This trip to Yosemite for "take two" of the hike up to the top of Half Dome was much different from the first time I attempted it. It was a good trip, I had fun overall with my companions, and now I can cross this one off my list of things to do in Yosemite before I die.
This trip started on Friday the 20th. I got up at o-dark-thirty, as I usually do for a trip to Yosemite, and headed over to Oakland to pick up John, Victoria, and Damian - my hiking buds for the weekend. The drive over was pretty uneventful and we only hit a small amount of traffic in the Livermore valley. Once we got close to the park, I asked them if they wanted to take the "Tanya's Tour of Yosemite". They said sure... that was it, they were hostages! Just kidding :-) They really didn't get much of the tour as it is mainly focused on waterfalls and there just wasn't a lot of water this trip.
We started out with a stop at the Rim of the World overlook for some pics and a chance to stretch the legs. From there we decided to take a trip out to Hetch Hetchy for a look-sie. It was hot out there but pretty. My companions patiently sat through my explanation of how Hetch Hetchy became the water source for San Francisco. From there we stopped at the Yosemite sign near the entrance to the park, the Big Meadow turnout, and the turnout to view Half Dome. At this point we were hungry so we decided no more stops and high tailed it to Curry Village for some shopping and some pizza. After this, we continued our drive up to the Wawona Hotel.
I have never stayed at the historic Wawona Hotel. It is very charming and relaxing. They serve drinks on the front porch and the rooms are comfortable. The bathrooms and showers were fairly close to our rooms as well so we didn't have to go far to use the facilities. We ate dinner that night in the dinning room downstairs.
The next morning started early for me - 3:15 am. I didn't really sleep well that night but I was looking forward to starting the hike. The plan was to leave by 4 am so that we could be on the trail at Glacier Point by 5 am. We almost made it - we were on the trail at 5:30 am. At this point I have to say that this trip sent me in to some kind of weird time vortex. We started off on track and we were making decent time but then when we hit the granite staircase of Half Dome, time slipped away and that is where we got in to a bit of trouble. It would be six hours later that we finally made it off that staircase to start our long journey back to civilization.
Having said that though, the hike was still enjoyable for me overall, and at no point did I personally feel like things had gotten completely out of control. I was personally comfortable with where I was going and where I was 100% of the time and I knew that we had options available.
The hike started well. I think the Panorama Trail is really pretty. It is more beautiful to me when there is a lot of water, but it is still a very nice trail to travel on. We saw lots of bear and deer tracks. We even saw a couple of deer. One was right next to the trail munching on some tasty bushes giving us dirty looks the whole time because we were interrupting his gourmet meal. We briefly stopped at the restroom at the top of the Mist Trail near Nevada Falls for a sock change and some stretching. (It is pretty cool to hike with your personal trainer - she made sure I stretched properly) After that we were off again.
My constant mistake on long hikes is that I don't end up eating enough. I made that mistake again on this hike. I did try out something new though - Gu. It works quite well but when it is the main thing that you consume it is not good.
I think we started the main climb up after the flats of the Little Yosemite valley at around 11:30 or so. This part of the hike is just up and up and up (big thanks to Damian for his help with my pack for a portion of this trail). We made it to the granite staircase section finally and up we went.
For those of you who have never been up the Half Dome trail, there is a point at which you actually start to hike up the granite that is part of the Half Dome rock formation. You sort of go up a bump of granite at which point there is a small saddle and then the granite becomes really steep and that is where cables to the top start. This trail is extremely crowded. People are going up and down and the trail is really not that wide. The bump of granite has a bunch of steps carved in to it. Most of the time it is a single track of people - either the ups or the downs stop so that the others can pass.
If you are afraid of heights this is NOT the place for you. Once you reach the top of the bump though you can rest before you ascend the cables. By the time we got up to the cables I think it was around 3pm. At this point we were pushing it a bit with regard to being able to make it out before dark, but we had come all this way and I was ready to tackle the portion of the hike that I was not able to make last time.
