Stairway to Heaven - Moanalua Ridge to Haiku Stairs - Oahu, Hawaii

 Carly Kovacik and myself had an epic scramble up Moanalua Ridge to the legendary Haiku Stairs, otherwise known as Stairway to Heaven. As most people know, Moanalua Ridge is the legal route up to the Haiku Stairs, and the various government agencies of Oahu are serious about enforcing stairway regulations--going to such lengths as flying helicopters across the ridge to monitor law breaking hikers, which Carly and I witnessed when we approached the top of the ridge.

We started our hike normal enough, but ultimately missed the left turn that leads up the standard ridge route. In true Carly/Jonathan fashion, we managed to find a secondary route up the side of the primary ridge route that involved significantly more exposed scrambling along ridgelines that were knife-edge thin. However, the dense tropical vegetation covering the slopes helped reduce the psychological terror that would normally accompany that kind of exposure. We made our way up the steep ridge, pulling on roots, rock, and fixed lines attached to small trees that were very close to detaching from their terrain fixtures. And after an exhilarating scramble, we eventually intercepted the main ridgeline route. From that point forward the path was significantly wider and we cruised our way up the remaining route. That included a section of fixed ropes we had to pull on in order to ascend to the summit, but that section was well protected from extreme exposure due to multiple small gullies etched into the hillside.

Views from the summit ridge were outstanding. The terrain fell straight down to the Kailua area. Just as impressive were the clouds rapidly flowing straight up the terrain. After soaking in the views, Carly and I joined the conga-line back down to civilization. We then completed the long slog back to our car, cleaned up, and hit up Waikiki Beach for sunset views and dinner. Couldn't ask for a better way to experience Hawaii.

Check out the google map location here. Check out a YouTube video I put together that includes this adventure here.