Not Getting Lost, Part 3 (Matafao Expedition)

Last Friday, everyone's favorite South Pacific adventurer took off for the summit of American Samoa's tallest peak--the tall, cragged, usually cloud-covered Matafao.  I personally know of only two people who have successfully climbed Matafao, versus a lot of people that haven't successfully climbed it.  Using rudimentary math skills, I've concluded that  it's really freaking hard.

Lisa tells her roommates how awesome her boyfriend is (with Matafao in the distance)

it's really pointy

balancing on the top is the hardest part

While Mt. Alava, which Lisa and I hiked two weeks ago, has a trail maintained by the National Park Service, Matafao is not a part of the National Park and there isn't any trail mentioned in any guidebooks.  There is an unmaintained "trail" that starts across from the Mt. Alava trail.

an old rusty ladder? hmm...

...so I went up it (across it trailhead for Mt. Alava)

This may look like the beginning of my adventure, but no, it actually started at the Filipino lunch place in Fagatogo.  Since I don't have a car, and wasn't sure if buses ran to Fagasa, and wanted to start from sea level, I walked 3.9 kilometers to the trailhead and got rained on.

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After climbing the ladder, it took me a good 10 minutes to find some semblance of a trail.  And around 2pm, off I went!  Unfortunately for me, I picked the worst possible day for the hike.  If it had been raining and overcast all day, I would never have started.  But I thought the weather was just good enough to give it a shot.  I discovered early on that I would have to get comfortable being drenched for the next 4 hours or so.  There is a reason it's called the rainforest.  This wasn't your typical hike; it involved a lot of scrambling up steep inclines where muddy conditions made things much more difficult.
 

trail in one of the flatter spots

trees sometimes grew sideways; sometimes they made fun mazes

I made some friends along the way

 

the trail was very very wet

 I was a bit surprised to find that there was a somewhat navigable trail! There were pink blazes and orange blazes occasionally, and sometimes it was hard to tell which way it went, but I was not the first person to attempt this route.  It was immediately obvious to me that the two other people who had summited Matafao had each carried a roll of tape with them.  But pink and orange?  Kind of feminine if you asked me.  I should have brought some tape myself to mark my territory.  All I had with me was a big bag of sunflower seeds, headlamp, 8 very wet dollars, and 2.5 liters of Fiji water.  

Soon I found myself in a more interesting situation--off the trail.  At first I figured it was just a lot rougher going here, or maybe the trailblazer had their machete stolen, but soon I realized that I had somehow taken a detour.  No matter, I knew it was going along the ridge and so I was going the right direction and would meet up with it soon.  After a few minutes of really tough going, I thought I had found the trail up ahead to the left.  Nope.  But there was something to the right.  That wasn't it either.  And winding around a bit looking for it, I suddenly had no idea where the hell I was.  I knew the general way the trail was going--along a ridge--but it was very windy, and at this point I was still trying to determine which way was which.  

See what looks like the ground? Nope.
That's just vine branch things that are a foot or so above the ground.

It was really really dense.

Why so dirty?
Sometime I had to crawl under the waist high vines.

I pretty much walked in circles for 40 minutes trying to find the trail.  I tried getting to the highest point and shimmying up a tree, but that failed.  After that I started one direction, decided it was the wrong way, then tried another direction and realized it was the wrong way.  Repeat this a few times and I think I walked in a few circles.  When I was beginning to give up hope, somehow I lucked into the trail, about a 5 minute walk from where I had lost it.  Phew!  I honestly felt such an incredible feeling of relief!  I had cuts all over my legs and arms, and looked like I had just gotten into a wrestling match with a bear, but I had found the trail!  I turned around and backtracked three times before I was able to figure out which way was up, but finally I was moving up again.  There was no way that my struggle to survive would stop me from reaching the summit.

(Note to fellow adventurers: sunflower seeds probably aren't the best trail food, since they make you really thirsty.)

The rest of the way wasn't exactly a walk in the park.  Remember the pictures of the mountain from a distance?  I still had to figure out how to balance on the top and scale near-vertical faces.  As I got higher and higher, the ridge got narrower.  Until for the last few mini-peaks, it was about 5 feet wide with shear drops on either side.  And i was in a cloud and couldn't see.  FUN!

don't look down

weather begins to deteriorate

limited visibility

one of the mini-peaks on the ridge

there really wasn't much room on either side of the trail

the key was not to look sideways

view to the left as I'm about to ascend the narrow ridge

view to the right

 Finally, I made it to the top!  The trip down was difficult because of the muddy conditions and trying not to slide off into oblivion, by I made it down before sunset, and then had the 3.9 kilometer walk back to the market (with a pit stop at a minimart for a nice cold Vailima).  The views weren't great because the top was in the clouds most of the time, but occasionally, I got a clear view to one direction.  Below are some more pictures:

the summit!

sweet view of the runway and reef, with coconut point in the foreground

I don't think he likes me.

Clear view southwest for about 30 seconds

And lastly, a view of the mountain, the next day from the west...