We Made it to the Top!

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Geo: 37.8772, -119.727

(Let me start with this- I tried my best to put the pictures in the order they were taken along the hike. I used pictures from mine and a few other people's cameras that trip, so they're not all entirely in order. I tried, though!)

We woke up at about 4:30am, packed up our gear in the dark and ate breakfast on the 45min drive from Crane Flat to the trailhead in Yosemite Valley. I went with a breakfast of yogurt and bran muffins. We all carbed up the night before on pasta. I'll just mention here that half our campground neighbors were ENTIRELY pissed off with our early departure for hiking. As quiet as we tried to be, multiple people opening and closing two metal bear boxes to grab gear and food while still half asleep, and loading up into two cars, wasn't at all quiet. We came back that night to find a nasty note from one neighbor at our firepit, as well as two citations from the Park Rangers. One was warning us about noise, and since they happened to notice, another citation for the smoke left rising from our campfire pit later that morning apparently (two of our group didn't do the Half Dome hike but being newb campers they weren't aware that your pit can't be left smoking unattended and I wasn't there to remind them).

Anyway, we got to the trailhead, still dark out. Chris attached moleskin to his heels to keep them from eating away at the skin on his foot all day. And then we set out up the Mist Trail. It's prettier so we chose that route instead of the John Muir Trail. Later, we would hike down the John Muir trail on the way back because there's way less granite stairs, and easier on the leg joints. Our backpacks were still heavy with water at this point. We were passing by the first bathroom and Vernal Falls at about 6am. Shortly thereafter, we encountered our first set of granite stairs up to the top of Vernal Falls. I strongly suggest prepping for this hike using a StairMaster at the gym. Along with long distance hiking (if you're from the San Francisco Bay Area- Mt. Diablo in the spring time is a good trial run). We were nearing the top of Vernal Falls by 6:30am, and even at that early hour the mist felt amazing. We rested briefly at the top of Vernal Falls, taking pictures, for a brief 10-15minutes before continuing on.

The next leg was climbing the Mist Trail up the switchbacks next to Nevada Falls. You can tell from the pictures it was a very high flow year for the waterfalls. There'd been a lot of rain and snow, so even in July, the waterfalls were HUGE. That's pretty atypical but damn good luck for us. After the climb up Nevada Falls is a gentle flat section through Little Yosemite Valley. It's well-named. It's a little disorienting because so much of it reminds me of Yosemite Valley itself but without the roads and tourists, as if it had been left untouched. Also, there's a really nice bathroom up here- the last one on the trail.

Shortly thereafter, you're switchbacking up above the little valley towards the subdome. It's still a nice change from the granite steps even if it is still going up higher and higher. Eventually the trees gradually disappear, and you reach the subdome, which starts out as granite steps and then becomes a scramble up the side of sloped granite until you reach the cables. When you get to the subdome, check the sky. If there is anything looking like lightning clouds, stay the hell off the dome. I absolutely mean it. There have been accidents and deaths related to this. There's nothing up there for lighting to hit- no trees. But there's plenty of people (and the cables) which make excellent lightning rods. Add in rain, and you'll be fried even if you aren't hit. Not to mention if the ground is wet, you're likely to slip on the granite. And in many sections, there's nothing to stop you from falling thousands of feet except more granite.

Next comes the second most terrifying part- climbing up the cables. I say second, because going down was way more scary. Still remains the scariest thing I've done in my life- and that beats belaying in a harness down hundreds of feet into a cavern and skydiving. For this part, wear a hat (and possibly sunglasses) to block out the sun and leather gloves. Hopefully you brought solid hiking shoes/boots with really good tread (I suggest actual boots that have good ankle support- much of the trail is very uneven and it's easy to misstep and roll an ankle). Make sure your shoelaces are tied and all your gear is solidly attached to you or your backpack. Anything falling off of you or your backpack will nail another climber in the head beneath you- injuring and potentially killing them. Don't leave your backpack at the bottom of the cables. I feel like the sheer majority of hikers are honest, friendly people. It's the squirrels who'll ransack your pack, tearing holes and running off with your food. Take a deep breath and start climbing. The going is INCREDIBLY steep- a solid 45 degrees on slick granite. The cables are attached to rods sticking out of the granite at about six foot intervals. Every set of rods has a wooden plank. These are good spots to rest, and then scurry up some more. Rest, scurry up. Rest, scurry up. If it's no big deal just keep climbing up. People will be going up and down the cables at the same time at varying paces. This is precisely why I'm one of the hikers in favor of the newly instituted "must have a permit" rules. Before permits, the cables could get very congested and dangerous. I was very scared on my way down because there were SO MANY people on the cables at once. Also I was staring down a steep granite slope to my death. No big deal. Anyway, permits limit the number of climbers each day to safer levels.

It only takes about twenty minutes to climb up the cables. Thankfully for us, there wasn't much traffic on the way up this time. Once you're at the top, it's a huge flat area. HUGE. If you walk across to the opposite end, you can see amazing views of Yosemite Valley and Tenaya Canyon. Also, there's the "Diving Board"- the "must do" photo op on top of Half Dome. We had a lot of fun doing different poses. Mike had brought a machete with him. Galen brought a stuffed lion, so he could re-enact the scene from the Lion King. A few of us took swings with the machete on the Diving Board, and I took a pose where I was about to slice Simba and Galen. And of course we all did our "couple's poses". =D

The climb down the cables was terrifying for me. Ok- I'm afraid of heights. More specifically, heights where I'm not safely secured to something. The cables were now very congested because it was midday. We were headed down around 1pm (a little later than I wanted to). There were people passing on the outside of the cables, which meant there were pockets where there were literally four people across horizontally- two in the cables, one on the outside on each side- going up and down and one time. I hate the going down part because I see the fall. I can see how far I have to fall to my death. Going up I don't have to look down- I can keep my eyes straight. I was trying to focus on just my feet but it was difficult. Chris was climbing down just in front of me. He went backwards and talked me the whole way down. I'm fairly certain I would have froze up there without him. As it was, I was holding up everyone behind me. A little nerve-wracking and embarrassing to say the least. I was more terrified going down this time than I was the first time.

Eventually I DID make it, shaking and freaked out. The rest of the hike down to the Valley was fairly uneventful. Instead of taking the Mist Trail down, we opted for the John Muir trail. It offers a change of scenery and it's a lifesaver on your joins- which are probably shot to hell by now unless you're a professional mountaineer. The John Muir offers really great views of Nevada Falls, Liberty Cap and Half Dome. It's a nice switchback trail down to the bridge in front of Vernal Falls.

We finished our hike, drove back to our campsite and discovered our citations and love letter from the neighbors. We, of course, burned them in defiance in our firepit. As one of my friends put it, if you want dead silence, stay in a hotel. We did the best we could with noise and we were out of there in half an hour even though it was 4am. We weren't up late and we didn't make noise for long the night before. Kiss my ass. That night we feasted on BBQ, wine and s'mores. It was glorious. I think we crashed fairly early from exhaustion.

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