NewsArticleBody
HAWAII ... surfing, shopping, sunbathing, eating poki ... and when you're tired of all that relaxing there's Haleakala!
Not being too happy with taking over 9 hours to get up Haleakala in 2004, I decided that I could do much better now, especially after a bit of practice in Colorado this year. So, leaving from the hotel in Wailea, I was able to reach the summit in just 5.5 hours. It was only 52 deg F at the summit - a bit cool for shorts and short sleeves - but it was still quite the adventure. It was especially gratifying seeing the faces of all the cars and the cyclists - bundled in long pants and jackets and only going down - when they saw me coming up. Of course, it started raining just after I started descending, but it was still a fun descent and it only took 2.25 hours to get back to the hotel (and get warm)! All in all, it was 102.5 miles with over 10,000 feet of climbing, from sea level to 10,023 feet. |
I've included some screen shots of the routes and profile (notice you don't get much of a break once the climbing starts and it peaks just at the end, just to see how serious you are) along with a shot of the AMOS (Air Force Maui Optical Station) telescopes peeking through the haze. Finally, there's a shot of me with the Bike Friday that made it possible. The specks at the top are some of the drizzle (no, it's not snow). All that with a broken collar bone, to boot. Just shows what you can do when you're determined (or crazy) enough! Dr. T.S. Kelso Senior Research Astrodynamicist* * That's a fancy way to say I do research and analysis of the motion (dynamics) of celestial objects, in this case, satellites orbiting the Earth. One of my principal responsibilities is to maintain a web site of information that hundreds of thousands of people use to track satellites they're interested in (http://celestrak.com/). Plus, I get to do interesting educational projects, such as showing folks where to look for the space shuttle during launch (http://celestrak.com/events/sts-120-launch.asp) or the Chinese anti-satellite test from the beginning of the year (http://celestrak.com/events/asat.asp). It's pretty cool stuff and always interesting! - TS |
|