Stairway to Heaven (Oahu)
Last year, I went to Hawaii for business and I unexpectedly fell in love. Having traveled to the South Pacific before (Fiji, the Cook Islands and Australia), I incorrectly assumed the congested state of Hawaii would be a turn-off for me. When I landed in Honolulu over 20 years ago at 6 a.m., the traffic was so congested, it was at a crawl for miles up the mountains that I made a mental note–skip Hawaii. I figured it would be too built up for my tastes, too touristy, and wouldn’t hold a candle to the Cook Islands. But when I got an opportunity to go on business, I had to explore it.
My trip to Hawaii truly topped all of the places I have been including the South Pacific and the Great Barrier Reef. I was blown away. It was the like South Pacific on steroids. I kid you not!
Hawaii is truly magical and stole my heart on every level possible, and I have a strong need to get back there again–more permanently. I don’t know that I will be able to make it happen, but the dream lives on.
While driving back and forth to do training on the island of Oahu, I happen to spot these stairs going up the most incredible steep incline on the jagged mountains as I drove on the highway. I wondered what on earth is it for, and who would in their right mind climb it?
The stairs are known as the Haiku Stairs or “The Stairway to Heaven”. It turns out the stairs are illegal to hike right now and there is a guard posted to prevent people from climbing them. You can read more about it here.
I accidentally ran into this video the other day, and I was captivated by this video on many levels. The video truly captures the stunning beauty of Oahu. And I was truly amazed by the climber in the video.
I was most amazed by what is missing when I look at the climber as he climbs over 3,000 stairs straight up.
Do you know what it is?
(Recommendation: If you have a big computer screen, you must play this video on it. A tablet or phone won’t do this video justice)
Speaking as a person who has done some mountain climbing, this guy is a very very very bad example. Only climb mountains the way this guy does if you want to risk serious injury or death or serious penalties from the authorities.
He breaks the rules by going into areas that are marked off limits – that usually means there is a very serious safety risk – he does not stay in contact with his friends by text or phone or anything (friends save friend’s lives in these kind of risky situations), did not mark the path up prior to the bridge (so no way to follow the same path back out – very easy to get lost), no GPS, no food or nutrition (very very very easy to get dehydrated climbing like that – and lose consciousness or worse) not even a map, no hat to protect the head (where heat get get lost), and on and on and on.
This is a really bad example of climbing mountains. The biggest missing component is safety – both for himself and his friends. All these people are lucky they did not get hurt – or arrested. They can face serious penalties for what is recorded in this video because they intentionally violated protected space and basically handed the evidence (the video) to the world.
Don’t do what these people did!
Hi Russ — that’s why I stated it is illegal 😉 I think most people see this is a serious climb and very, very dangerous. It’s not for the faint of heart nor easy to even get to the stairs. You can read about it on Wikipedia. They spent $875K to fix the stairs in 2003, but there are arguments over opening them up to the public. Check it out.
All great points Russ! But we know posting something as off limits is an open invitation to a certain personality type that has to break that rule & prove they did it to everyone. We can’t assume he is not more prepared w/water, nutrition, phone, ect as his friends likely r n possession of these things for him. He’s not gonna dress safely for a hike, he’s to cool to take his shades off! Any shots of him looking bad went snip snip. Where’s his fear? He doesn’t have any. I’ll stick with ur advice n not do what these people did. 🙂
His shirt suddenly disappeared and why did he not have at least water with him?
Good point, but there is something else here that people are missing…
He seems almost disgusted or angry for a lot of it. But that’s not something “missing.” My curiosity is killing me. I hope you’ll satisfy it!
I don’t see that…
his dark glasses never fell the entire time – like indiana jones’s hat. he also has a very strong arm having to hold that cam through the whole trek.
I only noticed he didn’t have water with him–like Maria noticed.
Sweat?
He sweat. Look at his shirt when he wears it. There are wet spots all over it.
How would you FEEL if you did this climb?
Fear…no fear or nervousness.
But also, no awe.
I agree with Beth. Surprisingly deadpan throughout.