Turns out my decision last year not to go up those cables was a very good one. Those cables are a workout. I was happy to be feeling good this time and to be clipped to the cables. Having read the article about the recent fatality on Half Dome each one of us thought it a wise idea to bring some harnesses/belts and clip on to the cables using carabiners. It was a process to the top but I was glad at the peace of mind it brought. It really didn't slow things down much in my opinion either.
The cable section was longer than I was expecting. They don't really look like they are as long as they are. By the time I got to the top I was pretty tired and my breathing thing (possibly asthma) kicked in so I had to sit for a while to catch my breath. One of my other travelling companions was suffering from heat stroke and he had to sit down for a long time as well. Thankfully he had the right stuff in his first aid kit to help him out. Another thing I wasn't really expecting was how big it is up there. I had been told that it is big surface wise up there but I don't think you can really know what to expect until you see it for yourself.
After I had mostly recovered Victoria and I decided to look around so that we could find a great spot to do the bridge - or - my half dome on Half Dome. We found a great spot and took some fun pics. I didn't get close to the edge and I didn't take a picture on that rock outcropping that you see people taking pictures on.
After all that, we descended the cables and the granite steps. I think we were down at around 6 or 6:30 - not good when you still have 7 miles of hiking to go to civilization. We took a break at the spring and I had my chance to pay it forward and filter some water for some passing hikers. This was great last year when a guy helped us out so I wanted to do my part too with my water filter. Damian cooked up some beef stroganoff and that was some pretty tasty food.
At this point we started talking about our plan for exiting the wilderness. My car was up at Glacier Point but both John and I were not quite up to making that hike back up to the top. I should have anticipated that I wouldn't be up for it and made arrangements to deal with that situation. Oh well, next time I will know. The plan at the Nevada Falls bathrooms is that Damian and Victoria would hike up to get the car and pick John and I up down in Curry Village. I was a bit uncomfortable with this decision because of the bear tracks that we saw and because I knew that the Panorama Trail was not travelled as much as the John Muir Trail. We emptied all of the food out of their packs in to our packs and we were off to set the plan in motion.
This was when things got a bit weird. Several things happened. First, we ran in to two girls who were a bit lost and were trying to go down the Mist Trail at night - NOT A GOOD IDEA. I have done it while it was getting dark and it is not the safest of things to be doing. They just happened to mention that they were on their way to meet their ride so that that person could give them a lift up to Glacier Point to get their car - well guess what! - we needed to go there too and they offered to give us a ride. Cool. It was then decided that we would not split our party up and that all four of us would go down to the valley. Big relief to me because I would have been very worried about Victoria and Damian on the Panorama Trail. The second thing that happened is that Victoria hurt her calf. This happened back a bit on the trail but it really kicked in the longer she hiked on it. I was really glad that they didn't try to hike the six miles up to Glacier point...
On the way down we sort of all got separated and by the time we got to the Vernal Falls bridge Damian and Victoria had fallen back by almost an hour. This left the two girls and John and I to sit there and wait and worry about what had happened to them. I kept hearing something lurking about while we were sitting there - turns out it was a bear - I didn't actually see it but Damian and John did a bit later.
Once we were all reunited, I went off with the two girls to catch the ride because they didn't have enough space for all of us and the other three started the slow trek down the last portion of the trail helping Victoria with her hurt leg.
Once the girls and I got to their meeting place, the girls discovered that their ride was missing. The guy had been gone for over three hours and had left the two other people of their party sitting/sleeping in the dirt in the hikers parking lot between Happy Isles and Curry Village. From here the night just got crazy. Long story short, they hopped in a truck with two guys who thought they had seen their missing companion's car (yes - I jumped in too to protect them - not that I could say what I would have done to protect them, but I couldn't in good conscience let those two young girls get in that truck alone). Turns out that we didn't find the missing companion but we did run in to the rest of my party - I let them know that the guy was missing and I would join them soon, we just had to double check to see if the guy made it back to the hikers parking lot. He hadn't and the girls called the rangers to report him missing. The rangers said they were sending someone out to meet the girls. Too much drama at this point for me so I left to go back to my group wishing them well and thanking them for offer of a ride and that I hoped they found their companion soon and safe.
