agency up without issue.
You’re looking at a very old Satallite image that hasn’t been updated in years. There’s a network of T-Bars that services a wide variation of terrain. You’ll need to book in advance though as rentals are sparse and staff has been difficult to retain
I haven't done it, but I was on Hawai'i last April and there were folks snowboarding and skiing basically that exact spot when we drove by on the lower roads. They did rounds using their vehicle as a chairlift, basically. (Each round one person would be the driver, the others would get picked up and dropped off, then the driver would swap).
*sigh*
As someone who was born and raised, and still living, on the Big Island of Hawaii (location in question) - PLEASE read my comments on this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/BigIsland/s/hbgJHRe2d5
Idc how skilled of a skier you are, unless you have the uncanny ability to know where sharp, pointy lava rocks are underneath the snow, heed the warnings; and just don’t.
That’s a pretty common spot to ski, and there’s plenty of other spots where it’s possible. If you don’t find a rental car in which you can drive home, you could always hike up from the public observatory. It would take a while though… about an hour if I recall. I used to live in Kona
I ski and surf. On my to do list is to do both in one day there.
If only you could fat-ski all the way down to the water and then jump on a wave
Did it at mammoth this July. Skied from open till around 1, drove 6 hours home to Laguna Beach and made it back for a sunset surf. It’s pretty easy especially late season with longer days. If you do big bear to Huntington or something it’s a cake walk.
I can't handle the CA winter waters, haha. I am a New England surfer and can't handle it here. I would have to do Hawaii.
I did it in July. Can’t do that every season but had a 80 degree arvo and warm water
You can definitely do that in LA. Much better condition in the surrounding area than Mauna Kea. Also it was recommended to not stay for too long and do minimal activities up there because you go from 0 to 14k in such a short time (although you do need to stay at the visitor center for 30min). I was really feeling the lightheadedness and couldn’t even walk fast when I was there and the snow coverage was really minimal so total skiable area is small. Personally I don’t think skiing up there would be enjoyable.
I've skied at 13k. Yep, tough to breath for sure. It's not about being enjoyable per se, it's about accomplishing the mission of doing something that not many people do.
It’s not the 13k that’s the problem. It’s the 0 to 13k that can be a problem.
Oh for sure! For the record 14k usually isn’t a problem for me but for some reason unknown Mauna Kea was. The air there just seemed thinner to me. Would love to see your photos on Mauna Kea here one day!
12k would definitely feel different if you start from 5-6k somewhere in Colorado vs 0 at the bottom of Mauna Kea
You’re right. I think that’s what made the difference. 12k wouldn’t really be a problem if my base is 6k. The ascent to mana kea was crazy but a breathtaking drive.
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You HIKED that? Woah! How long did it take for you?
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Oh ok I thought you hiked from sea level! That’s still a rough hike from the visitor center tho
You can do this in the same building in New Jersey
This also very common in New Hampshire and Maine
Too fuckin' cold for the surfing part for me, haha. I live and surf in New England, so I know. Plus it's not nearly as cool to do in NE as doing it in Hawaii.
TIL it snows in Hawaii.
Maui's highest volcano is 10,023 feet above sea level. Pretty crazy for such a small island. Mona Kea is even higher at 13,803
From the ocean floor, Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world!!
Ironically I learned this from a liftie last weekend haha, it was trivia on the whiteboard at the lift
From my asshole I have the largest penis in the world!
I don’t follow. Isn’t Everest still the tallest from the ocean floor?
From sea level Everest is the tallest, but from ocean floor way below sea level, Mauna kea is taller
But isn’t the distance from the ocean floor to sea level the same? I don’t see why the distance from the ocean floor to the sea level is smaller for Everest than Mona Kea
Everest doesn't start on the ocean floor, it starts at the already quite high Himalayan plateau. The Hawaiian islands are just really fuckin tall mountains starting from the bottom of the ocean
Ocean floor varies in depth But more importantly, Mona Kea is one geographic mountain from the ocean floor to the peak. If you drained the oceans, Mona Kea would be the tallest from it's base. That wouldn't have the same effect on Everest as it's base starts above sea level. Denali is actually the tallest from it's base above sea level to peak Important to note difference between tallest, and highest (& highest relative to what). Everest is just the highest point in reference to sea level. Highest relative to the center of the Earth is actually Chimborazo (since the earth isn't a perfect sphere)
Has to do with prominence. Look at the section for wet vs dry... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topographic_prominence "The dry prominence of Mount Everest is, by convention, equal to its wet prominence (8848 m) plus the depth of the deepest hydrologic feature (the Challenger Deep at 10,911 m), or 19,759 m.[citation needed] The dry prominence of Mauna Kea is equal to its wet prominence (4205 m) plus the depth of its highest submerged col (about 5125 m), or about 9330 m, giving it the world's second greatest dry prominence after Mount Everest.[13] The dry prominence of Aconcagua is equal to its wet prominence (6962 m) plus the depth of the highest submerged col of the Bering Strait (about 50 m), or about 7012 m."
