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Why do people climb mountains? Because it’s there. When it comes to mountain, Haleakala is not your average hill. It’s a dormant volcano and you can ride it from sea level to summit, 10,023 feet (3′055 m) of elevation gain in one uninterrupted climb. Some claim it’s the highest paved road on earth. Here’s my account of attempting such climb.

I rented a bike from South Maui Bike. They now feature Trek 5000, all carbon for $250/week. You can call in advance to reserve it and make sure you get the proper frame size. The bike was in decent condition, but don’t expect too much. I started from Paia as planned, and got rolling shortly after 6:30 am. Plenty of daylight at that time of the year. Baldwin Beach Park is the perfect location to take a picture and a toe dip in the water before starting the ascent.

Here is what I carried with me:

• Arm warmers
• Knee warmers
• Rain jacket
• Long finger gloves
• 2 extra portions of cytomax in ziplock bags
• 4 energy bars
• 4 dates
• Some chocolate covered coffee beans
• Digital camera
• Cell phone (reception can be a bit spotty up top)
• Cash to pay for the park entrance ($5) and for emergency ($60)
• iPod shuffle
• Additional sunscreen
• Trek seat 75-cubic-inch seat pack
• 2 spare tubes
• Tire levers, compact multi-tool, patches

I ended up eating everything and wore all the clothes I brought. The weather was pretty good, slightly overcast. The arm warmer came handy once I reached 8,000 feet. I wore everything for the descent and I was glad that I did. Unless you like more abuse than necessary, don’t attempt a descent without long finger gloves and a wind jacket at a minimum.

You should check out the weather forecast and pick the best day to ride. You will notice a big difference between weather at the summit and forecast at the base.

• Haleakala Summit weather forecast
• Windward Haleakala weather forecast

The route is pretty straight forward. The only tricky part is the right turn off Baldwin or else you’ll be climbing an extra 1,700 feet for nothing like Mike did. When you see the horse arena on the left, it’s your cue to make a right.

The first 3,500 feet of the ride are pretty easy. I stopped at Sunrise market and indulged on Maui potato chips and fresh cut pineapple chunks. Apparently, you get good karma points for going up judging by my short exchange with the cashier:

Cashier: Are you going up hon?
Me: Yes.
Cashier: You’re a good man.

After a short rest, downhill riders in full gears including motorcycle helmets and rain coveralls started to appear. Expect to see a lot of them. As of end of 2007, the tour operators are no longer allowed in the park proper because of too many accidents resulting in death. As a result, their tour start right below the entrance of the park at around the 6,500 feet mark.

Make sure to refill on water at the Sunrise market. Your next opportunity will be at the visitor center in the park at 7,000 feet. The next leg of the climb is pretty cool. Lots of switch back with pretty vistas.

Along the way, you won’t see many elevation signs but if you pay attention, there are marking on the asphalt. A blue number below a yellow sun. I’m assuming that they are for the Cycle to the sun race.

The marking stops as you enter the park.

I payed the $5 entrance fee and off I went. Next stop is the visitor center several hundred feet up. There is a water fountain by the restroom and plenty of space to sit, relax and recharge.

As I continued the ascent, I started to feel the effect of the elevation. I don’t know if it was the lack of oxygen in my brain but the sight of the 9,000 feet sign felt exhilarating and I could not suppress reading it out loud with the mandatory expletive: nine f#&*ing thousand feet!

The last 1,000 feet go by pretty quickly. Once you see the summit and Science City, you know you’re home.

The steepest portion of the ride is on the road joining the lower parking lot to the upper obeservation deck. Or maybe it just felt like it.

Although the ride is pretty long, once I reached the 10,023 feet mark I was surprise that it was over already. I took the time to look around and take pictures of the crater. I had fun watching people’s reaction of finding a lonely rider that far up. A nice couple took my picture and confessed they thought about taking a picture of themselves in front of the bike so they could pretend they rode up.

The ascent took a little over 6 hours with plenty of time to stop, enjoy the vista and take pictures. Although the climb is never very steep, I found the ride to be somewhat difficult because of its length and elevation. I also think that I screwed up the adjustment of the seat and had it too high. As a result, I developed a pain on my left glute that made it pretty uncomfortable to stay seated. I also did not train much prior to it, relying on miles accumulated previously in the season. Ok, that should be enough excuses to ignore the crushing realization that the best rider in the Cycle to the sun race made it in 2 hours and 51 minute, wow.

After dressing up with all the clothes I brought, I started the descent. I was surprise how easy and pleasant the downhill turned out to be. As I lost elevation, the weather warmed up gradually and I passed a couple riders on their way up.

I made it back to Paia in a couple of hours, in time for a celebratory Gianduia Gelato at Ono Gelato.

Overall, the ride went very well. The only problem was a total failure of my Garmin Edge 305 computer. After I turn it off at Sunrise Market to preserve batteries, it would not re-acquire satellite signals. Because the bike was a rental, there were no sensor mounted so without GPS, I lost elevation and distance tracking. So, no route and no stats to share for posterity. I guess I’ll have to do it again.

Complete picture gallery

Route

• 0: Start on Baldwin Ave (downtown Paia).
• 6.5: Pass Makawao Park and town. Baldwin change into Olinda Rd.
• 8: RIGHT to Hanamu Road (as you’re passing the horse stables).
• 9: LEFT at intersection.
• 9.1: LEFT on Haleakala Hwy.
• 13.5: LEFT on Haleakala Hwy.
• 14: Last chance for food STOP at Sunrise Market (3,500 feet)
• 23: Park entrance (7,000 feet)
• 34: Summit (10,000 feet)

Google map or Cycle to the sun map

Tags: climb, descent, haleakala, house of the sun

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 9:09 pm and is filed under cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.