Chutes and Ladders, Maui

Nice.

I’m going to begin with what I am not going to tell you. I am not going to tell you where Chutes and Ladders is. I certainly could tell you and would have liked someone to have posted the location so that my crew didn’t spend literally half a day looking for it, but there are reasons why no one is giving up this location easily (don't even bother asking a local in the area). The first reason is that Chutes and Ladders is on private land, though anyone determined to find this place isn't going to care about that since the land is supposedly owned by the Maui Pineapple Company; at least that’s what I remember the “No Trespassing” signs saying. Those “No Trespassing” signs may be there to protect the land owner for the second reason no one says where this little adventure is, that being the high risk of injury. I will say that the ‘trail head’ is about .4 miles past mile marker 37 (long before mile marker 38) on the eastern side of Honokohau Bay. If and when you find the trail, proceed at your own risk, following the trail towards the water and then to the left where the trail turns into grass. That’s where you will find the ropes.

Arial view of the location.

When you find the ropes, you’re going to say one of two things, either “It doesn’t look that bad” or “I’m not doing that.” The cliff face you need to climb down is about 40 feet high; certainly not 60 feet high as other blog posters have written. The incline is about an 80 percent slope, meaning that unless you rock climb regularly, you’re going to need the ropes to get safely down to the bottom. There are plenty of toe holds and crevices to get your fingers on, though having long legs is certainly to someone’s advantage here. If you arrive and find the rocks wet from a recent passing rain cloud, I would advise against attempting this descent. In fact, if you do not do this kind of thing regularly or if you do not consider yourself fit or if you mind getting a little scraped up, I would not attempt to climb down. I was quite nervous going down, probably due to an old repelling accident when I was in the Army years ago. Has anyone died here? Yes, at least one person has died here, though probably more. The media in Hawaii tends to gloss over or ignore these kinds of things for fear of hurting tourism. On the other hand, if you’re young and somehow have it in your head that you are immortal, then by all means, proceed without caution. (There is, by the way, another eight foot wall of lava rock to scoot down right next to the pool. Though it’s a 90 percent slope, it’s not that big a deal after the rope climb.)

The rope climb down. The pool is hidden to the right.

The pool itself is quite inviting, though no more interesting than the more well-known Olivine Pools a few more miles to the east. That is to say, no one comes here for the pool itself, rather they come because there is a potential for death and danger. At about five feet deep, the pool is deep enough to cannonball into from a modest height and there are fish in the pool but thankfully, no sea urchins, at least not that I saw. I would recommend bringing reef shoes / tabis since walking around on the volcanic rock is a bit much on tender feet, plus the algae in the pool makes climbing out with bare feet slippery. As a general precaution, if the ocean is pounding the shore and waves are splashing over the rocks into the pool, don’t go in the pool. One rouge wave is all it takes to wash a person out to sea.

Blackbeard the Goat.

When my crew was done, the climb back out was infinitely easier, at least for me. The black goat awaiting us at the top didn’t seem too pleased with us, though. Either we were on his land or he was angry we weren’t going to feed him. We were hungry, too, and needed to get ourselves over to the Maui Brewing Company so we beat a hasty retreat to avoid getting head-butted by this guy. Remember, when you’re done, please pack everything you brought in back out, unless you brought rope. You can never have enough rope if you ask me. Future ‘adventurers’ will thank you.

Video taken with my beat up Cannon Powershot.