In the meantime a ranger had driven by and asked my group if they were the ones that needed an emergency campsite. They said no but that we did need some help. We had now become a Yosemite statistic. The ranger ended up getting us a spot in the Housekeeping camp which was good because they had beds. By this time it was probably around 3 am. I remember at some point noticing that I had been awake for over 24 hours. We checked in and the front desk lady for Housekeeping offered to give us a ride up to Glacier Point in the morning after we were asking about the hikers shuttle schedule. She said her shift was over at 7 am and she would wait until 7:15 for us if we wanted a ride. We thanked her said we would see her in the morning and went off to bed.
The next morning I was woken up at 5 am by our neighbors talking about the bear that they had just seen in the camp. I tried to get back to sleep but at 6:30 after Damian and Victoria started to stir, I got up and went to go meet Suzanne. She was incredibly good company. Her replacement ended up not showing up until around 7:30 so we got a late start. We had to then walk to employee housing so that she could change, pick up a soda, and go to her car. It was incredibly interesting to see the new employee housing facilities and the ride up to Glacier Point was sunny and pleasant. I picked up my vehicle and drove back down to the valley to pick up the rest of the gang.
By this time we had barely enough time to get back to check out of the Wawona hotel which was another hour drive. It would have been nice to stay in our hotel the previous night but it just wasn't in the cards. We all took showers and packed up. The last thing we did at the Wawona was to have a nice brunch. The drive home was long due to the fact that we hit some traffic and I was incredibly tired (having gotten only about 2.5 hours of sleep in a 36 hour period). I got home on Sunday around 7 pm, told Louis the tale, and collapsed in to bed.
This experience was extremely mentally and physically draining. It was tough and if you would have asked me if I would do Half Dome again that Sunday, I would have told you NEVER AGAIN. Now though I want to do it again. I have a couple of options for next time - to turn it in to a backpacking trip or to actually technically climb it. I have started my training for rock climbing already. There is a route called the Snake Dike that I might shoot for. We will see, the possibilities are endless. :-)
What I have learned:
I once again wished I had two way radios for communication - I will be purchasing them
I need to eat more on the trail to keep my energy up even if I am not hungry - more tasty easy to eat snacks need to be in my pack.
Epic hikes are unusual hikes and need to be handled with care.
Safe journeys to you all!
This trip started on Friday the 20th. I got up at o-dark-thirty, as I usually do for a trip to Yosemite, and headed over to Oakland to pick up John, Victoria, and Damian - my hiking buds for the weekend. The drive over was pretty uneventful and we only hit a small amount of traffic in the Livermore valley. Once we got close to the park, I asked them if they wanted to take the "Tanya's Tour of Yosemite". They said sure... that was it, they were hostages! Just kidding :-) They really didn't get much of the tour as it is mainly focused on waterfalls and there just wasn't a lot of water this trip.
We started out with a stop at the Rim of the World overlook for some pics and a chance to stretch the legs. From there we decided to take a trip out to Hetch Hetchy for a look-sie. It was hot out there but pretty. My companions patiently sat through my explanation of how Hetch Hetchy became the water source for San Francisco. From there we stopped at the Yosemite sign near the entrance to the park, the Big Meadow turnout, and the turnout to view Half Dome. At this point we were hungry so we decided no more stops and high tailed it to Curry Village for some shopping and some pizza. After this, we continued our drive up to the Wawona Hotel.I have never stayed at the historic Wawona Hotel. It is very charming and relaxing. They serve drinks on the front porch and the rooms are comfortable. The bathrooms and showers were fairly close to our rooms as well so we didn't have to go far to use the facilities. We ate dinner that night in the dinning room downstairs.
The next morning started early for me - 3:15 am. I didn't really sleep well that night but I was looking forward to starting the hike. The plan was to leave by 4 am so that we could be on the trail at Glacier Point by 5 am. We almost made it - we were on the trail at 5:30 am. At this point I have to say that this trip sent me in to some kind of weird time vortex. We started off on track and we were making decent time but then when we hit the granite staircase of Half Dome, time slipped away and that is where we got in to a bit of trouble. It would be six hours later that we finally made it off that staircase to start our long journey back to civilization.
