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I made it to the top of Mauna Kea today! Saw a bunch of these guys on the way up there. Second picture is Mauna Loa to the south from about 10,000' looking down through the cinder cones, and last photo is the top of Maui as viewed from summit of Mauna Kea at 13,796' above sea level. click on the pics for full view:

I REALLY like that last one!
On top of the world.

NICE!
Thanks Tim.

Far out up Tim!
What was it like trying to breath at that altitude?
How well did the bike run, way up there?

Really good photos man.

justoneoftheguys wrote:I REALLY like that last one!
On top of the world.

Yep, highest point in the whole Pacific Rim (taller than Mt. Fuji). This next photo is the actual top of the mountain, but the observatories on the ridge next to it are taller. Note the vast cinder plain down to the left:

dougie wrote:NICE!
Thanks Tim.

The saddle road is at about 7,000' where I turned off to go up the mountain. The base of operations for the observatories is at the 9,000' level, visible in this next photo. The pavement ends there and starts with pea gravel and corduroy on not too steep grades. The road got progressively steeper though, until I was in first gear all the time. I was having my doubts as to whether I would make it or not, because I remembered the road near the summit was in bad shape the last time I was up here. Then I came around a corner at about 12,000' and found pavement! The road goes up around the cinder cone in the top right of the second photo. I've got some onboard videos of that to upload when I get the time.

ME 109 wrote:Far out up Tim!
What was it like trying to breath at that altitude?
How well did the bike run, way up there?

Really good photos man.

Thanks! The air is pretty thin up there, and I was huffing and puffing just walking around. It got real cold too, once I got above the cloud layer, so I didn't stay long. The BMW did OK, I had to ride the clutch to get going up some of the steeper sections, but it started, ran and idled alright. It was a bit down on the power up near the summit. I have it tuned for 7,000' because most of my high speed rides are over the Saddle. Here's a couple pics of the various observatories, and a view back up the mountain, obscured by clouds, at about 3,000' on the ride home.

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/mko/about_maunakea.htm Also, found this photo on the web, the view of the north end of Hawaii without all the clouds, and Maui across the channel. You can see my house on the lower left (just kidding).

I finally got around to uploading the video of the last couple of miles to the top of Mauna Kea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2xN_jsW ... AAAAAAAAAA

Breath-taking, Tim. Keep up the good work!