Notes from Halfdome (June 6) (Backdated from July 18)

[nibot]

Half Dome from Yosemite Valley.

My high school English teacher's husband, Marl, drove us into Yosemite National Park. "You sit up here, the seat for the person who hasn't been here before," he said to Bree, indicating the front passenger seat. Judy and I sat in the back of the Subaru. Through a tunnel, the valley comes hurtling into view. Bree's out the window, eyes wide. "I didn't know that places like this existed!"

Down in the valley we said our goodbyes to Judy and Marl, put our backs down in the tent cabin, and set out exploring. Wait, did I say Tent Cabin? Oh yes. Via the wonder of the Internet we'd managed to hook up with some friendly Yosemite Park employees. "Tent number thirteen is all yours!" was the message left on my voice mail. Score! Out exploring, we bounded up the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls. The river there, swollen by record rainfall, was a mad blast of white water over boulders [photo].

"What should we do tomorrow," I asked.

"We should get up early and climb that mountain," Bree replied, gesturing towards Half Dome, which, lit in alpenglow, loomed gloriously over our camp.

I agreed, of course, but I was thinking, That's a 17 mile hike with 4500 of elevation and we just got here!

We set the alarm for 05:30 AM.



Kathy, of Steve and Kathy, who had driven us one leg of our hitchhiking journey to the park, to Groveland, and who had treated us to beers in the tavern when we arrived there, explained the Half Dome hike: "Yeah it's a long hike, but it's so beautiful you don't notice!" We would be inclined to agree. First you hike to Vernal Falls, a huge and amazing waterfall, and then up the aptly-named Mist Trail, by the end of which you're soaking wet and at another waterfall, Nevada Falls. Then you're in Little Yosemite Valley and you're encountering John Muir Trail hikers. Then up through trees to the ridge line, and then you're billygoating it up a huge granite hump.



Going up the granite hump antecedent to Half Dome itself (it must have a name, but I don't know it), I really felt the altitude. We stopped every few (vertical) meters to catch our breaths. I felt light headed, dizzy. We'd been at sea level in San Francisco two days before. Now we were a mile and a half higher, far higher than anything East of the Mississippi but not even half as high as the highest point in North America, Denali in Alaska, which is more than 20,000 feet higher than the sea. I've walked, twice, to the highest point in California, but each time we gave ourselves nearly a week to do it.


Halfdome from the ridge line. June 6, 2006.

The top of this granite hump is totally barren, save scattered boulders, a gnarled tree or two, and, on this day, a tiny patch of snow. There is a saddle. And then there are The Cables, two cables, one for each hand, that you may grasp as you ascend the apparently near-vertical granite slope. It is dizzying. Half Dome is, needless to say, as the icon of Yosemite National Park, a popular place. Up the cables was a continuous queue, moving as slowly as the slowest person, who may have been hysterical and in tears, having second thoughts about the ascent. Someone dropped a water bottle and we watched it skid down the slope to the saddle, then cascade down the face, flying towards the valley 4000 feet below [photo]. A sign at the base of the cables warns that lightning has struck Half Dome in every month of the year.

We ate our sandwiches.

We did not go up the cables. Later my grandmother (hanksmr), who has climbed the cables, chided us for it.


The Cables, and the queue up them.

It was a good hike.

Comments

[eigenvalue.livejournal.com]

There is wifi on half dome?

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Typically I use the "Current Location" field to indicate what the entry's about, not where it was written... (-:

[cassiusdio.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the memories, I did Yosemite and climbed Half Dome with my family in the summer of 2000. So when you say you didn't go up the cables, you mean you didn't make it to the top? Come on, it's not that scary! ;) The view is worth it. Unfortunately even back when I did it we had to put up with a fucking guy who pulled out his cell phone, made a call, and said (what else?) "Hey, guess where I am? On top of Half Dome!"

That's right 17 miles round-trip!!!

[ucbfumbler.livejournal.com]

Someone told me that her friend climbed Half-Dome and came back in under 5 hours. I said that was not possible unless that person was an Olympic athlete since it was over 15 miles round-trip from base camp to the top. And that last 1000+ feet was on the cable which really slows you down. It took my group over 12 hours to do the round-trip, we had some injuries on the way back. I can believe make it back and forth to Vernal Falls in under 5 hours.

Oh did you get the picture of the warning sign near Vernal Falls that said "Don't go over the waterfall, you will died."?

[jlam.livejournal.com]

Ever since my 7th grade science teacher showed his Rocky Mountain vacation photos, i've wanted to visit and hike the our National Parks, especially Yosemite, Yosemite Valley, and Half Dome (http://www.43places.com/places/view/201137). Now i have it on my list of places to go. Thanks for the narrative.

Wow!

[bom.livejournal.com]

Such jealousy-inspiring pictures you've got! Two of my roommates and many of their friends work at and/or run the high camps, so I'll be staying with them there for a week or so in August. Until then, I'll have to look at your pictures and drool.

How was the lack of oxygen? The first roommate I'll be staying with is at 12,000 feet, second roommate is at 6,000 feet but she's 15 miles in, so I'm thinking that my sea-level self won't do too well.

Re: Wow!

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Oh, if you're going up to the high camps, you're in for a treat! The employees are really swell, too.

Re: Wow!

[bom.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, they're cool people. I know probably half of them.

You see, in my house, we have 6 people. Two of them, Courtney and Jeff, work the high camps every summer and know a ton of the people that do that too. That's the Yosemite side. On the Cafe Mokka side (an awesome coffee shop/hot tub place in town) we have 3 employees, plus one of my roommates who is now semi moved out but mostly in limbo, so it's more like 4 people all from the same job there. My friend Ben moved in so now there are only two of us in the house who do not work at either Yosemite or the cafe.

More information than you wanted, I'm sure. Basically, I've been hearing about Yosemite ever since I moved in 9 months ago and this summer is my chance to finally check it out.

Re: Wow!

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Too bad there's going to be a full moon for this year's Perseid Meteor Show (mid-August). Otherwise it would be mind-blowing (http://nibot.livejournal.com/419727.html).

Re: Wow!

[bom.livejournal.com]

I got lucky with last year's Perseid. It was the rarest of Humboldt nights: it was perfectly clear, no fog, and no rain. Some of the metors lit up the ground like it was daylight. I got a very lucky long-exposure shot with a meteor streaking though it too. When I get a negative scanner I'll be able to post it.

Re: Wow!

[bom.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, it was also a lucky night for the obvious reason that there was no moon at all!

[eviladmin.livejournal.com]

Your grandmother was right! But glad you make the trip. I did it over two days, camping in the Backpacker's camp above Vernal Falls. But we did not take enough water or food for the Half Dome part. I'm pretty sure it was the 4th of July sometime late last century.