Having said that though, the hike was still enjoyable for me overall, and at no point did I personally feel like things had gotten completely out of control. I was personally comfortable with where I was going and where I was 100% of the time and I knew that we had options available.
The hike started well. I think the Panorama Trail is really pretty. It is more beautiful to me when there is a lot of water, but it is still a very nice trail to travel on. We saw lots of bear and deer tracks. We even saw a couple of deer. One was right next to the trail munching on some tasty bushes giving us dirty looks the whole time because we were interrupting his gourmet meal. We briefly stopped at the restroom at the top of the Mist Trail near Nevada Falls for a sock change and some stretching. (It is pretty cool to hike with your personal trainer - she made sure I stretched properly) After that we were off again.
My constant mistake on long hikes is that I don't end up eating enough. I made that mistake again on this hike. I did try out something new though - Gu. It works quite well but when it is the main thing that you consume it is not good.I think we started the main climb up after the flats of the Little Yosemite valley at around 11:30 or so. This part of the hike is just up and up and up (big thanks to Damian for his help with my pack for a portion of this trail). We made it to the granite staircase section finally and up we went.
For those of you who have never been up the Half Dome trail, there is a point at which you actually start to hike up the granite that is part of the Half Dome rock formation. You sort of go up a bump of granite at which point there is a small saddle and then the granite becomes really steep and that is where cables to the top start. This trail is extremely crowded. People are going up and down and the trail is really not that wide. The bump of granite has a bunch of steps carved in to it. Most of the time it is a single track of people - either the ups or the downs stop so that the others can pass.
If you are afraid of heights this is NOT the place for you. Once you reach the top of the bump though you can rest before you ascend the cables. By the time we got up to the cables I think it was around 3pm. At this point we were pushing it a bit with regard to being able to make it out before dark, but we had come all this way and I was ready to tackle the portion of the hike that I was not able to make last time.
Turns out my decision last year not to go up those cables was a very good one. Those cables are a workout. I was happy to be feeling good this time and to be clipped to the cables. Having read the article about the recent fatality on Half Dome each one of us thought it a wise idea to bring some harnesses/belts and clip on to the cables using carabiners. It was a process to the top but I was glad at the peace of mind it brought. It really didn't slow things down much in my opinion either.The cable section was longer than I was expecting. They don't really look like they are as long as they are. By the time I got to the top I was pretty tired and my breathing thing (possibly asthma) kicked in so I had to sit for a while to catch my breath. One of my other travelling companions was suffering from heat stroke and he had to sit down for a long time as well. Thankfully he had the right stuff in his first aid kit to help him out. Another thing I wasn't really expecting was how big it is up there. I had been told that it is big surface wise up there but I don't think you can really know what to expect until you see it for yourself.
After I had mostly recovered Victoria and I decided to look around so that we could find a great spot to do the bridge - or - my half dome on Half Dome. We found a great spot and took some fun pics. I didn't get close to the edge and I didn't take a picture on that rock outcropping that you see people taking pictures on.After all that, we descended the cables and the granite steps. I think we were down at around 6 or 6:30 - not good when you still have 7 miles of hiking to go to civilization. We took a break at the spring and I had my chance to pay it forward and filter some water for some passing hikers. This was great last year when a guy helped us out so I wanted to do my part too with my water filter. Damian cooked up some beef stroganoff and that was some pretty tasty food.
At this point we started talking about our plan for exiting the wilderness. My car was up at Glacier Point but both John and I were not quite up to making that hike back up to the top. I should have anticipated that I wouldn't be up for it and made arrangements to deal with that situation. Oh well, next time I will know. The plan at the Nevada Falls bathrooms is that Damian and Victoria would hike up to get the car and pick John and I up down in Curry Village. I was a bit uncomfortable with this decision because of the bear tracks that we saw and because I knew that the Panorama Trail was not travelled as much as the John Muir Trail. We emptied all of the food out of their packs in to our packs and we were off to set the plan in motion.