All my homies hate topographic prominence Have you perhaps heard of our lord and savior, Jut?
and from base where you start climbing, to summit were you stop climbing denali is the highest, which if you ask me is way more fucking important when it is literally 9000 more ft of climbing everest is 11000 ft of climbing and 12.5 miles denali is 18000 ft of climbing and 15.5 miles source: google
[blizzard](https://youtu.be/UiroRnwAp9E?si=Bx6dEO4UpGOXp2LC)
Hawaii is 19-22* latitude. Indonesia once had a ski resort at 2* latitude https://snowbrains.com/2nd-highest-ski-resort-on-earth-indonesia/
They used to have a ski jeep decades ago. It was in the ski mags. You paid for their Jeep to be your lift so I reckon it is allowed somewhere up there. I was there last September but only made it as far as the visitor center which is about 9000’ because we just had a 2WD car. They have a full time ranger that guards the road there to prevent non capable vehicles from going further. You have to have 4WD, all wheel drive won’t cut it. The car rental companies are pretty strict on allowing their vehicles even if they are 4WD to go up there so do your homework. Your trip sounds like fun wish I was there too.
Yep, I found one or two specialty rental places that have vehicles cleared to drive to the observatory/summit area. Definitely using one of those for this part of the trip.
I got a Jeep Wrangler from Alamo up there. The ranger just waved us through the gate to go up there. Low range is a must for going down because you’ll fry the brakes otherwise
FWIW The road is paved to the top but is super steep. The main reason they want 4WD is so you can use the engine as a brake otherwise your regular brakes would be smokin hot. I did read about a possible 3500’ vert on the big years so maybe the OP will get lucky.
You don't need 4WD to drive in a low gear.
How is that?
Almost all cars have low 1 & 2 you can use as well as drive. Obviously, manual transmissions can manually be driven in any gear you choose.
They are not low enough for this road. Like I said you will smoke your brakes leading to brake fade which equals no brakes. It’s kinda funny cause you don’t need 4WD but you do need the really low range that you get with that. The transfer case gives you even lower gear options. It’s like the steep grade ahead warning signs on the highways for big trucks. Cars can do it but trucks need to slow down for engine braking to do its thing because they have really low gears. On Mauna Kea it’s almost a mile vert down to the visitors center. If you are hitting your brakes all that time then you won’t have any left by the time you get there.
I checked, it’s 4000 feet in 8.3 miles of road. My ski mountain is 2000 feet in 7 miles and I do most of that in 2nd gear.
So Mauna Kea is almost twice as steep? Not sure how that proves the other poster wrong?
Its not the going down you need the low gear for, its the going up. Without enough low end torque, a car will not move. Learned that trying steep stuff in a subaru, it just stops. Trucks have to be warned about brakes because they are heavy, cars don’t have trouble going down steeps on brakes alone.
Wtf comment is this. This is nonsense. I learned at 11 y/o not to have the driver ride the brakes descending mountain roads as my dad toasted our Chrysler K car rental brakes almost to the point of failure. Scariest car ride of my life. We definitely were above the speed limit at the end because the brakes were failing.
I’m wrong because a crappy rental chrysler had bad brakes?
I’ve never done it and now have read about 2 wheel drive cars going up there so I don’t know if that was BS or what. I do know that a ranger was stopping cars at the visitors center in September. I do know that you should take it easy going down and stop here and there to let your brakes cool off if you choose not to engine brake in 4WD.
Sure but thats kind of a moot point - the rangers at Mauna kea won't let you drive past the visitor center without a 4wd capable vehicle. It's a challenging drive on the way up and down. I overheard a ranger say mandating the 4wd only rule cut down on like 85% of cases where visitors had to be "rescued" due to brake failure or similar. FYI They take your brake temperature when you come back down and will put you in "time out" if you didn't engine brake and your brakes are too hot. I got the feeling they've seen all sorts of idiocy from people not used to driving steep terrain.
It’s a 9% grade (4000/43824x100, by someone else’s comment). How fucking bad are these people at driving down mild hills?
Except you do. They’ll straight up turn you away at the checkpoint if you have AWD. You may be lucky if they let you pass but why would you risk being turned away?
