From Sea to Sky, Maui

[BTolbert]

I am attempting the Sea 2 Sky FKT starting from the Beach at Kaupo tomorrow 4/29/16 I will be doing it unsupported.

[BTolbert]

I was able to run the Sea2Sky FKT today and set a new fastest time of 4:55:41, I got a little off course up in the crater and added a little extra distance and climbing but still was able to correct the course and come in under the previous FKT.

here is a link to my strava
www.strava.com/activities/561477330

pictures can be found on my Facebook page

[MolsonEx98]

I will be in Maui from December 31, 2016 through January 9th and am looking at attempting the FKT for men's ascent and also roundtrip. Peter Bakwin will I need a SPOT or DeLorme for this? I understand on longer attempts (multi-day) it is needed however on something as short as this I wasn't sure? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated so I can prepare properly. Has anyone used the new Strava Beacon as a verification tool? Once I have a specific date I will update here. Any suggestions/advice on route is of course appreciated.
Cheers Greg

[Peter Bakwin]

Nov 25, 2016 19:19:53 GMT -5 MolsonEx98 said:

I will be in Maui from December 31, 2016 through January 9th and am looking at attempting the KFT for men's ascent and also roundtrip. Peter Bakwin will I need a SPOT or DeLorme for this? I understand on longer attempts (multi-day) it is needed however on something as short as this I wasn't sure? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated so I can prepare properly. Has anyone used the new Strava Beacon as a verification tool? Once I have a specific date I will update here. Any suggestions/advice on route is of course appreciated.
Cheers Greg

SPOT or Delorme are strongly suggested for everything. These are the best methods for verification. I haven't used that Strava Beacon thing, but it seems like it could work if the track was made public or available to a disinterested 3rd party. Basically, it appears to be similar to SPOT/Delorme except using the cell network instead of satellite comms. Only works in real time if you have cell reception.

[JD Angerhofer]

Since visiting the summit (taking the easy way up!) many years ago, I have been eager to return to Haleakala and make the climb between beach and summit. I stumbled on this thread by accident while searching for information about (slowly) hiking the trails, but figure that if some members have made the trip recently, they may be able to answer my burning question; how difficult did you find it to stay on the right path up? I have been considering setting out at night in order to summit in time for sunrise, but am worried the path might be too difficult to follow at the lower elevations outside of the park. Does anyone have a idea of how delineated the trails are at this point?

[MolsonEx98]

Nov 27, 2016 16:39:42 GMT -5 Peter Bakwin said:

Nov 25, 2016 19:19:53 GMT -5 MolsonEx98 said:

I will be in Maui from December 31, 2016 through January 9th and am looking at attempting the KFT for men's ascent and also roundtrip. Peter Bakwin will I need a SPOT or DeLorme for this? I understand on longer attempts (multi-day) it is needed however on something as short as this I wasn't sure? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated so I can prepare properly. Has anyone used the new Strava Beacon as a verification tool? Once I have a specific date I will update here. Any suggestions/advice on route is of course appreciated.
Cheers Greg

SPOT or Delorme are strongly suggested for everything. These are the best methods for verification. I haven't used that Strava Beacon thing, but it seems like it could work if the track was made public or available to a disinterested 3rd party. Basically, it appears to be similar to SPOT/Delorme except using the cell network instead of satellite comms. Only works in real time if you have cell reception.

Thank you Peter - I now have a SPOT so will set up the link to my attempt on here once I have a firm date. I appreciate the assistance.
Cheers Greg

[MolsonEx98]

I will be attempting the Sea2Sky FKT tomorrow 1/4/17 starting at the beach in Kaupo by the old church and I will follow the previous route used. All are welcome I will be starting at approximately 0800 as I am coming from Kanaapali. During my pre-trip visit I attempted to get my SPOT to work at the starting location and it did not. I called technical assistance when I got back and was advised that SPOT does not work well or at all in Hawaii. I will use my Garmin Fenix, Strava Beacon if available and video/pictures. I understand that without the SPOT it may not be recognized as an official attempt although at this point there's not much else I can do if SPOT does not work here.

