Double the fun

After reading nothing but what seemed like horror stories about Maunas Kea and Loa, I finally decided, "Why not call the horse's mouth itself and get the answers I've been looking for?"

Mauna Kea was first, and this is what I found out:

-the roundtrip time is 6 to 10hrs—not so bad for the tallest mountain on earth, eh?
-the surface of the mountain is generally ashy and cindery
-coldest he'd seen it get at the summit is 10F, or -12C (sounds positively balmy after a week of -30)
-the wind can get mighty strong up there, with yesterday having 40-45mph winds; they close it if winds reach 50mph
-the Visitor Information Station sells food like sandwiches, snacks and coffee
-the parking lot is empty and all mine early in the morning, and good to leave my tent in while I hike
-there are two ways up to the top—the unpaved trail, or the paved road that adds another mile each way
-it gets super sunny at the top

That was a nice little 6-minute phone call in which I got everything answered. The call to Mauna Loa, though, went quite a bit longer:

-check the weather, check the weather, check the weather (from every tip I've ever read about what information to pick up during university lectures, I'm guessing how many times the woman on the phone repeated this makes this point by far the most important)
-the temperature isn't what'll do me in, it's the wind (but check the weather to find out how strong the wind is)
-high inversion means high pressure which means the weather is good; high inversion falling apart or low inversion means an altitude storm is on its way in; she told me a quick tale about how she and other rangers were in a metal cabin (!) at the summit when an altitude storm rolled in and it stormed and lightning-ed the entire night
-read the weather forecast, or I could end up like one guy who wanted to hike light and easy, met an altitude storm on his trip, had to dig himself a snow shelter to stay in overnight, and was rescued the next day by helicopter
-I probably won't need to bring my down coat and winter boots with me—we looked at the webcams from our respective ends, and there's hardly any snow on the mountain
-it's possible to do the mountain as either a day hike or overnight with a backcountry permit
-look at the weather forecast before I head up
-take pictures and send it to them. They post them on their website!

So, what I initially thought was going to be a tough choice between the tallest mountain in the world and its 100-ft shorter sibling is now no choice: I'm going to climb both!