Our Half Dome Hike (His Story)

On Saturday Sept 19, Christina and I hiked for 13 hours and about 15 miles with Half Dome as our goal. We didn't quite make it to the top. Hundreds of hikers were thwarted this day when the summit cables were closed for hours to investigate a suicide on the summit. But we were too tired and too late to have succeeded that busy day, even if the cables had remained open.

The standard, quickest way to do Half Dome as a day hike, is to start from and return to the floor of Yosemite Valley. But this involves hauling yourself up about 4800 vertical feet, requiring lots of strength and stamina. We decided to help ourselves by starting from a much higher starting point: the parking lot up at Glacier Point, on top of a nearby mountain facing Half Dome. And then ending our one-way hike at the usual place down at the Valley floor. This required bringing two cars to Yosemite. Leaving one at Curry Village the night before. Using the second car to get to our lodging, and then to Glacier Point before dawn on hike day. Hiking all day to get to the first car. Then driving back to retrieve the second car. We got this complicated notion from a friend who camps up at Little Yosemite Valley (above Nevada Falls) to do Half Dome over several days. Packing all his gear to and from the campsite is much easier with mostly-downhill hikes from high parking lot to campsite to low parking lot.

The Ranger lady at the entrance station was nice to not charge us for the second car. Don't tell the Sierra Club!

Our one-way day hike trimmed off lots of the up-slogging, but added more distance and time to the total hike, and added to the total amount of knee-jamming downhills. Luckily, my knee problems of May-June did not reoccur. But we totally blew our time budget.

The road to Glacier Point is long and remote and is currently torn up by a repaving project. The available lodging closest to Glacier Point was at Tenaya Lodge, outside the south entrance to the park. We had also stayed there for our Team-in-Training Yosemite event in June.

The dinner before a long hike should have lots of carbohydrates and not much greasy stuff. So I picked a chicken pesto pasta dish at the cold & slow outdoor restaurant at the lodge. This oily meal immediately gave me diarrhea, so I got no nourishment at all from any of my meals that day. Maybe I could compensate with more trail bars the next day?

We planned to wake up at 3am and hit the trail head at 4:00 am, three hours before sunrise. But we actually started this hike at 5:00 am. I had refused to consider any wake-up time earlier than 3:00 am. But I was actually mostly awake, just waiting for the alarm, from 2:00 am onwards. The drive took longer than we estimated, and I did not fully pack the night before, and we had to return back to our room to get our park entrance annual pass. (My excuse for not pre-packing was I wanted lots of ice in my water bladder.)

Christina discovered at 3:00 am that the hiking pants she had packed for herself, were actually my alternate pair. They fit too tightly in the thighs but did stay on. Our revised packing list now reads "hiking clothes (not his, yours!)"

We knew from our June hike, that this Panorama Trail has knockout views of Half Dome, looking very close, but also thin, steep, and seemingly impossible. At 5:00 am we could see nothing but the trail itself via our tiny headlamps. After awhile, I noticed a dim chain of 5-10 points of light out across the black canyon. I now think this was people doing predawn hikes along the Mist Trail up towards Half Dome.

With my bright light fixed to my hat, the rocks and bumps in the trail looked exactly the same as the flatter dirt of the trail. The light was too close to my eyes to give any parallax. But if I held the light lower, in my hand, each rock and bump threw a shadow that made them much easier to see. So I stowed away one pole, held the other pole in one hand, and held the light low for Christina and me in the other. I tried fastening the light to a chest strap but it didn't point in the right direction. If I night hike again, I want to arrange some way to fix it to my waist or chest.

At around 6:15 am, the pre-dawn light was now enough to see the trail clearly without lamps. And there was our looming goal, Half Dome! Sunrise itself was at 7:00 am.

Illilouette Creek was much diminished but still running at this late dry point in the year. We could not see its falls.

At Panorama Cliff, the dawn views of Half Dome, Liberty Cap, and the valley were stunning. Yosemite Falls appeared totally dry.