Cheers,
Greg

[MolsonEx98]

Jan 3, 2017 21:19:29 GMT -5 MolsonEx98 said:

I will be attempting the Sea2Sky FKT tomorrow 1/4/17 starting at the beach in Kaupo by the old church and I will follow the previous route used. All are welcome I will be starting at approximately 0800 as I am coming from Kanaapali. During my pre-trip visit I attempted to get my SPOT to work at the starting location and it did not. I called technical assistance when I got back and was advised that SPOT does not work well or at all in Hawaii. I will use my Garmin Fenix, Strava Beacon if available and video/pictures. I understand that without the SPOT it may not be recognized as an official attempt although at this point there's not much else I can do if SPOT does not work here.

Cheers,
Greg

Update - FKT is quite safe. I made it as far as the gate and ranch. Upon climbing over and running up towards the houses on the right I was charged by a very angry and loud dog. I did my best to try to go around him and also let him cool off while hoping someone would come out at some point. After waiting for about 30 minutes I gave up and ran back down to the Church. I started just after 7am so not sure if it was too early or perhaps too late however this dog is DEFINITELY not friendly for anyone thinking about running this route. I may try again in a few days and hope that perhaps the owner has penned or moved him. 

[Steve C]

I’m going to be visiting Maui in March and, time permitting, would like to run this route. In doing some preliminary research, I have seen a couple of concerns that have been mentioned more than once in blog entries and posts (both here and elsewhere). The first is difficulty following the trail for the first several miles and the second is the dog(s).

I think that based on Greg’s last post I can consider the dog issue confirmed. Is the trail as hard to follow as some have described?

Does anyone who has been on the trail recently have any advice on how to not get lost and/or mauled?

Also, out of curiosity, when starting from the beach, where do people typically park their cars? I’m assuming (hoping) that I wouldn’t have to park at the trail head and then walk the 2 miles back down to the ocean.

Thanks.

Steve

[Steve C]

I went up (and back down) this route last Friday (March 17, 2017). The round trip took me a total of 10:50:48 (5:18:57 up, about 15 minutes spent at the summit/coming back down to the visitor center, about 45 minutes at the visitor center eating/resting/filling water bottles and finally a little over 4 and a half hours coming the rest of the way back down).

www.strava.com/activities/904354588

[bdon]

I’m on Maui again and planning to run up Haleakala on March 30th (tomorrow). Apparently, I set the FKT in 2012 (see links on initial page) but had no intention of doing so. I did put in a decent effort but also spent considerable time messing around with video shots. Anyway, I plan to start at around 7am tomorrow on the beach at the Huialoha church, running up the road, the Kaupo trail, and Sliding Sands trail to the summit shelter. Same as before. I’ll be unsupported, carrying all of my food and water, and I’ll be using my Suunto watch track for verification, posted to Strava. I’ll try to take some pics along the way, and I’ll have my family record my time on separate devices. We’ll see how it goes. This’ll mainly be a mid-week training run, but if I feel good and things go well, I’ll put in a hard effort.

[bdon]

Ran the route noted above today in a time of 4:30:45, setting a new FKT. I started at 7:43 am. Pics of locations with watch splits are on my blog, along with a couple start/finish pics. Here's a link to my strava track: www.strava.com/activities/921500566

Splits:
Park entrance: 1:23:02
Paliku cabin turnoff: 2:29:07
Kapalaoa cabin: 3:03:29
Summit: 4:30:45

I started on the beach a few yards from the shore next to the Huialoha church and was fully unsupported. I stopped my watch when I tagged the elevation sign at the summit shelter. I didn't use poles, though they would be an advantage on this route. I didn't run into any dogs at the park entrance but did have some route finding troubles following some recent caterpillar tracks up the hillside. I had to sidehill a bit and descend/bushwhack to get back on the trail. Added maybe five or ten minutes overall. The lower portions of the park were way more overgrown than the last time I ran this route. It made running pretty difficult and slowed me down some but it was beautiful nonetheless. This is an awesome and highly recommended route. Also, thanks to PB for maintaining this site!