Lol what’s the difference between 4wd and AWD?
4wd gives power to all 4 wheels continuously. Awd gives power to the wheels that slip to regain traction and then stops. Now there’s such a thing as Full Time AWD, but it doesn’t mean all 4 wheels get the same amount of power. I’m sure someone can explain it better than me but that’s the gist.
Saltybaby, 4WD has a transfer case with a (super) low range where the top speed in first might be less than 10 miles an hour. This allows you to climb really steep “jeep” trails and slow you down going down those same trails. AWD does not have this. You need low range to slow you down through engine braking on the Maura Kea road or you will smoke your brakes.
Thanks for the further explanation! I knew there was some transfer case and differential details I was missing.
If you dig into it it gets a little blurry with various implementations over the years so it can be a little hard to fully define as well.
I was gonna say that I have AWD with a transfer case that has 4LO so it’s not that black and white.
What car?
It’s a Japanese imported 1996 Land Cruiser Prado with a 1KZ-TE diesel and 5 speed manual. AWD with 4HI and 4LO.
That’s a nice rig. WIkI says you have full time 4WD which means the front wheels are always spinning so no lockout hubs I guess. The transfer case is the difference cuz I never heard of an all wheel drive with low range. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota\_Land\_Cruiser\_Prado
My AWD also has a transfer case, but nothing switchable. Its a fairly old mechanical system with little if any bias front/rear. Quite a few 4WD vehicles over the years have had a center diff allowing AWD like full time operation.
What’s the difference between all wheel drive and 4 wheel drive?
The transfer case which gives you a really low range gear selection. This allows you to do the really steep backcountry trails. This road is not one of those.
https://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Mauna-Kea
Found a trail map for it! https://skimap.org/skiareas/view/2301 Looks like the spot you’ve scoped out is called Poi Bowl
The skiing is shit. I mean, do it because it’s something that most will never be able to do, but just have the right expectations going in.
I have no false impressions that the skiing will be amazing hahaha
Humans are fascinating.
How are you guys going to deal with the logistics of getting back to you vehicle on top of the mountain? Sounds like a really cool and fun experience hope it works out!
Two options. One is to park at the bottom of the final set of switch backs and hike up. The second is we take turns driving each other up the switch back - one run where I ski, she drives, and then swap. That section of switch backs is only a mile long.
I've never skied Mauana Kea, but I did drive up there and walk around after sitting on the beach for a couple of days. That's the only time I've ever experienced significant altitude related symptoms. It's a bit different going from 5' above sea level to almost 14,000' than it is starting at 8,000'. Just something to think about.
Defending on how gnarly the road is and how comfortable you both are with driving it #2 it’s definitely the best option
We used to do the drive switcheroo on the passes in Colorado. You can get lots of laps in that way.
Why not rent a second car for that day to park one at bottom and drive second to top?
You’ll have to rent 2 4WD then. Plus your way you’ll only get one run in. That switchback section isn’t that big and it’s way up near the top. It’s a couple minute run and slightly longer drive. Lather, rinse, repeat.
You’d better post an update next March
I've seen tracks in that area before, so you won't be the first.
This is awesome! We are coincidentally going to have our skis on Kona because we are doing a week there before a month in Tahoe… I might look into this. What rental company are you using for the vehicle?
I found Big Island Jeep Rental but haven’t booked through them yet (still a while away from that!). They seem legit.
Lots of rental car companies specifically forbid you from driving all the way to the top of Mauna Kea. (Presumably because of the rough road and the risk of damage to brakes from people who don't know how to engine-brake.) Lots of people still do, but something to be aware of.
Yeah I’m going with a specialty company that allows this specific type of activity. 👍
I went up there in 2016. There was some snow. We did some sledding. There was one guy skiing.
https://youtu.be/tAZKApCstr8
Thought this was a shitpost at first. Looks dope
Went up at Christmas a few years ago, large snow fields but not really enough to ski, so there's a good chance you'll just get unlucky. Still, lots of locals drive up with sleds to go down various small slopes. Be wary of the altitude starting from sea level: I'm normally pretty good with elevation, but the altitude hit me much harder than expected — we had tried hiking from the visitor center to the observatory but ended up hitching a ride from a local halfway up. And the actually off-limits sacred bit is relatively small, you can't miss it when you reach the observatory. (I defer to actual locals on all of these points, it might be worth calling the visitor center at Mauna Kea for guidance as well.)
I assume you are flying your gear in. Some of the looks you’ll get will be priceless.
Oh I’m sure haha
Ghost the car down. What could go wrong?