We had no clear idea what mph speed our normal hike pace is. I had estimated we would reach the top of Nevada Falls at 7:30 am. Our actual pace this morning turned out to be 1.6 m/h. This Panorama trail is fast: mostly gentle downhill and in good condition. But we were slowed by working carefully in the dark, and breathing harder at this unaccustomed altitude. We actually got to Nevada Falls at 8:15 am.

Before joining the main John Muir Trail, we met three different groups of unprepared Half Dome hikers from below who mistook the Glacier Point trail as the trail towards Half Dome. They were clueless, but very fast!

Above Nevada Falls, I was surprised and appalled by the crowds of people we found massed around the restrooms and streaming up the trail towards Little Yosemite. I hate crowds and long lines everywhere, but this was very bad news for us. This was about a third of the crowds I saw back in June. Better, but still hopeless. Our strategy of leaving from Glacier Point and arriving later at the cables, could only work on a day with very light traffic and no congestion backup on the cables. Saturdays are always worst. I had hoped that a Saturday in late September would be good enough. But no. Every minute, we were being passed by ten or so young speedy hikers who would all be queued up before us when we finally reached the cables. This rate was far more than the ~100 people/hour rate that the cables can sustain, so I knew that severe traffic backup was inevitable, just like on rush-hour freeways. Christina hoped that they would all be up and down again before we got there.

I suggested to Christina that we immediately abort this Saturday attempt, conserve our energy, and then do the complete hike over again on the very next day, Sunday. We had to return to San Jose by Sunday evening. So this plan B maybe was almost practical, if we were really fit. But probably not. Christina said no, understanding that our bodies would not recover in the time necessary. We continued on through Little Yosemite Valley and then slogged up through the forests towards Sub Dome. We had occasional views of Half Dome and the people already pulling themselves up by the fixed cables and the people already waiting on the ridge line below the cables.

At this point, we heard the distinctive wup-wup-wup of a helicopter. It seemed to be coming from Half Dome, and I immediately knew that someone was in really severe trouble this day. Then I spotted the helicopter right at the summit. I thought it was arriving, but then it departed perhaps one minute later. (We now think it had been there for hours, and was leaving.)

Everyone on the trail began speculating about what all this meant for the people up there, and for our own hikes. And whether the summit and cables would be closed by this emergency. Thirty minutes later, we met descending hikers who explained that someone had died at the top and that rangers were now stopping all ascent on the cables. One hiker reluctantly explained that it was a suicide. And not by some fall or jump, but by gunshot. In our occasional views of the summit, we continued to see lots of people on the cables despite reports of it being closed. I'm now guessing that we were seeing people descending, and the cables were only closed for ascenders.

Our hike up the mountain switchbacks was now slower and we needed frequent breaks. It was obvious that we could not reach the cables until 1:00 pm at the earliest. All of our mentors had strongly urged reaching that point by 11:00 am at the latest, or else the congestion would be hopeless and (in my opinion) dangerous. The summit is deadly during late-afternoon thunderstorms. Luckily, this day's weather was perfect so far, clear and cool in the low 80's. But we always planned to be back down from the cables by 2:00 pm at the latest. The cables themselves are potentially deadly when overcrowded or when the granite is wet.

I became extremely pessimistic about this day's hike turning out well. I stopped, and argued with Christina for fifteen minutes against going any further. Other passing hikers must have been quite entertained. I knew from twelve years experience that I could not get her to change her mind by talk. The only way to stop us was to be equally, absolutely stubborn in not going another inch upward, no matter what. If she went on, I would wait for her back at the Little Yosemite ranger station. She became as angry as I've ever seen her. I was betraying her and our year-long shared goal, by deciding to give up just from pessimism.

I did eventually give in. I would not be the cause of our failing this hike. I would accompany her as far as the Sub Dome summit and the beginning of the cables. But only if she agreed that we would indeed turn back from there if it became too late to get up and down and clear the cables by 3:00 pm.

So we continued slogging upwards. We tried to eat lunch. But six persistent bees wanted my not-so-fresh ham sandwich, and Christina had no appetite. By this point, we were being passed by only five hikers per minute, so the main body of pre-dawn speedy hikers was now well above us.