However, the most striking for me was feeling increasingly bored that almost the whole video has the camera trained on the climber. I get that this is common for go-pro -filming, but the few hurried clips of the views added near the end only solidified my frustration.
I suppose, if you didn’t feel a real sense of awe of the surroundings, you _would_ edit the footage in exactly this way since for you, the point of the whole thing would probably be different – but for me, never even actually having seen the place – watching what feels like a prolonged selfie is almost annoying.
… I must be getting old! 😀
A prolonged selfie! Yes! Why not wear the camera on a helmet to show the journey in his perspective, the gorgeous view around him and the daunting stairs?
That would be BORING. Stairs and stairs and stairs…no perspective, no view, no endurance…no emotions.
Well, stairs and sky actually. I think a forward view would be a lot better on the way down than on the way up, but I think this guy was documenting his climb and his experience of it, not the scenery alone. If you filmed the climb without the climber, all you’d have is scenery, and that’s kind of a dime a dozen even when it’s gorgeous. Showing himself making the climb is what makes it personal, and I suspect that this is what a lot of his friends would expect and want to see. The rest of us don’t know him, so we (some of us anyway) really couldn’t care less– we can watch people we don’t know anywhere. 😉
I actually like the way he filmed it. I enjoyed being able to watch him do the climb. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it if he’d just climbed a few flights of stairs in a nondescript building somewhere. I also wouldn’t have enjoyed it quite as much if it had been JUST the scenery. The way he filmed it, I got to see the scenery, his experience of that scenery, and the experience of the climb itself. That’s a threefer (3 for one)!
Oh, safety rope! I had that passing thought when the video started, but I don’t have sufficient experience as a hiker/climber to be certain when that’s appropriate. (Allergic to the outdoors. 🙁 )
Me either. If it even seems like I *MIGHT* need safety rope, then I’ve long since passed the point where I’d even be willing to consider the climb. 😉
>Surprisingly deadpan throughout.
As a person who has done some climbing, this video strikes me as all about him and the climb, and virtually nothing about the place he climbed up. There are a couple of points in the video where he points the camera around, but it’s 100% about him. To be honest, he could have done this in a stairwell and it would have been just as good to him, except for breaking all the laws and such.
A couple of years ago I climbed solo to 12,498 feet, and you can see the shot that I took from the top of the mountain. (double click the image to see it full size), and a shot of me in awe on top of the mountain. Truly one of the great days in my life 🙂 I don’t get that sense from the guy’s video. It’s all about him and his accomplishments and showing off, almost nothing about the truly amazing place he is in.
BTW, I totally cracked up at the serendipitious irony of the multiple postings with regard to what we were just saying about the video…
I know it’s not intentional and hope you don’t take offence, but I think it’s hilarious! 😀
Totally agree!
I thought it was somewhere between funny and ironic, and I did try to delete it for obvious reasons. I bet that someone will stumble upon that post and not get the irony – and that would be ironic and funny 🙂
PS – in the words of the 5th century BC philosopher Confucius – posting on internet message boards in the middle of the night can have ironic consequences.
Ha! I have no idea what irony you see here–different brains see different things 😉 The only irony I can see is if you find this man’s climb dangerous, I would think it goes against all rules to climb to 12000 feet SOLO. That seems totally unsafe if you ask me 😉 There is no one to save you should you fall or have any difficulties….
I thought it situationally ironic and hilarous, that we were saying there were no scenery shots and it was 100% about him about the video… and then the (now deleted) post had accidentally multiplied one pic of Russ on a mountain half a dozen times accompanied by just one scenery shot.
And it was all fun to watch wasn’t it?
>Surprisingly deadpan throughout.
As a person who has done some climbing, this video strikes me as all about him and the climb, and virtually nothing about the place he climbed up. There are a couple of points in the video where he points the camera around, but it’s 100% about him. To be honest, he could have done this in a stairwell and it would have been just as good to him, except for breaking all the laws and such.
A couple of years ago I climbed solo to 12,498 feet, and you can see the shot that I took from the top of the mountain. (double click the image to see it full size), and a shot of me in awe on top of the mountain. Truly one of the great days in my life 🙂 I don’t get that sense from the guy’s video. It’s all about him and his accomplishments and showing off, almost nothing about the truly amazing place he is in.
