Five hikers find way back down from Koolaus after call for help
Five hikers — all mainland visitors — decided to disregard advice from fire rescue personnel to shelter in place near the summit of the Waimanalo Trail and chose to hike down the mountain early this morning.
Capt. David Jenkins, Honolulu Fire Department spokesman, said the group, made up of three men and two women, called for help via cellphone at about 6:30 p.m Sunday after starting on the trek 90 minutes earlier.
Firefighters went to the trail head, but suspended rescue efforts due to wind and poor visibility from low cloud cover.
“They got very high, up near the summit,” said Jenkins. “The hikers are in a safe location and uninjured. They were instructed to shelter in place.”
The hikers notified fire officials that they were able to exit the trail at 12 a.m.
41 responses to “Five hikers find way back down from Koolaus after call for help”
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Seriously…who the F – K STARTS a hike at 5 pm?????
I hope it dumps BUCKETS of rain tonight…
These 5 lolo’s did!
totally agree!!! Make sure we collect $$$ for the time and efforts from HFD put into this search and rescue mission.
Glad the rescuers didn’t take risks, knowing the hikers were safe.
agree. Remember that many tourists seek these adventures and will delight in telling their tales back home.
Hopefully they learn something from the experience. Sure hope they don’t start a forest fire!
DNLR provides precautions on our hiking trails. Precautions not adhered, start late can’t return due to darkness…no injuries reported, sheltered, no injuries reported and they want to be rescued? Why can’t they be told to simply make the trek back down at first light. Another example of bearing the expense and risk to HFD personnel. Why not add a tax to all visitors a “i.e. 911 Rescue” to cover same…as a resident we pay our share.
Why call rescue? Just wait out the night, come out the next morning.
Agree.
Because it’s easier to push the responsibility off on someone else.
After getting stuck in a strange place panic starts to set in. They need to talk to someone and tell them how to handle the situation. Thankfully getting stuck on a mountain on Oahu is not that bad as there are no bears, poisonous snakes, other dangerous animals. poison ivy, nor will they freeze to death or die due to 100 degree heat. However people have died when they slipped off the trail and plunged to their death so they need HFD guidance to just stay put and wait till morning light.
Wild pigs are known to attack/kill people, and a sow will attack a person if they get to close to the piglets. Though that group of 5 people would likely scare off any pigs in the vicinity.
That raised an interesting question in my mind so I took a look. There is quite a bit of information about wild pigs. There is one very detailed study published by the University of Nebraska – Lincoln that reports between 1825 and 2012 there have been 412 pig attacks on humans world wide.
The general consensus is: ” In the United States, four people have died from feral hog attacks since the late 1800s—three victims were attacked by a wounded boar while hunting..”
There is a large economic loss in some Texas counties from feral hogs.
Most information–and there isn’t much–about wild pig attacks in Hawaii is anecdotal and usually involved with hunting.
Hawaii makes BILLIONS of dollars off of tourists, this is just the cost of doing business, their judgement is not good but most really don’t know any better. Hawaii ends up with serious negative publicity if these tourist should get killed while visitng Hawaii. Better for HFD to give them intructions and if necessary escort or fly them out in the morning if they are too weak to get out on their own. If there is a cost Hawaii Tourism Authority should pay for it, which is Hawaii taxpayer money anyway and is better spent on having to deal with wayward tourists than wasted on overpriced advertising and studies. Also HTA taxpayer money should be spent on fixing up and opening up the stairway to heaven to residents and tourists which is so unique. People just need to pay a fee and sign a waver if they fall or get a heart attack on the stairs, they cannot sue the State. So much of Hawaii taxpayer money is wasted on B S stuff and there should be plenty of money set aside to deal with tourists who get into trouble.
Yep.
“fly them out in the morning?” On your dime sure. Not on taxpayers.
No one is injured. They walked in, they can walk out and learn from their utter failure to act like adults.
Most likely clueless Millennials.
Common sense isn’t common. Quod erat demonstratum.
Expecto Patronum (worked for Harry Potter)
Besides many other reasons (like screwing up the neighborhood and no I don’t live there), it is for this reason alone that Stairway to Heaven should never, ever be opened. Too many with no common sense and too much western mentality to follow up with, sue, sue, sue.
Ever climbed it? It’s not so bad.
Seaborn: Yeah Iʻve climbed it many of times years past and the first and only week it was open legally. Your right it ainʻt so bad, but too many dumb ashes like these 5 are running around too much of a liability and besides too many without manners, no respect for the residents.
My Cub Scout said… “I bet they didn’t bring the “10 Essentials” with them when they went hiking.” LOL. Even a 4th grader knows the basic rules of hiking.
Let them figure it out, they went up, they can come back down….
Hope lesson learned, not to start out late! Entitlement generation learned the hard way, probably shivering close to hypothermernic conditions. They deserve the invonvenience that would have visited the firemen.
They hiked out on their own around midnight disobeying HFD to stay put.
That was stoopid beyond belief, they could have easily slipped and fell in the dark and wet ground since they were probably using their phone as flashlights and that could have easily turned a stable situation of them staying put at night into a tragedy of someone making a misstep and falling to their death. Best thing is this group finish their Hawaii vacation and don’t come back.
They call HFD because they know there’s no charge for a rescue.
More I don’t they would know this. Morelikely they panicked a little bit then made the call to 911
They call for help, get some solid advice from HFD, then ignore the advice and hike out on their own. Why the h377 did they ask for help in the first place?
I agree but why ask for help and disregard professional advice. They need a couple slaps from that person in the mirror!
because of social media, a LOT of hikers are getting BAD advice from other hikers, the trending attitude is “if you get in trouble JUST CALL THE FIRE DEPT. and you’ll get a free helicopter ride”….many times LOST? hikers will call 911 FIRE and the first thing they ask is “how much will it cost for a helicopter to come and get us? “…..huh! or “I was told that if I got in trouble (lost, not injured because I(we) went off the trail)all I had to do was call 911 and the helicopter would come and get us…….
Hiker Rescue: Really, I am tired paying for these irresponsible hikers….. Why hike late in the afternoon? To be safe, start early in the morning, folks….. Hiking late in the afternoon is taking chances and guess what happens if it gets dark or rain? Call 911 and we pay for the rescue…. There should be regulations restricting hikers not to hike after noon.
I disagree. If hikers are properly prepared and have some basic skills, hiking in the late afternoon or even at night can be done safely. I’ve hiked many trails in many places at all hours of the day. It’s not the time of day that’s the problem, is the ill prepared and ill informed that cause our first responders to unnecessarily put themselves in harms way.
most public hike are closed at night though, just like how parks are closed at night too.
Did they change the signs or something? Last time I hunted at Waimano I didn’t see anything that indicated that the trail was “closed” during specific hours. Hunting hours are limited to half hour before sunrise and half hour after sunset, but there’s no law that I’m aware of that regulates hiking.
The other article said it was the “Waimano Trail”. Well, Waimanalo is close enough.
Maybe if people had to pay for their rescue this wouldn’t happen so often. Why does it always have to be at our expense!
I agree, if they have to pay for their own rescues, we won’t see as many idiot decisions like starting a hike at 5pm and not leaving enough time to get back. HFD should have to risk their lives for some other peoples stupidity.
Tell them next time hike around Kapiolani Park. They can start their hike any time they like. Just don’t go too far off the trail and fall into the Ala Wai.
Testing Darwin’s theory, no doubt…
Typical mainland attitude… If you know what I mean.