Fun in the sun — and snow

“Mmmmmm! That snow is gooood!” crooned 5-year-old Ikaika Derasin as she chomped into a softball-sized hunk of Mauna Kea’s own special brand of shave ice. Her 9-year-old sister, Kircia, laughed, packing her own ball with her hands.

Meanwhile, Ikaika’s grandfather, Michael Derasin, was putting in some hard labor Friday morning, hauling shovelful after shovelful of the white gold from the peak of an enormous snow drift into the bed of his pickup truck. The family planned to transport the snow home to Waimea to enjoy it for a few more hours.

This was the family’s second trip to the top of the mountain this week, Michael said, and the keiki were showing signs of fatigue.

“They’re wiped out,” he said.

Derasin’s wife, Faith, works as a teacher, and the spring break this week allowed the couple to spend time with their grandkids.

“We’ve been having a lot of fun,” he said with a grin.

It’s been an uncommonly wintry season atop Mauna Kea, with heavy snow and ice forcing the closure of the summit road on multiple occasions for days at a time. The closures have meant fun-seekers often had to admire the sacred mountain’s snowy peak from afar without having many opportunities to enjoy it in person.

However, the road opened back up this week after a long stretch, and area residents and tourists alike were taking full advantage of the subtropical winter wonderland.

Brothers Trajan, 13, and Nu‘uhiwa Ellis, 8, had a blast running up the side of a steep, snow-covered hill and then sledding down on a Boogie Board. On their last run of the day, the boys were trying to share a ride when Nu‘uhiwa slipped and broke away from his brother, plummeting down the hill on the board.

Left without a ride, Trajan was undaunted, sledding down the hill on his backside.

“I am so cold!” Nu‘uhiwa said as he joined his parents, BJ and Molly Ellis, at the bottom. “I want to get the biggest bowl of saimin right now.”

Standing at the base of the Gemini telescope on the summit, Manon Turcotte and Daniel Heroux marveled at the view as they looked out toward Maui.

“It’s absolutely incredible,” Heroux said.

Hailing from Quebec, the pair are not strangers to snow, but it was a unique treat to see snow in the land of sun and surf, they said.

“We were just at the black sand beach yesterday,” Turcotte said. “We saw whales jumping. And turtles.”

Turcotte said she initially was concerned about getting altitude sickness while making the drive up to the summit of Mauna Kea, but apart from a little hotheadedness, the trip had been more than worth the effort.

“It’s gorgeous. Super,” she said.

Further down the mountain, Fantacie Keahilihau-Kuamo‘o was on a single-minded mission.

The Keaukaha resident had pulled her truck over to the side of the road and was busily shoveling the snow into the bed.

“I’m taking it right down to the beach, to Puhi Bay. I came up to take it home for the kids who can’t come up here because they’re too small for the altitude,” she said. “I have a lot of cousins and nieces and nephews who will like it.”

The young woman was so energetic in her work that she ended up snapping the handle of her shovel. She pressed on, however, determined to bring the snow to the waterfront.

The summit road was reopened Monday morning after being closed for about two weeks because of icy conditions that prevented heavy equipment from clearing the roadway.

“Snow removal equipment can only remove snow,” reads a note on the Mauna Kea Weather Center website. “Thermal heating is needed to remove the final layer of ice that usually forms under the snow.

A Friday afternoon forecast on the site called for dry and stable conditions on the summit for the next five nights. Summit temperatures were expected to be near 36 degrees Friday evening, with winds from the west at 10-20 mph.

Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.