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After hearing my friends talk about Half Dome for the last year and a half, I finally had the opportunity to climb it myself. I'll admit, I had a lot of self-doubt in the weeks leading up to the hike, and the anxiety was starting to set in the week before we left. I've been hiking every few weekends for nearly 10 months now, so I should be in shape, but this was venturing into new territory. My longest hike to date was about 10 miles with around 2,000 ft of elevation change, which was done in around 4 hours. The Half Dome hike is 16 miles (plus about 2 more miles looking for your tent at night), 4,936 ft of elevation change, reaching an altitude of 8,836 ft. The highest elevation I'd ever climbed at before was about 4,000 ft. I did the hike in about 12 hours. To make me more anxious. the week before I did a 8 mile warm-up hike at Pt. Reyes and I was a dumb-ass and got myself dehydrated. Let's just say I got to be good friends with my porcelain buddy when I got home. What was I thinking? Not something I want to be dealing with in a tent while camping. It was bad enough in my comfy bed at home. Left Saturday morning with John and Kathryn and had an easy drive to Yosemite. Got just early enough to visit some shops and hike over to Yosemite Falls. Sadly, someone forgot to pay the water bill, and it was dry. After setting up our tents we hopped over Yosemite lodge for dinner and we all carb loaded with huge plates of spaghetti. Going to need a lot of energy tomorrow. Went to bed at 10pm. Woke up at 6am, heated some water for hot chocolate and John's oatmeal. Had a few yoghurts and we were off to the trail head by 7am. We weren't on the move 5 minutes when I realized I had overfilled the water bag in back-pack and I had water running down my back, underwear, and legs. Well, it can only get better! Nothing more fun than hiking in wet underwear. If anyone else does this hike after reading this, follow these instructions. Take the trail on the LEFT of the river. At this point, the reader has figured out we took the trail to the right of the river and had a nice tour of the Happy Valley visitor center. After a river crossing and some off-trail excursions, we found the real trail. Within 10 minutes we all had to stop. When we woke up it was about 40 degrees outside (soon to be 70) and we were already too hot with our warm clothes. I didn't wear much and was ok, but John and Kathryn had sweaters and sweat shirts on. So everyone stripped down and we hid the extra clothes behind some rocks so we didn't have to carry them the entire distance. In another 10 to 15 minutes we reached the bridge at the "base" of the falls. Don't know why it's called the base, as it's about another hour hike (at my speed) to get the to the real base. John is really athletic and wanted to set a fast pace, so rather than go slow with me and Kathryn, he said he'd meet as at the top and he took off on his own. He ended up getting to the top in 3 hours and it took me nearly 6 hours. Oh... he had the sandwiches so I had a new goal in getting to the top: Lunch! Before the trip, I had decided on taking part of the John Muir trail up, and the Mist trail back down. The John Muir trail is probably an extra mile in length, but it's easier. As we set off from the bridge, another hiker asked me if I was ready for the 2 hour stair-master. Heh... Now I definitely want to take the John Muir trail. Took the trail part-way and re-joined the Mist trail after the steep part just past the top of Vernal falls then climbed the last bit of the stair master up to the top of Nevada falls. There's a nice spot up there to rest and I took the time to hike the quarter mile to the top of Nevada falls. It was beautiful up there and worth the side trip. Too bad there was almost no water. I've seen photos with the falls at full capacity and it looks awesome. I need to do this hike again in the spring when there's snow melt. After Nevada falls, the hike is quite easy to Little Yosemite Valley then it goes up hill towards Half Dome. I had surge of energy and set a pretty good pace but started slowing half-way. It seemed like it was gradually getting steeper, but I don't think it was. I think the altitude was slowing me. After a long struggle and a lot of breaks, Quarter Dome came into view. How the *** do you get up that? I've seen all the Half Dome cable photos, but no one mentioned getting up Quarter Dome. As I got closer, I realized some fool had carved stairs up the side of it. No matter how many stories you hear about how hard or scary the Half Dome cables are, going up Quarter Dome was the hardest thing I've ever done. I needed a break after each step. And after every step I just wanted to turn around and go back down. All I could think was if I can't get up Quarter Dome, how could I possibly get up Half Dome. Luckily some hikers coming down shouted some encouraging words to me and another reassured me that the Half Dome cables were easier than the granite steps from hell (as I began to think of them.) It felt like it took an hour to climb