To hike Half Dome, or not
I haven't forgotten about my California To Do list. The next item to be crossed off is visiting Yosemite. My Dad and I are planning on spending 3-4 days there the last week of September, and in researching things to do while we are there, I've become mildly obsessed with the idea of hiking Half Dome.
Here are the reasons I've compiled in favor of hiking Half Dome:
- I love the reward of a real physical challenge. It's not an easy hike ("The trail climbs nearly 5,000 feet over the nearly 10 miles to the top. The last 700 feet is famous for its fear factor. Wooden blocks and metal guide wires have been set out to help hikers scale the grade. The view can be intimidating. Many a hiker have reached this point and turned around out of fear of the climb"), but lots of people make it to the top and back every year.
- I'm in good shape (thanks to marathon training), and I'll be there. When is the next time I'll be in good shape AND in Yosemite? :)
- Because I think I can.
- I'd probably be hiking a good portion of the way without a partner -- my Dad's not up to such a strenuous hike and is deaf to the siren song of such physical challenges.
- The potential for injury. While hiking Half Dome would potentially be a once in a lifetime experience for me, I'd be pretty upset if I got injured and wasn't able to run the NYC marathon in November because of it.
- Related to 2, Recovery Time. How sore and for how long will I be? I don't want to sacrifice more running time than I have to.
Residents of Vox, what do you think? Have you hiked Half Dome before? Do think I should?
Comments
+ you are in such good shape now, i bet you could do it and i bet you would love it
+ it's a once-in-a-lifetime acheivement that would provide a great sense of accomplishment
- over 17 miles round trip, with as anil pointed out, a big-ass hill in the middle of it
+ bragging rights - forever ;-)
4. Highest chance of being struck by lightning anywhere in the country.
Hell yeah you should do this. It will be an amazing experience, and you're always capable of more than you think. We did a three day backpacking trip down the Lost Coast (10 miles a day) and I wasn't in as good of shapre as you are. Also, my old high school buddy is a ranger in Yosemite Valley, so I'd be happy to let him know that you're headed that way if its helpful.
What's weird is that the peak of Half Dome was somewhat lower than other hikes, but it was probably the second hardest climb of the whole summer (Mt. Whitney is always hardest -- about 25 miles round trip and over 6,000' of climb).
Here are some things I recall from the hike:
- leave really early, like around 8am. The thunderstorm danger is real and you want to be off the top before 2 or 3pm, when a storm and bolt can happen out of the blue even on sunny days.
- 5,000 vertical feet of climbing in a single day is right about the limit of what a person in shape can do in a day. You will be exhausted.
- The trail is pretty obvious, so hiking alone shouldn't be too bad. There are lots of others doing it as well.
- Do you respond to high altitude well? I'm not the strongest person when it comes to this, and I recall not getting a good sleep before this hike, so I was exhausted and dragging for half my trip up, and it barely got to 10,000 feet (I was climbing 12-14k peaks every other weekend).
- the cables at the top are awesome. I was fucking terrified and spent, but this was a highlight. Somewhere in a box I have a stack of photos of this. The scale on top is amazing, the top of half dome is like several football fields in size, all granite.
- There are gnarly huge marmots at the top, ready to eat any crumbs you leave behind. They are weird creatures and you wouldn't think they'd survive in that remote of a place.
- it took me a couple days to recover, mostly because I started the hike without much sleep and I went with a friend that pushed me all the way up.
- take plenty of food and water and drink often. I got a camelbak bag after this because I couldn't stay hydrated with nalgene bottles of water I had to fish out of a pack. When I started getting exhausted, I became too tired to get the water out, so things got worse. Hikes after that were better since I drank whenever I felt like it, sucking on the camelbak tube.
Just remember to take a camera and then post your photos.
- We left the parking lot around 6am and that was considered "late". There were a lot of people already on the trails and by the time it was the hottest part of the day, we were still reaching the top, when most had already reached it or were on their way down.
- Bring LOTS of water. Both my husband and I had a camelback and we ended up running out of water right near the end of the way back down. Thankfully there is a drinking fountain near the bottom, because we were parched.
- You should be okay if you're hiking alone, we were rarely on the trail by ourselves, especially since the lower part of the trail is basically a trail to some of the other, lower, points. We ended up hiking a lot of the way with a bunch of other hikers that we struck conversations with. I remember seeing a lot of lone hikers, too.
- The altitude really got to me, and I grew up in the Rocky Mountains. I remember gasping for breath and having to breathe deeply when we got to the top.
- The cables at the last part of the face are both incredibly scary and exhilirating at the same time. We were so exhausted and tired and mentally spent I remember my husband climbing the cables behind me almost in tears because he was sorry he had talked me into doing this hike. It really messes with your mind because you have to literally use all your arm strength to pull yourself up vertically - all while waiting on the people in front of you and letting people on their way down pass you. And the fact that half of the 2x4's are barely hanging on to the rock isn't very comforting, either!
You can see my pictures of the trip (the Half Dome hike is almost right in the middle of the set) here.
Have fun in Yosemite and good luck if you end up doing the hike!
Today is Sept 29 so I'm a little late!
I hoped you climb Half Dome !
Every seems to thing that it's a really tough hike !
My Wife and I trained from early spring up here in upstate NY; Adirondack mountains, for this hike, planed for the first week in July,
We found it to be quite easy . She took the John Muir trail and I took the mist trail and we meet at Nevada Falls and hiked the rest together .
The Dome itself is tough but as you know it isn't far and well worth it.
I'm sure you made it with out a problem.
We recovered enough to do a short climb to Sentinel Dome the next morning
Try some of out 46 high peaks here in the Adirondacks
Nothing compares to the view from Half Dome but they are good and are a challenge
P.S. We are in our 50's