Started out the Half Dome hike at 5:45am in complete darkness, wearing only my miner's flashlight. I knew the beginning part of the trail to Vernal Falls was well groomed, so I didn't worry about the dark and wanted to give myself as much time as possible to get to the top and back down again. There is only about thirteen hours of daylight in Yosemite this time of year and they estimate the hike at 10-12 hours round trip.
To the right is me standing in front of Vernal Falls, the first of two waterfalls along the way.
Starting to get a bit winded from the climb so I took a picture down into the valley to show how far we'd come - not far at all - a long way to go.
From the top of Vernal Falls with a long exposure to get the mist effect on the waterfall. Not easy to get a good picture in low light without a tripod, but I did the best I could.
Above Vernal Falls is Emerald Pool and it has this long flat creek bed that feeds it. I had joined another hiking group and an older guy in that group talked about how they used to slide down that into the pool riding their backpacks.
Looking up at Nevada Falls - the second waterfall. We're probably less than 1500 feet into the 4800 foot climb at this point - still feeling pretty good here.
From this point, it was a grind up several hundred feet of steep rock stairs to the top of Nevada Falls. After that, you got a small respite of relatively flat walking through Yosemite Valley before going back into the woods and starting the slow but steady ascent up to the base of Sub Dome - a smaller dome right next to Half Dome.
The picture to the left is near the summit of Sub Dome with Half Dome looming in the background. The climb up Sub Dome was a killer - about 600 feet of rock stairs - steep and narrow. At this point, the stairs and trail disappeared entirely and you were on your own to scurry up the granite to the top. My legs didn't have much in the way of "scurry" in them at this point - the stairs had pretty much done them in.
The summit of Sub-Dome. Its a big gathering place for people to decide if they want to tackle the cables to the top of Half Dome or not. Surprisingly, a lot of people don't go any further than this. You can barely see the cables going straight up the side in the distance. On busy summer days, there can be an hour wait to get onto the cables there are so many people up there. Today was not that busy at all and you could go any time you chose or got up the nerve.
Just in case I chickened out, I needed a picture that I had actually climbed something - Bob, Conqueror of Sub Dome - yes!
Staring at the cables from Sub Dome is not a good idea - it looks like its about a 75 degree ascent, when in fact its not that bad. I needed Garrison to tell me to man up and climb the dumb thing. Fortunately, I had cell service, so was able to text him, to which he responded effectively (if not a bit rudely). At any rate, I decided to give it a try.
The base of the cables. About every 10-15 feet or so are poles and across those poles are two-by-fours (you can see them running horizontally to the left). The basic strategy is to look at the ground and when the person in front of you vacates their two-by-four, you walk up five or six steps to stop on board. Since there are very few natural footholds and it is pretty steep and slow to climb, you really don't want to get stuck between two-by-fours if you can help it.
I was wondering if the same guys who lost control of the fire had built these cables? Hope they are better at cable-building than fire-controlling!
About half way up. Felt good enough to let go of the cables and get out my camera for a shot up ahead. About the only tricky part going up were a few ridges that you had to climb up onto while still holding on or when someone was coming down and needed to pass you. Some younger kids went up without gloves and wearing sneakers. The best they could do was pretty much slide down, which made you wonder what would happen if one if them crashed into you. Far as I know, nobody died today, so I guess they all made it.
The top of the cables. Not quite to the summit but close. Time to relax a little bit.
People hanging out on a rock overhanging the cliff side of Half Dome.
The view from the top looking down into Yosemite Valley. Where its green is where we started the hike from. 4800 vertical feet and about 8.5 miles to this point.
I was dreading the climb down the cables, but with good gloves (Walmart gardening gloves with the rubber dots) and good boots it wasn't bad at all.
Back at Sub Dome, photographed these squirrels that were systematically rifling every backpack that people had left while they went up the cables. Any food not in a zippered pocket was gone. Those were some really fat squirrels!The hike down from Half Dome was a real grind. Usually, I enjoy the hikes back but the steepness of the descent really did a number on what was left of my legs. And to have to walk another eight miles at that point is pretty tough too, but you just got to gut it out. I was never so happy to see the Pathfinder as at the end of today.
After the hike, I went straight to Curry Village and paid $5 for a long overdue shower. Then I headed over to the Curry Village Bar and had a couple of tall IPAs and some chicken wings. Every bone, muscle and tendon in my body hurt at that point, but the IPAs helped tremendously. I still have the unopened bottle of Aleve that I bought for the trip!
After refueling at Curry Village, it was off again in search of another campsite. Yosemite really needs to spend more time building campsites instead of building fires.
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