Climbing Mauna Kea |
 Eric and I reached the 13,796-foot / 4,205-metre high summit of Mauna Kea – the sixth highest of the US state highpoints – at 11:54 am. From the Visitors Center to the summit of the mountain, there’s an altitude gain of 4,600 feet / 1,400 metres over a distance of about seven miles / eleven-and-a-quarter kilometres. Had we climbed at a rate of about a thousand feet an hour, the hike should have taken us between four-and-a-half and five hours. Instead, probably reflecting the fact that we went from sea-level to almost 14,000 feet in less than 24 hours, it took us just under five-and-a-half hours. |