those steps up Quarter Dome and I just wanted to curl up and die when I got to the top. The view of the surrounding mountain ranges is just amazing from up here. It really perked me up. A 20 minute break, a quart of water, and a bag dried fruit gave me all the energy I needed. John was still nowhere to be found. A passing hiker had told us he got tired of waiting for us and went to the top. I finally took the plunge and tackled the cables. Most people I've talked to told me it was really scary and not to look over the edge. Just watch your feet. I definitely get anxious standing near edges and was worried I might get scared. A lot of people freeze on the way up and can't move. Amazingly, I had no problem. I was hanging over the edge just loving the amazing view I had. And better yet, I got to use my arms for once and gave my poor aching legs a rest. Most people used both cables, but I found it easy to use one cable and pull myself up by it. On the way up, we saw John coming down, so he turned around and went back up with us. Words can't describe standing at the top... I guess "wow" sums it pretty good. I did it! This kept sinking in every 10 minutes or so and it sure did feel good. I made my sandwich, but wasn't really that hungry as I'd already had two power bars and a bag of dried fruit, but I knew my body wanted to the carbs and protein. After sitting around for 10 to 20 minutes and discovering several new religions, it was time to go back down. Going down the cables is supposed to be the hardest and scariest part of it all. There's lots of debate if you should go down facing forward (looking straight down!) or go down it backwards so you don't have to face the view. Going straight down is definitely easiest. Not only wasn't I scared on the way up, I was thrilled going down! Since I was so slow getting up there, we were some of the last hikers on top. So I nearly had the cable to myself. The rule everyone says is 20 minutes up the cables, 10 minutes back down. I think I want down in about 3 minutes. I just grabbed the cables, leaned forward and ran straight down the granite face. Wheee! This has to be one of the best experiences I've ever had. If I didn't need to make it to camp before sundown, I'd climb back up and do it again. Perhaps I've finally found my hidden masochistic side. I was so pumped after Half Dome, I nearly ran all the way back down the trail. I got ahead of John and Kathryn by a good distance then somehow missed one of the switchbacks and found myself in the woods by myself and no sign of the trail. Whoops! Venturing further wasn't wise so I re-traced my path back up hill looking for the path. I eventually saw John and Kathryn coming down the path so I aimed for them. They didn't seemed very surprised to see me appear from the woods. About this time I realized I had no water left and there was probably another 2 to 3 hours left in the hike. Not good, as I'm very prone to dehydration, and was starting to feel quite thirsty. Luckily we were just reaching the bottom of Little Yosemite Valley and came upon the Merced river. John wanted cool off, so he stripped down waded in the water. I broke out my water filter and started refilling my water containers and drank a quart and half while doing so. If you've never hiked in California, DO NOT drink any stream or lake water without filtering and treating it. It most likely has giardia, and you don't want it. Nasty stuff... Btw... the filtered water really tasted great! Back on the trail and we were shortly at Nevada falls. John's hamstring was bothering him, so he decided to take the John Muir trail back down and avoid the steps. I took the Mist trail down. It was tough going, but I'm glad I didn't do them on the way up! We agreed to meet John back on the bridge. When we finally arrived at the bridge, John hadn't arrived so we waited. And waited. His trail was so much easier, he should have beat us even though the distance was longer. It was nearly black out when we arrived at the bridge and within minutes while waiting, it did turn dark. After 40 minutes of waiting, we realized he must have been ahead of us and didn't wait. I dug out my headlamp (never hike without a light! You never know when you might get stuck in the dark) and we headed back to camp. We passed the spot where the clothes were hidden and they were gone, so John had already come through and grabbed them. When we reached the tents, John wasn't there either but his backpack was. Someone at the next camp over told us he thought we were lost and was worried. But, he had just jumped on a bus and went for pizza 10 minutes ago. So we dived in my car and found him enjoying a pizza and ordered one for ourselves. What an end to an amazing day! Would I do it again? In a minute! Take a lot of water, some really good energy food... you'll burn A LOT of calories, some comfortable shoes, a light, and a camera. And be sure to head to Curry village for a celebratory pizza! I'd like to give a hug to the guy who put in pizza joint at the bottom of the trail. Cheers!
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