A half mile beyond the junction with Clouds Rest trail, we found the perennial spring, right next to the trail but behind the upturned roots of a fallen tree. If you did not expect it, or see someone pumping away there, you would pass right by without noticing this little pool, even after a dozen hikes. Today it looked fine with clear running water, a really nice resource. But our bladders and spare bottles were still full from our refill at Nevada Falls. (Thanks Deb, for loaning us your filter!)

A hiker refilling at the spring was in cellphone contact with friends up on or near the summit. Cable traffic was shut down, with no word on when it might reopen.

Our slogging upwards was getting slower and slower. I was okay and somewhat slow. But Christina could no longer keep up at all. Normally we are equal on the trail. We think Christina was weakened by anemia and by not eating well. After another half mile, she announced that she could go no further today. And so we turned around to begin our long descent.

We think this was about 1.5 miles from the summit. This was just below the tree line. We had not yet reached any of the hardest points of the trail: the many steep steps of Sub Dome, and the cables.

Our worrying was now over, replaced by disappointment. Neither of us thought we would ever attempt this mountain again, in any year. Christina announced that she was definitely Done. Our Half Dome Challenge was over. No T-shirts for us!

We met some hikers coming down from above. One family said that they got to the blocked cables, and touched the cables as something to remember before turning back. Later, another hiker said they had gotten to the top of Sub Dome, but the ridge line saddle between it and the cables was now so jammed full of waiting people that it was impossible to get near for even a brief touch.

We again got occasional glimpses of the cables and saddle portion of Half Dome summit. The silhouette of people crowded together on the saddle was now solid black. Probably hundreds.

We watered our feet at Nevada Falls and changed socks. I discovered two torn toenails. I had trimmed them very closely, but apparently my socks snagged on some corners.

We thought we had enough pep and knees left to take the steep Mist Trail down from Nevada Falls. But one look at it and I said we'd take the boring gentle John Muir trail yet again. I stumbled four times but avoided getting banged up. Christina insisted on applying a bandage on my pimple-sized knee scrape. Aww, Mom!!! No schoolyard boy would bother. We then got stuck behind a slow dusty horse train carrying tourists.

Halfway down from Nevada Falls, and I had finally used up the initial three liters of hotel ice water in my main bladder. I didn't use my still-full summit bottle of filtered river water. On a hotter day and a full hike, re-filling the main bladder at Nevada or spring on the way up and again on the way down would be about right.

When we reached the bridge and delicious water fountain below Vernal Fall, we met and talked with the young man who discovered and reported the suicide's body. He and his friends began their hike at midnight, so they had had a very long day.

We got to the Happy Isles trail head at 6:00 pm, and Christina was now quite stiff and tired and could now barely walk anymore. If we had tried to continue upward beyond Sub Dome, we would have reached that point of exhaustion up on the mountain and would had struggled in returning to the valley floor. If we had started from the valley floor instead of Glacier Point, we would have burned out even earlier, just in getting up to Nevada Falls.

We got a passable hamburger meal at Curry Village, drove back to a near-dark Glacier Point to retrieve my car, then returned to the lodge, and crashed into bed at 9:00 pm.

The next day we were both very stiff. Hiking a little bit might have been possible, but not a major hike. We drove both cars home, and could barely move when we finally got out of our cars.

When I unpacked, I wondered if we would ever use the safety harness and clips and sticky gloves that we had carried for doing the Half Dome cables. Will we re-train and try again some future year?

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Lessons learned:

1. Too fat. We weren't fit enough or physically prepared enough for very long hikes and lots of steep uphill at altitude. We had regressed since May instead of getting stronger.

2. My knees do not limit me now; that was much better since May.

3. I would never again consider doing Half Dome on a weekend mob day.

4. A one-way day hike from Glacier Point is only practical on weekdays when there is no race to the cables.

5. This hike is difficult, but the worst problems are due to this one mountain being so very popular.

I now think a low-fuss voluntary day and hour reservation scheme for this one trail could spread arrivals, reduce crowding for the cables, and make them safer on peak days. E.g., ticket holders go to the front of the line of people waiting to go up on the cables. Style the ticket as a desirable memento so they don't get discarded on the trail.