100% about him – yes! My sentiments exactly – I was just wary of being quite as frank 🙂
The name on the YouTube page is Thomas Fisker Engbjerg. He has a twitter page, and he describes himself as:
“I don’t know how to put this but I’m kind of a big deal… People know me… I’m very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich”
Source: https://twitter.com/Engbjerg
That totally fits with the person we see. I’m not surprised. And yes, he likes it all about him, but it still made the video interesting 😉
This is a quote from Ron Burgundy in Anchorman.
Great catch Beth!
I don’t disagree he likes attention. That is for sure!
I have to disagree here, Russ. This is everything about the location and the climb. He mastered it beautifully. You get a huge sense of what this experience is like from this video. He adds a lot of perspective. To have him shoot the video forward would have been boring — seeing ground and stairs. That one could only watch for a minute. But seeing him labor up those steps, almost effortlessly and seeing the ground grow distant as he moves is powerful. And, the guy is in phenomenal shape–without question and to see him almost exert no effort, and only use one arm is incredible. You get to see his emotions–which are subtle pride and joy–but radiating out of him. I found it incredibly interesting. Yes, I don’t support doing illegal things — I would never endorse anyone do this!!!, but there are still things that are awe-striking, regardless. I think this was phenomenally executed.
While your picture has emotional value to you because you climbed it above, it brings the audience no level of appreciation for what it took to do that climb, if you will. I mean that without any offense. Your accomplishment is huge, but I have no idea what it took you to do it by seeing a panoramic photo.
We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one on a few points. We agree he’s in incredible shape, and the view is powerful. There are ways to photograph or video this that would be very different from what he did that did not focus on him. I’ve seen other climbers do such videos, and I find those much more impressive.
You say he shows pride – what does that look like? Can you show an example somewhere? It doesn’t have to be subtle pride, but any pride will do 🙂 I can easily imagine many expressions that could be pride, and this is new for me, so I’m curious. I also see the joy – a little – so I’m much more interested in the pride expressions you cite.
Just for comparison, here is a video I found of the same climb, but one I find not so much self-centered, but much more about the area and what they found. It’s a little over 3 minutes long:
http://vimeo.com/107368626
I don’t find that boring at all, but much more creative than the video that was posted.
Thanks for the comments on my climb. Compared to the video, my climb was much higher vertical (mine finished at 12,498 feet and the stairs finish at around 2,498 feet, so my climb finished nearly two miles higher in altitude). No guard rails on my climb, and quite a few spots to fall off, including right at the summit. I totally agree the photos do not do any justice to the difficulty of the climb. The climb I did is rated between beginner and moderate, and I took the moderate level climb.
Hi Russ — I think we are talking about personal tastes here, and yes, we will see things differently. I wasn’t setting out to find an interesting video on climbing. Please know that wasn’t my goal. I merely ran across this video, found it fascinating because I have been on that highway, and in that area. I also found the guy fascinating that he showed no fear in a dangerous situation climbing with one hand and showed no exertion. I also found the hike scary steep. If you have haven’t seen the Hawaiian mountains, you may not realize their powerful effect. They are intense mountains. That’s the only reason I posted it. It wasn’t to support or endorse climbing or analyze his personality. He is a character of a person. He craves attention–loves being active and fit and so it is. It is what it is.
I think you are looking at everything that I wasn’t when seeing this video. And that’s okay–we have two different viewpoints. Now about pride — that’s hard. I’d have to spend time looking and looking. It’s not easily found. If I see one in the future, I will share it with you.
Hi Russ, here are some crops from this video where his pride is more prominent.
You can see several signals of pride. Very upright posture, head held high (pulled back and/or tilted upward), chest out, shoulders back, mouth stretched broadly, over all look of “satisfaction” which in this case is self-satisfaction, enjoyment, etc. To me his pride is pretty evident throughout the video– in fact it’s kind of an exemplary video for showing what pride looks like.
