Mission Accomplished!! Over Harvest Vacation, we headed to Yosemite to conquer Half Dome. This was, hands down, the scariest hike we have ever done (and probably will ever be). We had applied for a permit in March and got selected for October 3, 2017. We knew the only thing that would stop us was the weather, so we anxiously checked the weather leading up to our day. The weather cooperated and it was a nice day, even though it was a little cool. (Translation: It was freezing!!)
We did a lot of research on this hike before going. We read many blogs of others who had climbed Half Dome and even bought a book about the hike from "Mr. Half Dome", Rick Deutsch. We stayed in El Portal the night before (we are not campers) which is about a 20 minute drive to Yosemite Valley (in the wee hours of the morning anyway). We knew it would take us about 12 hours, so we started our hike at 4 a.m., which means we started in the dark. We hiked to the top of Nevada Falls in the dark. We even took a slight detour (aka getting lost) because we followed a couple's (Mr. Converse and girlfriend) light. We figured we saved their lives because we don't think they could have made it back to the trail without us. |
We were able to quickly get back on track. The hike itself was not that bad for us even though it was long. We live at around 5,000 feet in elevation and do a number of hikes in the Tetons so the elevation did not get to us like it did to others along the trip. It also helped that we hiked most of the stairs, past Vernal and Nevada Falls, in the dark. Plus, we actually trained a lot for the stairs. This summer we spent 3 to 4 days each week climbing the stadium stairs at the nearby football stadium. Each set of stairs had 70 steps. We worked up to 40 sets of stairs for a total of 2,800 steps. It really helped our legs get in hiking shape. What we didn't prepare as well were our arms -- that lack of preparation was very noticeable on the cables.
The biggest test came when we got to the cables. We read many things about the cables and saw many pictures and watched videos. No pictures (not even the one below) can give you a true idea of how steep the last climb is. If you aren't a rock climber, it will probably be the scariest thing you've ever done. We talked to a number of people that couldn't even make it up the cables. A couple of guys started up and turned around. We decided to not think about it and just start the climb. We secured all of our loose items into our backpacks and put on our gloves (which are very necessary). We highly recommend gloves with some kind of grippiness on them. (While we are talking about equipment, REAL hiking shoes (or rock climbing shoes) are a must. We absolutely LOVE our Vasque brand hiking shoes (only available at REI stores right now). They are the best hiking shoes we have ever had. For ANY hike.) We started the climb. We would walk (pull) ourselves up to each board and then we would rest. There were five VERY patient guys behind us. We asked them a number of times if they wanted to pass us, but they stayed behind us. We think that helped support us up the last few boards. When we finally got to the top we sat down on the first rock we saw and got high fives from the guys. What an accomplishment! We ate our lunch on top and the wind really started to pick up. We decided to head down, which was easier, but still scary. Plus, there were many people coming up as we were heading down, so we had to share each board. It was a relief to get off the cables. Plus, some dark clouds were starting to form so we hurried to get off the Subdome before the storm could come in. On the way down, we decided to go down the John Muir Trail instead of the Mist Trail that we had come up. We wish we hadn't. Many people had recommended the John Muir Trail because it has fewer stairs and is supposed to be easier on the knees. However, it is 1 1/2 miles longer and it is still steep, rough, and has stairs. Maybe if the Mist Trail was actually wet, that would be a better choice, but we wished we had just gone down the shorter trail because the John Muir Trail was not enough better to make the extra mileage worth it.
On our way back from Yosemite, we drove along the Loneliest Road in America to Great Basin National Park. We had not been there before. It is definitely a place to go back to when there isn't snow.