catching up (hiking up Half Dome)

I've been terrible about blogging this summer. So I am going to attempt to catch up a bit by blogging about some of the fun things we did this summer.

I'll start with one of the most amazing, and difficult, adventures - the hike to the top of Half Dome.

The view of Half Dome and the valley from Glacier Point

Half Dome is perhaps the most striking, or at least most well known, feature of Yosemite National Park. Stella and I spent a few days there in July and had an amazing time. It may be the single most beautiful place I've ever been to. But for now, I'll focus on the hike we did on our last day there.

The hike to the top of Half Dome is intense. It is 8.5 miles one way (17 miles round trip) with an elevation of nearly a mile. That's a lot of serious uphill hiking! Imagine taking the stairs to the top of the Empire State Building... four times. That's the elevation involved here.

We got up at about 6:45 am to head out for the trail head. We finally started the hike just before 8 am, a little concerned that we may have started too late for such a long hike. But the timing worked out fine... it turns out that we're faster than average hikers. All that running we do, I guess.

There are two wonderful waterfalls along the trail, both with intense but stunning climbs. The mist from the first falls is so intense that it's almost like walking through a shower. Very refreshing on a hot hike!

Hours later, we finally arrived at the base of the "dome". The last part of the hike to the base was a bit scary at times... it's basically rough stairs carved out of the rock with some rather steep and precarious areas.

But it was the climb up the dome itself that was most intense. When first discovered, it was deemed unclimbable. And until around 1920, only experienced mountain climbers had gone to the top. But in 1919, the park service installed two sets of cables to the top of allow "normal" people to go to the top.

The cables from the base of the dome

I'm actually rather terrified of heights, and normally wouldn't even think of doing such a thing. But when we finally got in sight of those cables, with the top right there in front of us, I told Stella, who expressed uncertainty about climbing the cables, that I'm definitely doing it. It must have been the lack of oxygen that made me decide to do this. By the time I was half way up, holding on to the cable for dear life at a 45 degree angle slope, I made the mistake of looking down. I had that brief moment of panic where I suddenly realized that I could actually die if I wasn't careful. Fortunately that feeling passed and I continued on the top.

The top was stunning. Amazing views in every direction, particularly of Yosemite Valley.
We hung out at the top for a half hour or more, then began our descent. This, to me, was even more scary than coming up. Contending with climbers going the other direction and waiting for the people ahead of me to move on made the climb seem unbearably long. Stella, however, had no fear coming down. I couldn't wait for it to be over. I felt amazed that people didn't often die here. Later I learned that people do, in fact, die here. Last year, three people slipped off the cables and fell to their deaths. You can read more about deaths at Half Dome here.

Finally, eight or nine hours later, we were back at the trail head, exhausted and sore. We both had blisters on our feet. My leg muscles were sore for a few days. But it was all worth it.