This was when things got a bit weird. Several things happened. First, we ran in to two girls who were a bit lost and were trying to go down the Mist Trail at night - NOT A GOOD IDEA. I have done it while it was getting dark and it is not the safest of things to be doing. They just happened to mention that they were on their way to meet their ride so that that person could give them a lift up to Glacier Point to get their car - well guess what! - we needed to go there too and they offered to give us a ride. Cool. It was then decided that we would not split our party up and that all four of us would go down to the valley. Big relief to me because I would have been very worried about Victoria and Damian on the Panorama Trail. The second thing that happened is that Victoria hurt her calf. This happened back a bit on the trail but it really kicked in the longer she hiked on it. I was really glad that they didn't try to hike the six miles up to Glacier point...
On the way down we sort of all got separated and by the time we got to the Vernal Falls bridge Damian and Victoria had fallen back by almost an hour. This left the two girls and John and I to sit there and wait and worry about what had happened to them. I kept hearing something lurking about while we were sitting there - turns out it was a bear - I didn't actually see it but Damian and John did a bit later.
Once we were all reunited, I went off with the two girls to catch the ride because they didn't have enough space for all of us and the other three started the slow trek down the last portion of the trail helping Victoria with her hurt leg.
Once the girls and I got to their meeting place, the girls discovered that their ride was missing. The guy had been gone for over three hours and had left the two other people of their party sitting/sleeping in the dirt in the hikers parking lot between Happy Isles and Curry Village. From here the night just got crazy. Long story short, they hopped in a truck with two guys who thought they had seen their missing companion's car (yes - I jumped in too to protect them - not that I could say what I would have done to protect them, but I couldn't in good conscience let those two young girls get in that truck alone). Turns out that we didn't find the missing companion but we did run in to the rest of my party - I let them know that the guy was missing and I would join them soon, we just had to double check to see if the guy made it back to the hikers parking lot. He hadn't and the girls called the rangers to report him missing. The rangers said they were sending someone out to meet the girls. Too much drama at this point for me so I left to go back to my group wishing them well and thanking them for offer of a ride and that I hoped they found their companion soon and safe.
In the meantime a ranger had driven by and asked my group if they were the ones that needed an emergency campsite. They said no but that we did need some help. We had now become a Yosemite statistic. The ranger ended up getting us a spot in the Housekeeping camp which was good because they had beds. By this time it was probably around 3 am. I remember at some point noticing that I had been awake for over 24 hours. We checked in and the front desk lady for Housekeeping offered to give us a ride up to Glacier Point in the morning after we were asking about the hikers shuttle schedule. She said her shift was over at 7 am and she would wait until 7:15 for us if we wanted a ride. We thanked her said we would see her in the morning and went off to bed.
The next morning I was woken up at 5 am by our neighbors talking about the bear that they had just seen in the camp. I tried to get back to sleep but at 6:30 after Damian and Victoria started to stir, I got up and went to go meet Suzanne. She was incredibly good company. Her replacement ended up not showing up until around 7:30 so we got a late start. We had to then walk to employee housing so that she could change, pick up a soda, and go to her car. It was incredibly interesting to see the new employee housing facilities and the ride up to Glacier Point was sunny and pleasant. I picked up my vehicle and drove back down to the valley to pick up the rest of the gang.
By this time we had barely enough time to get back to check out of the Wawona hotel which was another hour drive. It would have been nice to stay in our hotel the previous night but it just wasn't in the cards. We all took showers and packed up. The last thing we did at the Wawona was to have a nice brunch. The drive home was long due to the fact that we hit some traffic and I was incredibly tired (having gotten only about 2.5 hours of sleep in a 36 hour period). I got home on Sunday around 7 pm, told Louis the tale, and collapsed in to bed.
This experience was extremely mentally and physically draining. It was tough and if you would have asked me if I would do Half Dome again that Sunday, I would have told you NEVER AGAIN. Now though I want to do it again. I have a couple of options for next time - to turn it in to a backpacking trip or to actually technically climb it. I have started my training for rock climbing already. There is a route called the Snake Dike that I might shoot for. We will see, the possibilities are endless. :-)
What I have learned:I once again wished I had two way radios for communication - I will be purchasing them
I need to eat more on the trail to keep my energy up even if I am not hungry - more tasty easy to eat snacks need to be in my pack.
Epic hikes are unusual hikes and need to be handled with care.
Safe journeys to you all!
