The Search for the Missing Teen on Kamaileunu Ridge

 

Kamaileunu - July 13, 2014

I swore to myself that I'd never do this ridge again. But today was an exception. We were looking for Kalani Vierra a 15 year old boy who lived near Kamaileunu ridge in Waianae. According to reports, he went missing about a week ago while hiking on the trail. The official search concluding on Wednesday, and volunteers picked up the search from then on.

Stuart Ball calls Kamaileunu ridge, "the most rugged hike on the island". Apparently Kalani knew about the ridge and wanted to complete it. All indications was that he was fit enough to do the ridge. But after missing for 7 days, a positive outcome looked grim. Unfortunately, we probably would be looking for a body today. Since I've done Kamaileunu a few years ago, I thought to myself, how long would I last on Kamaileunu if I had to stay on that ridge for a certain amount of time? The answer I came up with was 2 days, and then I would die of either dehydration or heat stroke. This answer is much different than if I were to be stuck on the Koolaus, that answer would be 5-7 days only because of the plentiful water sources up there. 

There were about 30 people meeting up at Waianae Steve's house for the search. Most of the people, I've hiked with. I knew they had a wealth of experience and knowledge of the area. The search was coordinated by HTMC and Caveman Crew. Thomas was able to gather a bunch of information. Makaha Gene was able to limited the search area to a spur ridge coming off Kamaileunu called Hunter's Ridge. Makaha Gene strongly felt that the boy would mistakenly go down that ridge. 

Off we started, it was 8:30am. Going up Kamaileunu is the worst. With no shade and all uphill, sun beaming in your face the entire time, it was just difficult. I was in the back and we took so many breaks in the beginning. About 20 minutes up the ridge is a heiau. We all tried to avoid the heiau and boudlered this rock section. With loose rocks and a crazy drop below, shit!, it got my attention. That was short lived as we continued going up the mountain, my sweat dripping on the ground, chugging water like no tomorrow. After going up and down in the heat, we got to the scrambling section. The ridge narrows over some rocky dikes. The extreme hikers took the high road, while the rest of us contoured a lot of the rocky dikes. On some sections, we had to climb up and over the narrow rocky dikes. For some reason, my climbing was on point today, maybe all those upper workouts this summer helped. 

view into Makaha Valley

Waianae Valley

I don't know what came over me, but I charged that ridge on some of the steepest sections and got to the Hunter's Ridge junction with the speedy hikers. They decided to fan out and checkout the ridge. I took a long break under a kiawe tree. Nate came up the ridge and said he was going to the summit to check out the surrounding area up there. Me, feeling good followed suit. 

The ridge continued with a lot of ups and down. I remember contouring this massive boulder section. There was also this shady area where I wanted to check out. I looked around for a few minutes, but there was no trace of the missing boy. I entered the ironwood forest. Usually ironwood forest presents a nice area of shade, but that is not the case on Kamaileunu as the ironwoods just trapped the heat. I followed Nate towards the summit, we topped out at about the 4 1/2 hour mark. We checked around the area for the missing boy, but there was no trace. What sucks is that if he did fall on this narrow section, the brush is so thick that trying identify a body up here is very difficult. 

Kamaileunu geomarker

Sorta disappointed, we made our way back. I had about 1.5 liters of water left, but that wasn't enough as I ran out near the end. The wind was blowing, but it was still hot and I went through my water and gatorade rather quickly. However, going back was super fast, and we only took 2 1/2 hours. 

A lot of the hikers were chillin' under a tree. One of the helpers, I think his name is Ryan gave me cold water and gatorade. That was so good. I wanted to go home, but Kenji asked if I wanted to join them to eat at a Mexican Restaurant called Tacos and More. Its a nice little place, they produce good Mexican Food. Kenji kept on asking the waitress for more salsa. Every time he asked the waitress for more salsa, someone would drop a one liner. We joked about it that he would get charged. When he got the bill, they charged him for the salsa! 

Today we tried to find the missing boy, but all efforts came up short. We swept the ridge from beginning to end and no sign. The boy could have dropped down Kamaileunu and maybe fell in that saddle area in between Kamaileunu and Kawiwi. We didn't check that area, but it was suggested.