Finding other great examples probably would take a bit of work. Look for videos or photos of people making a significant accomplishment– the end of a marathon, Olympic events, people summiting a mountain, etc. are probably good candidates. Find examples where the journey was tougher than expected or where some challenge beyond the ordinary was faced for a greater likelihood. Then, subtract expressions of excitement or joy etc., and the parts you’re left with are likely to be the expressions of pride.
You could also look for photos or video of parents or family members watching their family members or children succeed at something difficult– you’ll see pride there too, although that kind of pride (when referring to a parent) has a Yiddish word for it– “naches”– which is the pride a parent or mentor feels in the accomplishment of offspring. Ekman says that the emotion of naches ensures parental investment in facilitating the growth and achievements of children. ( http://www.paulekman.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Sixteen-Enjoyable-Emotions-Paul-Ekman.pdf )
(Reposted because Disqus wouldn’t let me edit the photos which were broken)
I have to disagree on the deadpan. I see quite a bit of pride and accomplishment in this video. I also don’t feel it’s a big selfie. Doing this Go Pro as a forward vision wouldn’t have any value at all. You would just look at the ground and stairs the entire time. What makes it so powerful is the view behind, and he adds interest and perspective. He did an amazing job of capturing this, and did it right.
This is a month old, but I just had to reply. I could not agree more, Eyes. This is a man who has just undertaken an incredible physical feat, a man who is so capable that he makes it look almost effortless, but it is not effortless–that is just who this man is. So when a man like him reaches the top and his mouth, for the first time, begins to open into just the slightest hint of a grin…that is a powerful expression of pride and accomplishment and awe. Powerful.
And had he not placed himself and his endeavor at the center of this, then it would just have been a video of a mountain. The Earth is full of beautiful mountains, the universe full of rocky planets with peaks that dwarf even ours. Awe only comes when we see our smallness in relation to them, and the big things we can do despite it.
There is a huge sense of awe here — of pride and accomplishment, but its subtle to pick up on. It’s not a flagrant in your face show of it. It’s an internal sense of pride. I think it will be hard for a lot of people to register.
I think we are all seeing the same thing, just using different words for it. For me, “awe” describes a sense of suddenly feeling very small in the presence of something perceived as much bigger or more powerful than the self. In that sense, a strong sense of internal pride would perhaps shut out awe by blinding you to what is aweinspiring outside yourself. That’s the awe I felt was missing in the clip.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!! Way to go!
Now that is interesting 🙂
Why would there be any fear at all? This is a beginner level climb, the ascent is only 2,120 feet, and there is protection in the guard rails for nearly the entire climb. The steps were re-done and declared safe but the city doesn’t want people to use them so they have guards and signs posted.
It would actually be difficult to hurt yourself on this climb because the climber would have to get over or under the guard rails, as opposed to most climbs that are more dangerous because they have no protection. The only real danger to him that I see is how poorly prepared he is and how poorly he executes the climb but he seems totally oblivious to all of that.
If someone has never been hiking this probably looks really scary, but the hike is much safer than any other one I’ve ever seen. The only issue is the condition of the steps, but they seem acceptable all the way.
New climbers would probably be scared out of their wits – and that’s a very good thing – but an experienced climber would have no such reaction at all.
I could only find one report of a death on this climb in all time – and that person had a heart attack, they did not die from falling or an accident.
Russ — I have done serious hiking, I have seen these mountains up close and personal and you have to be an expert to climb them on ANY LEVEL. These stairs have guardrails, but the people who climb these are not using safety ropes in case of a fall. One fall backwards or forward would be DEADLY. You would fall hundreds of feet and likely on metal stairs.
Fear for the average person would be very normal doing this hike. We would expect to see stress and hints of fear. This guy has none. That is highly unusual, however, he is a “thrill seeker” and these types rare do feel fear — that is why they take on hikes such as these. Most people wouldn’t do it if you paid them!!
emotional
NO heavy breathing during climb.
no celebration or exultation at such an amazing accomplishment… I’d feel literally on top of the world, but he barely cracks a smile.
Here’s what’s missing: Heaven!
Where is their water?
They may have also forgotten sunscreen.
He’s blind.