my mate in Hawaii just sent me this and thought it was a great pic. He entered a National Geographic Comp and will hopefully continue on to the next round. It's the 4th pic from the left and is pretty cool. Never knew there was snow there when I lived there - always thought those Hawaiians were pullin my leg

so, kuma, when you sending some mate??

That's it brah. I'm booking my next snow trip to Hawaii. surf in the morning, snowboard in the afternoon. Brilliant!

BTW is that a lift in the picture?

COOL PHOTO!! That is surreal I never knew that Hawaii got snow. I have just learnt something, I could make beer money off this betting people that Hawaii has snow!!

Thanks for the pics CB.

Sure looks like a surface lift of some kind.
That is bizarre.
But I suppose it is also bizarre that here it is NOVEMBER and I just saw on the news this morning we are forecast for snow here in Oz again today....

Second place I went snowboarding was Mauna Kea!

(First place was Niseko :p)

Very cool.

Tell us more.

Papua New Guinea has some snow as well.

Got the biphocals out and I think it is actually people walking up the mountain with their gear.

A friend an I caught the first plane over to Hilo, rented an Isuzu 4x4 and drove on up. It was probably around 9-ish when we got to the top. The air is really thin, so you not only have physical difficulty doing mundane tasks without having to stop to catch your breath every few minutes, but the brain gets oxygen-starved, so the thought processes and judgement get messed up also. There was a story of a contractor building one of the telescopes up there years ago, and he called down to his foreman saying, "I've cut this piece three times and it is still too short!"

We geared up and hiked down a little way from the road, then up along the rim of the summit crater to the true summit. The hike was brutal. With the lack of oxygen, it was "take a dozen steps and rest for a minute or two" all the way up the 30 to 40-degree grade. There was probably about 50-30 cm of crunchy corn snow at the deepest point. The further down the mountain you went, the more and more jagged, clinkery lava rocks poked out. We took a run down, traversing the bowl in long slow turns to maximize the length of the run, then hiked back up. Each progressive hike became more and more grueling.

There was a big group of boarders from Maui who were having an impromptu jump session contest on the main slope in the bowl where most of the observatories are. They were shuttling along the switchback road in their rental cars.

Around noon. I was resting at the top and a bank of clouds rolled across the mountaintop. A light flurry dusted me and the summit shrine, so not only did I get to experience riding the Island Snow, but I got to experience actual snowfall. Around the time we were packing up to get back down to Hilo to catch the plane back to Honolulu, the TV news crews were finally showing up. On the drive down there was a whole lot of fire/rescue helicopter activity, and I later found out that some kid rode a bodyboard down the snow face-first into the jagged rocks!

Even with resting at the half-way point for breakfast I still got a good case of altitude sickness and ended up puking up my lunch on the way back to the airport.

I know I got some pictures around somewhere... I'll go and look for them.

Nice story mate, what a great mission.

A mate of mine told me a similar story about snowboarding in South Africa's Drakkensburg mountains, though that's not as tropical or high up. I wonder if anyone has been skiing/boarding in Irian Jaya.

> "I've cut this piece three times and it is still too short!"<

Nice one. That altitude sickness is wicked. It's hard to explain to someone who's never experienced it. I didn't realise it was that high.

Had a good case of swollen brain going on!

There is an interisland car ferry now operating between O'ahu and Maui. Service to Hawai'i was supposed to start next year, but might be delayed. I hope it's running in time for the next big snowfall up there so we can just catch the ferry over on Saturday morning, acclimate to the altitude, ride a bit, then camp out overnight and rip it up the next day! Be nice to take our own vehicles (Suby Forester XT and Land Cruiser) up instead of an expensive, unprepared rental car.

>There is an interisland car ferry now operating between O'ahu and Maui.

Locals were pissed to eh brah, I thought au pau??

Maui folks love it. Oahu folks love it. Big Island folks can't wait to get it!

Only the transplant malcontents on "The Kingdom of Atooi" had a royal fit over the SuperFerry. The ferry folks got fed up with it and pretty much wrote off Kauai - they'll probably never see ferry service ever. No big loss (for all of us who DON'T live on Kauai). There was a lot of hoo-ha in Nawiliwili harbor with people paddling out on surfboards to block the ferry. The USCG had armed patrol boats out, but didn't do too much to avoid risking an escalation. The event is billed as the first time the US government has backed down in the face of domestic terrorism.

This past Fourth of July weekend, A bunch of friends and I loaded up our 5 mtn. bikes and gear into a crew-cab Toyota pickup, caught the sunrise ferry over to Maui and rode the trails all weekend! Awesomely convenient; professional, courteous service; reasonably fast (about 2-hours). Even all the State agriculture inspectors on Maui were on-it.

...and no, I don't work for the SuperFerry!

The Superferry will continue. For the most part people like it. From my 38th floor window I watch it port and deport from Honolulu Harbor a couple times a week. Kauai has enough financial problems to protest this source of potential income.

I reccomend taking a body board up to Mauna Kea when it has snow, have a friend drop you off and pick you up at the end of the snow line and then recipricate the act for your friend(s). Do be prepared for a crash landing when the snow line ends and lava rocks begin.

Wow, dude - it's been a while since you've posted! Good to see/hear another HI voice here.

BTW, there's snow up on Mauna Kea again!

Well it should flippin well be snowing places it should snow!