KH6/MA-001 Red Hill (Haleakela) is a driveup and really the only easy to activate summit. Plan about driving 1.5 hrs from Kahului. Try to get there early, maybe before 9 am, since the tour buses/crowds start arriving about that time. The crowds are particularly bad if a cruise ship is in town. The actual summit can get crowded and you will have a steady stream of “what are you doing” questions. Expect to see a lot of runners/joggers hitchhiking up to run the trail (Sliding Sands-Kaupo) from top to the town of Kaupo. Obviously wx can change quickly as the mountain creates its own clouds. The summit can be very windy and it is very difficult to get “off-trail”. I found the Park Rangers I spoke with to be friendly and interested in ham radio. However, the Rangers are paranoid about anyone going off-trail. They cite “protecting the fragile environment” but I think it is mostly that they don’t want to rescue the persons in high-heels with sprained ankles who have fallen on the very sharp lava rock.
MA-002, MA-003, -004, maybe -007 are in the National Park and off limits since they are off-trail. MA-007 might be accessible from the Hana east side. All the other Summits are in “protected areas” and not readily accessible. MA-006 might be accessible but not from the old road at Macgregor Pt. There is a large State wind turbine installation on the ridge road and the access road is gated, No Trespassing. See maps.google.com for a possible start of the Lahina-Pali East trailhead for MA-006/Hanalua at Google Maps These West Maul Mtns are almost always shrouded in clouds and are in a very windy area…hence the wind turbine installations. MA-006 would be a big climb, 4,500 vert ft, and about 5 miles one-way. Here’s some photos from Maui and my MA-001 Activation: KH6 Maui | Flickr
Still, very nice to warm up! Take a winter break.
Guy/n7un aka ns0ta