After a restful night camping at 8000 feet, we were up early on Sunday morning ready make a go for the summit of Mauna Kea. We piled into Jim’s Cherokee and he drove us further up Mauna Kea’s western flank via the 4×4 road. We eventually stopped and started hiking at around the 10,000 foot level. The 4×4 road actually continued beyond this point but it became rougher and prudence said to begin hiking where we did.
The good thing about hiking above 10,000 feet on Mauna Kea is that the weather stayed below us. We enjoyed clear, sunny conditions during the hike. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to us, it was raining downslope, a fact we realized when we saw the wet, muddy condition of the jeep road at lower elevations during our exit drive down the mountain. Though it was sunny up high, the temps all day were in the mid- …