mauna kea

the summit

My insides are starting to finally calm down from such an exhilarating experience to the top of the island. The descent from 13,000 feet to sea level in less than 2 hours can explain this feeling. Or maybe it is the seemingly awkward feeling of the sleepy Japanese tourist’s head nestling into my left shoulder.  Either way, I am heading home from the Mauna Kea, like an astronaut coming back to gravity upon re-entering the earth’s atmosphere.

Mauna Kea, or “White Mountain”, eluded me for the first few weeks of my experience here in Hawaii, with trips being booked to capacity and the waiting list not giving in. Finally, with a little help from the universe, I was ready for assent to the top of the highest point in Hawaii, highest point in the Pacific, and even, the highest mountain in the world, when measured from base to peak.

My initial fascination with Mauna Kea started long before I stepped foot on the Big Island, in a dark, neglected science lecture hall in college. During my last year while I was busy scrambling to attend to the last of my forgotten science credits to fulfill my  liberal arts degree, I made the wonderful choice of “Astronomy 1301” on the registrars list. I wasn’t exactly in the mindset to learn a new subject at that time in my life, but the acclaimed Dr. Olsen did not disappoint with his cranked up enthusiasm for stars, rainbows, galaxies, moon phases and especially telescopes – with memorable diatribes of the magnificent instruments that he had visited around the world. The Keck pair and other telescopes (13 in all that reside here, as I now know) Dr. Olsen mentioned stuck in my memory when he dazzled us with pictures of white domes sitting quietly above the clouds pointing to the heavens, as if they were striving for something more beautiful than their own location.

view from the road to Mauna Kea while starting to ascend above the clouds

So my excitement was imminent when Omkar, our tour leader/fellow yoga teacher, pressed his Land Cruiser on the rocky, barren Mars-like surface road towards the summit after our terribly long 30 minute altitude acclimation stop at the Visitor’s center below.  I would keep glimpsing forward to see the world’s best telescopes open their hatches and start a night’s work of exploration.

Poking up on the landscape on the side of Mauna Kea, Cinder cones that long ago sent lava from the core of the earth to make up now what is this island

We got to the summit with an hour of sunlight left and a much different climate than what we were used to. Jackets and parkas were divvied out while we were reminded of how high we were – physically and mentally - due to the 0 to 13,000 feet climb we had just completed and the lack of oxygen. I needed no reminder, I was already in bliss, but I knew that my slow thinking, reduced judgment and giddy laughter were a combination of extreme excitement and extreme altitude.

It was time to walk to the top, beyond where cars can tread. I spent my next 20 minutes preparing camera gear and trekking through the mini snow banks to the true top of the summit. My quick glimpses of white rolling clouds covering the island and the Pacific were breathtaking, with more than one meaning.

Slower and slower, I pressed on to the peak.

Just as I reached the top, the mental clutter of this experience shifted towards what was really happening in this moment. I remembered that this wasn’t just a mountain; this was a mountain in the middle of the Pacific, formed by thousands of years of lava spewing by Earth. This wasn’t just an observatory; it is a place where we look out to the stars, to the past, to objects and concepts so magically unfathomable and inconceivably distant from our day-to-day worries, situation or problems. This wasn’t just a place; it was a place of sacred burial and visitation by Hawaiians, the great appreciators and treasurers of this truly beautiful land.  Things did begin to slow down, and I really started to see the truth beyond the symbols of what this place was according to astronomy, mythology, history, and other descriptions. I started to see this place for what it is…