We were banking south over Hilo Bay in a rickety Piper plane 
— the late sun turning the ocean a deeper blue below, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa rising through the clouds like sleeping gods.

Then a splutter. A shake. And silence.
The pilot turned in his seat. “Oh, this happened earlier. Don’t worry, it started right away.”
He tried the engine. Not a cough. Not a sputter. Just the dry cranking of a motor that had decided it was done.
I looked out the window at the beauty below me — and stilled the fear.

It did not feel like my time. It felt like a sign.
That was August 18th, 1997. I had been on the Big Island for one week.
My question to the ʻāina was simple and enormous: Is Hawaiʻi my home?
The volcano answered.
It has been answering ever since.

High Attitude Hiking the Hawaiian Maunas: From Corporate Burnout to Cosmic Clarity — A Rebel’s Guide to Thriving in Perilous Times is not a trail map.

It is a field manual for anyone who has ever stood at the edge of something enormous — a career collapse, a health crisis, a life that no longer fits — and felt the pull of something wilder, clearer, and more alive on the other side.

High altitude hiking on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa does something to the nervous system that no boardroom, no sick-care protocol, and no algorithm can replicate. At 13,000 feet, stripped of oxygen and performance, the body stops pretending. What remains is biology — raw, measurable, and sovereign.

The Maunas are the laboratory. Your body is the experiment. The journey — not the summit — is the revelation.

What You’ll Discover in Chapter 1 — Free

Chapter 1 opens on that Piper plane above Hilo Bay. It ends with a decision that changed everything.

Inside, you’ll find:

• Why a near-crash above Puna became a 28-year apprenticeship with the ʻaina — and what it taught me about mitochondrial health and high-altitude resilience
• The difference between conquering a volcano and listening to one — and why it changes how you move, breathe, and think at any elevation
• What happens to your cellular voltage, your nervous system, and your biological sovereignty when you stop performing and start paying attention
• How hiking Mauna Kea fasting — without food, often alone, in thin air — became my most reliable nervous system reset
• The decades after I stopped being a GE development engineer — and finally arrived a Longevity Architect

This is where the journey begins. Not at the trailhead. Not at the crater rim.

Here. With a quiet engine. And a volcano that refused to let me leave.

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Release date: May 27, 2026 — Benedick’s 75th birthday.
Waitlist Warriors get first access in

• The author is a development engineer — not a wellness influencer. He brings the same precision to biological claims that he brought to tungsten carbide quality control at Canadian General Electric.
• The clinical results are documented. 40 years of research and practice. Conditions the medical system declared incurable, restored. On camera. With witnesses.
• The hikes are real. 200+ times on active Hawaiian volcanoes in all sorts of weather – from tank tops to crampons. The GPS data exists. The logbook in the military shell case at the MaunaLoa summit exists.
• The confession is in the book. Chapter 6 documents the reactive hypoglycemia crisis that nearly killed the author in a remote cabin at 13,250 feet — because he broke his own fasting protocol. The teacher ambushed by his own curriculum. That’s the level of honesty this book operates at.

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High Attitude Hiking the Hawaiian Maunas is about what happens inside the body when you take it above 13,000 feet — especially when you do it fasting, intentionally, and in service of something larger than a summit photograph. It is about what circadian biology and high-altitude hiking share: both demand that you stop overriding your body’s signals and start reading them.

The Big Island’s two great volcanoes — MaunaKea at 13,796 feet and MaunaLoa at 13,679 feet — are not just geological formations. In Hawaiian culture they are Wahi Pana: sacred places where the veil between the physical and the ancestral is thin. For four decades, Benedick prepared for these mountains not as athletic challenges but as biological reset protocols. The altitude stresses. The ʻaina teaches. The body responds.

When you hike Mauna Kea fasting — as Benedick does regularly — something precise happens to your mitochondrial health. Cellular autophagy accelerates. Metabolic flexibility deepens. The nervous system, stripped of glucose dependency, learns new efficiency. This is not metaphor. It is measurable. And it is available to anyone willing to step off the corporate deadmill long enough to find out what their biology actually does when left to its own intelligence.

