As of Tuesday June 12, 2012, Mokuleia is closed to climbing and all access. A young girl was accidently injured by falling rock and the State closed the area to all users. Local climbers are working on regaining access.
This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund,
and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates.
WARNING: DO NOT LEAVE ANYTHING IN YOUR VEHICLE!!! THERE ARE MANY BREAK INS HERE!!!
Mokuleia Wall or the Moke as the locals know it is a basalt cliff with mainly sport routes 40 to 90 feet in length and 5.7 to 5.13 in difficulty. Rock quality is generally good, but some of the routes can have loose rock. This area is like North Table Mountain rock wise but not polished from tons of climbing. This area on a crowded day might see 10-15 climbers but during the week there might not be anyone.
This area is equipped to be easily top-roped. Most of the routes will have strings running from the ground to the anchor and back to the ground, this is so you can clove hitch your rope and pull it through the anchors at the top. The anchors are all bomber. Most routes are labeled by name and difficulty on the piece of wood the the string is tied to. Please do not completely top out on the route as the top is very loose, thus the reason for the string system. The approach can be very hot and humid, but the base of the crag always seems to have a nice breeze. Carpet squares are available for sitting and putting your rope on while climbing. The box that has this is to the climbers left when you reach the crag. There is also a litter stashed up there for emergencies. There is one gear shop on the island, Mike from Climb Aloha is a great guy and has all the gear you might have forgotten to bring. www.climbaloha.com
Good food and beverages can be found in the town of Haleiwa to the east of the crag along Oahu's north shore.
Getting There
From the airport take hwy H-1 west to the turnoff to hwy H-2 north, 8.1 miles. Follow H-2 north until it turn into a road with stop lights, 10.9 miles. Continue up the road (830), with out turning until you get to the town of Wailua, after the gas station on the left you will veer right but end up turning left at a stop sign onto Farrington Hwy, 8.4 miles. Follow the signs to Dillingham air field. From there it is a straight shot, you will pass the airfield and the YMCA, to the parking after 7 miles. Parking is along the side of the road.
The approach is short but steep. It can take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes depending on the person. There is a distinct trail head from the road and a decently well defined trail to the base of the crag. Most route lie to the east (climbers left) when you reach the wall but there is a plethora of routes to the west (climbers right) also. GPS location is to beginning of trail head, crag is directly ahead.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Mokuleia Wall:
Great place to climb and a lot! There are about 56 routes here, that I've been told of. Many of them are mixed, so some of them get quite long runouts without extra pro. I took a 30' fall myself bc I chose not to use the extra pro. Good times. The approach gets quite rocky and had big rocks/boulders on it, so I wouldn't suggest doing it in flip flops (Like I did my first time). Some of the routes' first bolts are a little high, but there is a pole with a clamp on it available to set the first draw, if you're not top roping. There's also a map in the box of the routes, but it's terribly outdated. A book is currently in progress. Follow what's on the sticks with the cord. Climbing here takes a little different style than climbing in my home town, Utah. Also, the rock feels a little slippery to me due to the humidity. Cool place, great routes, but someone did try to break into my rental car (The keyhole get jacked up) so don't leave any valuables in sight. Check out climb aloha. Good selection for a home-ran shop.
I found these directions from rockclimbinghawaii.com to be useful in finding the path to the wall:
Take H-2 north (or go west from Haleiwa) and follow the signs to Waialua on the northwest shore of Oahu. Drive past Waialua and Dillingham Airfield with its skydive center and glider airport. Continue driving until you past the YMCA Camp Erdman facility located on both sides of the highway. At this point, you will want to drive only about another 1,000 feet or so, at which point the ocean and sand is again located just next to the highway. Park your car on either side, and look for a faint trail through tall grass heading up to an obvious cliff line. Avoid, the mistake of continuing too far to the end of the paved highway (an additional half mile past Camp Erdman).
Phenomenal views of the North Shore. If you get there before noon then the crag blocks the sun. Locals are a friendly chill crowd. Stop by a shrimp truck on your way out to make it a full experience.
Ratings are a little light compared to the mainland.….the routes will work you.
If anyone is headed up to this wall between July 15th and the 20th and wouldn't mind some company, my lady and i would love to join you to provide entertainment and gas money. We will consider entertaining requests for your preferred type of entertainment. We will have our own rope and draws, etc.
There are signs at the trail head that say the park is closed and no entry is allowed. There were also two police officers standing at the trail head preventing people from entering the area yesterday. Below is a link to the news story about the closure:
Oh Hawaii! Get your act together. Any excuse to keep people out of the forest. Would love to know who was guiding these kids up there for the YMCA. Truly qualified guide or a friend of a friend doing a favor. If the later, you know that morbid old saw. "No good deed goes unpunished". We have untrained climber types pretending to be guides with too many misbehaving kids here in CO. And they kick rocks on each other from time to time. But the state does not close access to public lands over these accidents.
Does anyone have an update on this? Trying to plan a trip for next year, but not sounding hopeful based on how little information is out there about this closure.
Mokuleia and Makapuu are closed for the time being. The best place for information on the closure is to check out Climb Aloha's Facebook page (I can't believe I just recommended Facebook for info). This page will be updated when the crags reopen to the climbing community.
Any updates? I just saw where this was closed was planning a trip in October and this was going to be a highlight of the trip. Thanks to the government protecting us from ourselves again.
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