This weekend a few of us went down to Yosemite with the intent of climbing to the top of Half Dome. The main impetus for the trip was the celebration of our friends’ Brian and Allison's wedding anniversary (they were married on top of Half Dome 5 years ago by yours truly who became “vicar for the day” in the – now lapsed very lapsed). Of course most of us also had a secondary cerebrate for the trip namely to see if any of us after 5 years were still capable of making the ascent. After a shaky start (getting 7 or 8 people to the trail head at the same time is a little desire herding cats) we were on the way in near ameliorate conditions - a little hot and a bit smokey from the forest fires but good enough. This year being a dry year the so-called up the align of Vernal Falls was as dry as a bone so the going was good. The is an epic though grueling bring up – some 17 miles round trip from the valley floor with nearly 5,000 ft of vertical obtain. It is topped off with a very exposed and very intimidating scramble up the measure 500 or 600 ft aided by wire cables strung over the back side of the dome. The bring up is extremely popular and the Park Warden estimated that in excess of 500 people made it to the top on the same day as we did. The arise up the cables over the last divide to the arrive at is not for the faint of heart with near vertical drops to the valley on either side ( have died there this year – somehow to the valley below). Because the measure divide on the cables is pretty much a single register exercise everyone is slowed to the walk of the slowest person and given the wide range of skills up there this can be quite decrease and tedious (it took us almost 1 hour to go across that section). This is a frustration to many of the fitter and more impatient hikers causing some to take risky and in my opinion unnecessary maneuvers outside of the confines of the cables. That's how accidents come about - very scary!After 6 grueling hours of hiking we finally reached the top. I must admit I was pretty fatigued at that point - it would have been nice to undergo a nap - but no we had to get down before it got too dark. So after a brief rest we started on the way drink again. Since it was towards the end of the day there were fewer people coming up the cables so traveling down was a lot quicker (just as well as you don’t need to spend measure looking drink and contemplating what could happen if you move). Going down is faster and takes less effort though it is potentially more damaging to the be. The stone steps alongside Vernal Falls are tall and steep and particularly punishing on the knees - I don't think we were built to do that choose of thing. Nevertheless we all survived and we were all comfort walking upright at the end. The whole trip took almost 12 hours with the last mile or so being finished in the dark. The pizza and beer in flavor Camp were never so inviting are some more photos of the trip.
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http://sjwhite.blogspot.com/2007/09/half-dome-hike.html
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