Biology is physics first. The volcano understood that before I did.

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“I downloaded Chapter 1 and that night also had a wonderful dream.” — Ann, retired

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What’s inside — 16 chapters across 4 acts:

 

Act 1: Awakening — The lucid dream that brought him to Hawaii. The ancestral lineages he never knew. The humpback whale’s message about the planet’s energy grid. The telluric forces beneath the trail.

Act 2: Trials and Trails — The flat tyre and the five-mile crater rim by moonlight. The fall at 13,200 feet. The Covid sign at 13,250 feet. The fasting architecture. The hiker who never called.

Act 3: Liberation — Why your beliefs aren’t yours. The ethics of sacred ground. Who profits while you sleep. The 244 FOI requests that proved the science doesn’t exist.

Act 4: Ascension — The summit within. The mana mindset. The daily architecture of biological sovereignty. The last cairn.

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About Benedick Howard

Benedick Howard is a ex-development engineer turned longevity architect. Trained at Canadian General Electric and across the mining industry of northern Canada, he spent forty years applying engineering precision to the biology of a human body understood not as a chemical machine but as an electrical system that can be restored.

He trained to master level in Russian electrotherapy in London in 2003 and demonstrated the technology before eight million viewers on live British television. He invented the DreamWeaver — a sacred geometry sound healing environment still in clinical use today. He has lived off-grid in Hawaii since 1997, hiking MaunaKea and MaunaLoa over 200 times as part of a personal longevity protocol targeting a lifespan well past 100.

He hosts the Fallacy and Idiocracy Report and coaches founding clients through the Longevity Architect Protocol.Biology is physics first.

The volcano understood that before I did

Claim Your Free Chapter + Join the Waitlist.

You don’t have to be a hiker.

You don’t have to have been to Hawaiʻi. You don’t have to have survived a plane that lost its engine over an active volcano.

But if you’ve ever felt the sick-care system couldn’t give you what you actually needed — if you’ve ever suspected that the answers to your health, your clarity, and your next chapter are somewhere outside the boardroom, the hospital, and the algorithm — this book was written for you.

Specifically, it is for:

• High-achieving professionals who built the career and lost the body, the clarity, or the will to keep performing — and are looking for a science-backed path to biological sovereignty that doesn’t require a hospital
• Executives in transition who know the next chapter has to be different — and are drawn to high-altitude hiking, strategic fasting, or circadian biology as entry points to a new operating system
• Adventure-seekers who want more than Big Island scenery — who want the volcano to mean something physiologically, ancestrally, and permanently
• Anyone drawn to Hawaiʻi not as a vacation but as a calling — and who suspects the ʻaina has something to teach them that no clinic, retreat centre, or supplement stack ever could

The Maunas don’t care about your résumé. They care about your attitude.

The Maunas don’t care about your résumé. They care about your attitude.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is High Attitude Hiking the Hawaiian Maunas about?

High Attitude Hiking the Hawaiian Maunas is a memoir, field manual, and longevity guide by Benedick Howard — a former GE development engineer turned Longevity Architect who has lived off-grid on Hawaiʻi’s Big Island since 1997. The book documents 7 years of high-altitude hiking on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, and what those mountains revealed about mitochondrial health, biological sovereignty, circadian biology, and the nervous system. It is not a trail guide. It is a blueprint for anyone who wants to stop managing their decline and start reclaiming their biology.

Is it safe to hike Mauna Kea fasting?

Hiking Mauna Kea fasting is advanced practice — and it is precisely what I have done repeatedly over four decades. At high altitude, the body’s relationship to fuel changes significantly. Reduced oxygen availability shifts metabolism toward fat oxidation and ketone production. For a metabolically flexible individual — one who has trained their mitochondria through strategic fasting and circadian-aligned eating — high-altitude hiking in a fasted state can deepen autophagy, sharpen mental clarity, and accelerate biological reset. It is not recommended for beginners or those with blood sugar instability. It is discussed throughout the book.

What happens to your body above 13,000 feet?

