Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Half Dome 8-12-06

When people say the Half Dome cables are "down", it does NOT mean the cables are gone!!!

All it means is that the 1" galvanized pipe "legs" (stanchions) that are stuck into holes drilled into the granite, and supporting the cables at waist-height off the rock, are gone. And of course the wooden 2x4's are gone, too. The cables are NEVER taken away. They are just lowered down to the rock surface. This way, winter snow will not slide down and ruin the pipes.

Many people climb Half Dome in this situation and everyone still uses the cables. All you do is pick up the cable and use it to pull yourself up. In effect, the weight of the cable gives you much more traction on the granite, so you do not slip nearly as easily.

The part that is more difficult is that the weight of the cables can give you some strain on the back (it is maybe 20 - 25 pounds). Also, there are fewer resting places since the 2x4's are gone. But there are cracks and places along the granite where you can get a foothold and stop to rest.

Hope this clears things up. (Does anyone have a picture of the cables in the "down" state?)

Edit: I finally found a picture with the cables down. Click on the picture for a larger view:
<img src="http://stevec.smugmug.com/photos/115049144-Th.jpg" border="0"
Or click here for the full-size original.

The face to the left of the cables can be climbed without using the cables. It is a mid 5th class (5.6 or 5.7) depending on your route finding. Protection can be found easily, and it makes for a very pleasant roped climb. Soloing it is another matter. Falling is not an option.

I totally agree with Unibrocker's comment: "This attraction is screaming for a permit system" I just finished the JMT this last month, and when we got back to Yosemite to pick up the vehicle, we did a dayhike up Half Dome (my 6th time up).

Not only were there an amazing number of people carrying little-to-no water, and hiking in inappropriate shoes, the thing that upset me the most was the litter on the trail! Wrappers, plastic water bottles stuck under rocks, plastic wrap, toilet paper... you name it. I think permits should be required - not necessarily for generating revenue, but to educate some of these clueless hikers.

As far as the cable go... I usually got up using both cables, and descend outside the cables holding on to one cable with both hands side-stepping down. The slats extend slightly outside the cable supports if you need them. It's waaayyyy faster and easier for the people still going up.

Rosabella, the easiest way to alleviate the trash is to pick up whatever you see. That's what I did my last time down, and I only collected a small grocery bag full -- it really isn't that much, and if just one person of the hundreds passing through each day did that, most people would hardly see any trash.

And please don't advocate for permits -- it won't help the trash problem and it won't help the problem of people with improper shoes carrying no water. It will only make it harder for people like you and me to go up on a whim and hike.

The big result would be even fewer people enjoying and experiencing the high country, which will result in even fewer people caring what happens to the wilderness.

Steve, I understand your feelings on the permitting issue... I've certainly had my share of plans foiled because I wasn't able to get a permit, but so many people come to Yosemite every year and a lot of them decide that they'd like to try to hike up to Half Dome with no understanding of hiking etiquette.

It's not my concern if they don't carry enough water or if they've got inadequate shoes, but I really hate seeing trash. Who knows... maybe we just happened to be on the trail behind a bunch of pigs.

Oh... and we did pick up trash on our way down :-)

I have to admit that I probably wouldn't do the Half Dome trail, at least not when it was full of hundreds of people. I'm not anti-social, but I don't really favor crowds when I'm into the outdoors experience.

I guess for the same reason, I never wanted to do a Mount Whitney hike until I heard more about the Mountaineer's Route. The main trail just seems too crowded. For some reason, it's more exciting when you feel like you are out in the wilderness without too many people around you. I'm not sure why, but that's the case.

I plan to do the Clouds Rest hike when I'm Yosemite next year...I'm sure it will still be fairly heavily traveled, but nowhere like Half Dome. I'm surprised that Half Dome is so popular because that sounds actually sounds like a pretty long and tough hike. I wonder if people are in better shape, on average, than I think or if many of them just barely make it back to the trailhead before collapsing? I'd be rather tired myself and I do a good bit of hiking.

ah! You've never seen Half-Dome in person!

tchiker,
You should can try the maintrail in October to avoid traffic. We were the only people at Trail Crest camp the night before we summited last year.

I know this is resurrecting a thread from last year, but since I'm doing Half Dome again this September, and remembering bob d's post about his mountain lion encounter in the dark on his way to Half Dome, I wanted to ask the following question:

If you're having a face-off with a mountain lion, such as bob d described in his post above, in addition to anything else you might do to discourage the beast from continuing to give you its undesired attention, would throwing a rock directly at it help or hurt your chances in such a stare-down encounter? If there are general similarities in feline behavior (whether house cat or mountain lion), then my guess would be that rock throwing would help your cause and discourage the mountain lion, because if "showing the cat who's boss" works with felines in general, then this approach would make sense. But I have no idea if you can make that kind of seemingly reasonable leap between small cat and big cat behavior. Any thoughts?

CaT (no pun intended)