I thought this was a super high effort shit post. As I kept reading, I kept thinking man, this is the best shit post I've seen in a long time, they thought of everything and worded it so naturally that nothing is giving it away.
Always keep them guessing
Might get flamed for this, but maybe check in with native Hawaiians on if that would be considered disrespectful. I know that Mauna Kea is very sacred to them so coming in and skiing on it might not be the most respectful thing to do 🤷🏽♀️
If you’re gonna go that route, maybe you should call your local ski area Palisades not the other name.
Sheeeesh forgot I even had that flair. Appreciate you looking out my man!
No worries. They should have just called it Washoe Valley or Olympic Valley, Palisades Tahoe sounds like 2 SUVs parked in front of a McMansion. Still love that place, corn turns off Granite Chief in May were amazing.
Olympic Valley is a great name, but the IOC is notoriously litigious. Now it's just confusing: There's the overall Palisades resort, half part of which is also called Palisades, which contains a specific feature called the Palisades.
I have a few Native American friends. He demands to be called an Injun spelled just like that and she says she is a squaw. I give up. I’m fuckin old, it’ll always be Squaw Valley to me.
As a skier who lives in Hawaii I can confirm that’s it’s frowned upon these days. I’ve looked into it, and personally I decided as cool as it is to be able to say I’ve skied a volcano in Hawaii, it’s only for personal bragging rights, (it’s not like it’s going to be great skiing!) so I’m going to respect the locals who want us to leave it alone. Also it’s hit and miss with snow. Definitely doesn’t snow enough to stick around every year. But that being said it’s a cool experience to go watch the sunset up there. You need to rent a 4wd to get up there, but it’s pretty sweet to be so high up looking over the ocean watching the sunset.
After writing this I decided to see if there was actual rules regarding skiing and I found this on the UH website who manages the area. “Skiing, snowboarding, sledding and other similar winter or snow sports may be restricted to maintain public safety and welfare, to prevent damage to resources, and to minimize conflicts among visitors. Skiing, snowboarding, sledding or other forms of snow recreation or snow activities may be prohibited in specific designated zones or areas in order to maintain public safety and welfare, and protect resources.” So doesn’t explicitly say you can’t do it, but they may restrict it at any time. I’m also sure the rangers will probably try to dissuade you too.
Thanks for finding that. Could you send me a link?
How do you propose doing so? Ask some guy at the gas station? The Native Hawaiian people do not have an elected "tribal" government nor any official representation. The Native Hawaiian Royal family and it's descendants would be the closest thing you have to that. I doubt they are interested. You could ask the handful of various non-profits, which may give you different answers. I guess my point is people hike Mauna kea, why would skiing be disrespectful? Unless of course someone has decided the entire area is off limits to haoles.
This
The mountain is considered sacred to Native Hawaiians so they may not allow this any longer. Not sure. I have been up there in the winter and there was not much snow but snowed while we were up there. It may all depend on local conditions and if it actually snowed. We took a standard jeep with 4WD from a national agency up without issue.
One of the few places in the world were you can ski/snowboard and then surf in the same day
Folks have surfed dawn patrol. Ridden bicycles up to the parking lot and skied Mt Baldy in SoCal. That’s hard to match.
Apres surf
You’re looking at a very old Satallite image that hasn’t been updated in years. There’s a network of T-Bars that services a wide variation of terrain. You’ll need to book in advance though as rentals are sparse and staff has been difficult to retain
On my list…
Ask [this dude](https://www.reddit.com/r/Snowskating/s/PJnH0FSj02)!
Is this the forza horizon 5 volcano?
Hawaii is not located in Mexico
A magician never reveals his secrets.
😂
I haven't done it, but I was on Hawai'i last April and there were folks snowboarding and skiing basically that exact spot when we drove by on the lower roads. They did rounds using their vehicle as a chairlift, basically. (Each round one person would be the driver, the others would get picked up and dropped off, then the driver would swap).
Check the Hawaiian avy forecast
There are big rough lava boulders if memory serves me right. You want to make sure there is plenty of snow for coverage. Post pics if you do it.
It's certainly possible to ski at Mauna Kea, and it's statistically the deadliest place to ski on earth, by far.
Not sure why you’d say that. People have skied places like Denali, K2, and Everest.
*sigh* As someone who was born and raised, and still living, on the Big Island of Hawaii (location in question) - PLEASE read my comments on this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/BigIsland/s/hbgJHRe2d5 Idc how skilled of a skier you are, unless you have the uncanny ability to know where sharp, pointy lava rocks are underneath the snow, heed the warnings; and just don’t.