A 33-year-old visiting hiker was rescued Friday afternoon after falling and hitting his head on the Pipiwai Trail in East Maui, a popular route through bamboo forest leading to Waimoku Falls. Firefighters and emergency crews hiked up the trail, found him off the path under heavy tree cover, and carried him out before an air ambulance flew him to the hospital.
The call reached first responders with differing reported times. According to Hawaii News Now, the Maui Fire Department was notified around 2:30 p.m. that a hiker had fallen, hit his head and was partially conscious. A separate account from Maui Now states the mountain rescue incident was reported at 2:33 p.m. Friday, with the man identified as a 33-year-old male visitor who sustained head injuries and was reportedly drifting in and out of consciousness.
Crews Carry Hiker Out From Under Heavy Tree Cover
Maui Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services personnel hiked up the trail to locate the hiker, ultimately finding him off the trail under heavy tree cover, Hawaii News Now reported. The response also included Engine 7 firefighters, an emergency medical crew, National Park Service personnel and the Reach Air Ambulance, per the Maui Now account. Firefighters and EMS personnel stabilized the hiker and carried him down the trail by hand rather than waiting for a helicopter extraction.
Once they reached a point where ground transport was possible, the hiker was transferred to an air ambulance crew, which flew him to Maui Memorial Medical Center. The same report places that transfer at around 4:22 p.m. Friday. No information was available about the man's condition at the hospital once he arrived, according to the outlet's reporting.
Pipiwai Trail Has a History of Falls
Friday's rescue is not the first time a fall on the Pipiwai Trail has required an airlift. In July 2015, a 57-year-old man from Sacramento lost consciousness during a fall and was airlifted out of the same area, in a bamboo forest roughly two miles above the Haleakalā National Park headquarters in Kīpahulu, according to a Maui Now report from that year. In that earlier case, area hikers found the man after he had been hiking alone and had lost consciousness for an unknown length of time before they called for help. Because carrying that victim all the way down the trail proved too difficult, the fire department's Air 1 helicopter was brought in to complete the rescue.
Other Maui trails have seen similar scrambles this year. In March, Maui Fire rescued a 60-year-old man from Washington state who hurt his leg and could not walk after a fall on the Waihee Ridge Trail, the Maui News reported. That hiker was lifted aboard the Air 1 helicopter and flown to Waihee Ballpark, where he was transferred to EMS and taken to Maui Memorial Medical Center, with the rescue concluding at 11:38 a.m.
Lawmakers Have Debated Who Pays for Rescues
Trail rescues like Friday's have also fed into a broader debate at the state Capitol over who should bear the cost. According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Senate Bill 2937 would establish a paid search-and-rescue card program along with a fund to reimburse state, county and volunteer rescue agencies for their work. A separate measure, Senate Bill 2358, would have required government entities to recover rescue costs from hikers only if they ignored posted warning signs, intentionally left a trail, or entered property closed to the public; that bill was deferred in committee, the newspaper reported.
The reimbursement proposal drew opposition from the State Fire Council and the Honolulu Fire Department, which expressed concern it could discourage hikers from calling for help when they need it. The fire department specifically warned that reimbursement requirements may deter or delay prompt notification of first responder agencies. Past legislators have estimated that helicopter-involved rescues cost roughly $1,500 per hour, the same report noted.
Diamond Head Summit Trail remained the most frequent site for hike rescues statewide in 2025, followed by Koko Crater Stairs, Lulumahu Falls, Lanikai Pillbox and Maili Pillbox, per the Star-Advertiser's review of the data. Friday's incident on the Pipiwai Trail adds another entry to a long list of falls that have sent hikers off Maui's trails and into the hands of fire crews and air ambulance teams over the past decade.
