Half Done, Half Dome?

North America » United States » California » Midpines
October 21st 2006

Published: October 25th 2006

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Would we or would we not climb Half Dome… That was the question we had been trying to answer. But, in the end we wouldn’t know until we got there, and after all it’s supposed to be all in the journey, not the destination?

Statistics

Starting Destination: Midpines, California
Ending Destination: Midpines, California
Ending Destination GPS: N: 37° 32.581’ W: 119° 55.374’ Elev: 2645’
Miles Driven: 87 miles
Distance Hiked: 17 miles
Total Elevation Change: 4,400 feet
Total Vertical Feet Climbed: 4,700 feet

Getting Ready

This is where our Type A personalities really kicked in… The night before we made sure that we made lunches, filled water bottles, packed our day-packs and set out what we were going to wear. The hike is advertised as 10-12 hours; and 12 hours is just about all the day-light available at this time of year - so we were going to have to be ready to start at dawn… The trailhead is about a 45 minute drive from the campsite, so doing the math meant that the alarm needed to go off at 5am - about 3 hours earlier than we have been getting up recently!! So we attempted to get to bed early, forgoing working on the blog for one evening…

We’re Off!

It was a good thing that we set a back-up alarm as neither of us heard the first one go off! We drug ourselves out of bed, ate breakfast and packed ourselves into the truck - double checking that we had everything as we didn’t want to forget lunch, or worse, the water! The trip to the park was uneventful, we were lucky on the one-way section in that we didn’t have to wait and there was nobody at the park gate so we didn’t get held up there either… However, it was getting lighter earlier than we expected so Carl was having a little difficulty sticking to the 35 and 45 mph speed limits in the park! On the plus side, there were plenty of parking spaces in the trailhead parking lot, so we were glad that we had scoped it all out the day before. We parked, tightened up the laces in our hiking boots, double checked that we had the map, donned our packs and set off…

On the way up

Our objective was the top of Half Dome and a view into the Yosemite Valley - what lay ahead of us were plenty of steps forward and upwards, particularly upwards! The trip to the trail head was pretty flat, but after that all bets were off as there was over 4,000 feet of climbing ahead of us. But to be honest, it wasn’t all that difficult, the trail was more like a path for the first part and there were hardly any obstacles - if you don’t count the small rock fall that startled us as the rocks landed on the path about 10 feet ahead of us!! The first waypoint in the path was a bridge over the Merced River, we stopped to look at the water rushing downhill so effortlessly and marveled at how many people must use this path - there was a drinking fountain and a set or restrooms with flush toilets about 1 mile up the trail. If we thought the direction had been up prior to this point things were just about to get even steeper, the path we were following - The John Muir Trail - changed into a series of switchbacks, winding ever so slowly up the side of the valley; the trail was still pretty much a path, although the asphalt was getting a little ragged around the edges in places.

Watching the Water Fall

After about 1500 feet of climbing, we reached Clark Point where there were some pretty cool views of both where we had been and where we were headed. But before we moved on, we consulted our map and found we had a choice - follow the John Muir trail or branch off down for 300 feet before climbing back-up… the latter got us closer to the waterfalls so we opted for that one.

We were glad that we did this on the way up as going down this same path we thought would have been very hard on the knees as there were plenty of uneven stone steps. We did meet someone on the trail who stopped to chat while passing us - he commented that this was the most deserted he had ever seen this trail in all the times he had climbed it, usually it was wall-to-wall people. He also said that at this time last year there was 5 feet of snow on the ground; we continue to be amazed at how lucky we have been with the weather. The trail takes us above the Vernal Fall, past the Emerald Pool, climbs up alongside the Nevada Fall and through a notch onto the top of the valley - this trail is called the Mist trail, and we can see why!

Across the Valley; Onwards and Upwards…

The trail levels out (I.e., doesn’t go up quite so steeply) as we get to the Little Yosemite Valley and continue to follow the Merced River until we branch off for the start of the prelude to Half Dome. By this point we have lost the asphalt, but the trail is still a path and we have passed 2 additional sets of toilets! If there are even half as many people on the trail in the summer as we were told, it is not surprising that these facilities exist 4 - 5 miles into the hike! By this point the trees start to change and we actually see some Sequoia’s, not very big ones, but they definitely have the red coloring… However, the relatively shallow gradient does not last for long, we have climbed nearly 2,100 feet from where we started and we have many more to go… The trail starts going up again, we are on the back side of Half Dome, but don’t actually recognize it until we get closer! As we wind our way slowly upwards, along the switch backs and through the trees we really don’t have much perspective on how far we have come, until we take the turn-off to Half Dome, the trees are getting smaller and more spread-out, we have partial vista’s over the Little Yosemite Valley and over the top of the Yosemite Valley and we have hiked up nearly 3,000 feet from our starting point. But the treat is yet to come…

The Rock…

We have been hiking for nearly 4 hours and we have finally reached the beginning of the end - the smooth granite top of Half Dome that is so recognizable from the Valley floor. The trail starts up the rock, at first there are stairs, then there are stairs with sections of flat rock, until finally you are clambering up the flat rock face to the false peak east of the true summit - and we still haven’t reached the cables. We stop at the top of the false peak to catch our breath, eat lunch and evaluate our next steps - would they be towards the last 400 feet and the cables or back down the mountain? As we are eating we watch people attempting the upwards ascent - some continuing on and others retreating to try again another day… The cables are still in place, but the wooden cross-ties have been removed… We decide that we will join the group retreating to try again another day and concentrate on enjoying the spectacular view that we have from this point. We had climbed to an elevation of approximately 8,400 feet; nearly 4,400 feet from where we started. We are very happy with our accomplishment, now all we have to do is get down!

Retreating to Play again another Day

We always knew that that the path down the mountain was going to be harder than the upwards one… and so it proved to be. We took a slightly trail so there were a few respites - stopping to view the Nevada Falls from the top (we were amused by the warning sign that quite bluntly stated - if you are swept over the waterfall you will die), walking past a wall on the trail that was seeping water, and laughing at ourselves as despite the fact we had bought a topographic map with the trail marked, we still managed to take the hard way up; but mostly it was a hard slog down, down, down. When we finally made it to the car, 17 miles from when we started, very tired but extremely happy with our accomplishment we were glad that we hadn’t had to park any further away!...

Carl’s Travel Trivia

Yesterday’s Answer: 1958 - it took the climbers 45 days, today it can be done in 24 hours if you are persistent!
Today’s Question: How many miles of hiking trails are in Yosemite National Park?

Half Done, Half Dome?