Above 13,000 feet — the elevation of both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa’s summits — atmospheric oxygen drops to roughly 60% of sea-level concentration. The body responds immediately: breathing rate increases, heart rate elevates, and the mitochondria are forced to operate under hypoxic stress. Over time and with repeated exposure, this stress triggers measurable adaptations — increased red blood cell production, improved mitochondrial density, and enhanced metabolic efficiency. It is one of the most powerful free biological stressors available. The Maunas trilheads are accessible from sea level in an hour or so, making them uniquely available for Big Island residents and visitors seeking a genuine biological reset through high-altitude hiking in Hawaii.

How does high-altitude hiking support longevity?

High-altitude hiking engages multiple longevity pathways simultaneously. The hypoxic stress triggers mitochondrial biogenesis — the creation of new mitochondria. The physical exertion activates AMPK, a cellular energy sensor linked to autophagy and anti-ageing. The cold temperatures at elevation activate brown adipose tissue. And for those hiking in a fasted state, the compounding of metabolic stressors creates a hormetic response — the body adapts upward rather than declining. Combined with strategic fasting and circadian biology principles, high-altitude hiking on the Hawaiian Maunas is one of the most comprehensive longevity protocols available without a clinic, a prescription, or a supplement.

Is this book for people who have never hiked before?

Yes — and no. High Attitude Hiking the Hawaiian Maunas is not a technical hiking manual. You will not find gear lists or trail maps. What you will find is the philosophy, biology, and field wisdom that make high-altitude hiking on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa a transformative rather than merely athletic experience. Readers who have never hiked a volcano will find the book accessible and compelling. Experienced hikers will find frameworks they have never encountered. The mountain is the teacher. The book is the introduction.

What is the difference between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa as hiking destinations?

Mauna Kea at 13,796 feet is Hawaiʻi’s highest peak and is considered the most sacred mountain in Hawaiian culture — the realm of Akua, the gods. Its summit trail is a 12-mile round trip from the Visitor Information Station, with 4,500 feet of elevation gain. Mauna Loa at 13,679 feet is the world’s largest active volcano by volume, and its summit trail is 22 miles and more physically demanding, beginning at 6,600 feet. Both demand preparation and respect. In this book, I do not treat them as athletic challenges, more as the journey. I treat them as living organisms — teachers with more to offer than a summit photograph.

What is biological sovereignty and why does it matter?

Biological sovereignty is the state in which your body’s fundamental regulatory systems — circadian rhythm, mitochondrial function, nervous system tone, metabolic flexibility — are operating under your own authority rather than being overridden by artificial light environments, processed food, pharmaceutical dependency, or chronic stress. The term was introduced to me not by a laboratory but by a living volcano. When you remove every modern convenience and stand at 13,000 feet, what remains is your biology in its sovereign state. High Attitude Hiking the Hawaiian Maunas is, at its core, a field manual for recovering that sovereignty — not in theory, but in your body, mind and soul.

When does the book launch and how can I get early access?

High Attitude Hiking the Hawaiian Maunas launches on May 27, 2026 — Benedick Howard’s 75th birthday. Waitlist Warriors receive Chapter 1 free immediately, pre-launch field dispatches from the Mauna, first notification when the book goes live, and priority access to the companion Big Island Biological Reset retreat. Download Chapter 1 using the form on this page and your place on the waitlist is confirmed.

Claim Your Free Chapter + Join the Waitlist.

The plane above Hilo didn’t crash. It redirected. Thirty-nine years of field research, and finally high-altitude hiking, strategic fasting, and biological sovereignty work later — this book is the answer it pointed me toward.

Enter your name and email. Chapter 1 arrives instantly. Waitlist Warriors receive:

    • Instant access to Chapter 1 — the Piper plane story, the ʻaina, and the decision that started everything

    • Pre-launch field dispatches from the Mauna — raw intelligence from Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa

    • First notification when High Attitude Hiking the Hawaiian Maunas goes live on May 27, 2026

    • Priority access to the companion Big Island Biological Reset retreat

Go forth, question everything.

Many mahalos from Hawaiʻi. Warrior out.

 — Benedick Howard

Longevity Architect | Founder, Ageless Warrior Alliance | Kurtistown, Hawaiʻi