Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board thanks for the half dome advice

Thanks to all who gave advice on half dome in the recent past. Unfortunately we did not summit. My friend Kacy just didn't have it that day. About a mile and a half into the hike I saw that she was not feeling all that hot so we slowed are pace down dramatically and made Neveda falls our ultimate goal. She urged me and her sons to go on to the summit but I knew from Nevada falls it would have required me and her strongest son a few more hours for the round trip and I thought that it would be unfair and inconsiderate to make her wait that long. To those who said that it would be beyond zoo on memorial day, that was the understatement of the century. It made the Whitney main trail in the summer look like a lonely desert highway. On the way down we went a short distance up the mist trail to see Vernal falls. It was so crowded that it looked like the 405 at rush hour. Despite not summiting we had a great time cracking jokes and cutting up. On the way back down a little asian boy laughed at one of Kacy's sons. The one with a shaved head and a little pot belly. Maybe he thought it was Budda! What a great time. I wonder who can relate to this. I find that if I don't summit a climb that I have planned for a long time or that I really desire I'm utterly haunted by it. I will probably go out again in June to climb it to the top. Worse case scenario I will make it one of my top priority climbs next spring.

Rafael...

So I take it you did not run across "+ @ti2d" while you were there. It was probably good that you revised your plan, since you had no idea how many people would be on the cables when you arrived.

It's nice to hear you put consideration for your friend over your need to summit; I always figure it's the journey that matters, and it sounds like you had a good time. Plus, Nevada and Vernal falls this time of year is a pretty decent reward.

You were right in that it would have been a very long wait had you gone ahead from there, and you may have found the cables so crowded that you'd decide to skip it after all, especially with someone waiting for you.

For your next shot at it, try to stay away from weekends; we're going up Wednesday and I don't expect much of a crowd, judging from the past. When you've picked a time that the mist trail is uncrowded enought that you say 'hi' and smile when you pass folks going the other way, this is how it should be in Yosemite.

What I would do differently is start at 5:30 instead of 6:30 in the morning. As far as the cables go my plan was to not use them at all or hold on to them but on the outside edge. I will probably also do this on a weekday in the future. It was kind of fun seeing the diverse crowds. I forgot to mention how crowded the trailhead parking was. It was a madhouse. I had to do some careful manouvering and a five point turn just to get out of my parking space.

Rafael...

rafe
can anyone drive up and park at the trailhead at any time in the morning? and what's the name of the trail you refer to? i'm going up in july and aren't too familiar with the logistics of getting to the trailhead. i had heard no parking was allowed and you had to take shuttles, deterring an early start. thanks for the info.

hey we all want to summit but i learned in army ranger school it's all about taking care of your buddy (buddies). you did the right thing by hanging back with kacy and the kids, and that philosophy will serve you well on and off the mountain.

norweejun: you can't park right at that trailhead (unless you're handicapped, I think) as you used to be able to years ago. the main parking area for Happy Isles is a few minutes walk away (1/4 or 1/2 mile or so) and you can park there anytime -- start as early as you want!

N2theGr8YdOpn aka + @ti2d here folks. My alter ego.

This TR is sketchy at best but I will do my best.

Rafael, we must have missed each other by that much. Our hike started at 630 instead of the 530 start. Bad planning on my part. I did not factor in the mileage and speed to get to the trailhead from just south of Coarsegold. Now I know.

Nobody at the gate. We drive on through.

Parking at Happy Isles not a problem.

Well, we take the "wrong turn at Albuquerque" and went down Happy Isles. What the? Dead end. Turn around and go on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREAM!

We reach Vernal Fall at 7:30. What a workout! Didn't break out the shell. Water felt fine. My girlfriend dons hers. Beautiful. We encounter several hikers on the way up. That narrow portion with the handrails kind of gave me the heebie-jeebies but I kept pushing. I said to myself I hope there isn't anyone COMING DOWN!

We reach Nevada Fall at 8:31. Not bad.

We see a rattlesnake off-trail near the 2-mile mark to HD at 9:40. Didn't inquire as to what it was and didn't want to! We left it alone. Looked like it was trying to "warm up."

The "steps" kicked our you-know-whats. Every 10 steps. Stop, rest, breathe, continue. Luckily we had our trekking poles out still. I had considered packing them away before the steps. Good call!

We reach the cables at 11:30. There are hikers up the cable slope like ants on a sidewalk. Where did they come from? No progress. We abandon all hope and turn around. I slip on the way down and suffered a cable burn on the inside of my right arm (nice bruise later). Luckily I held on to that cable for dear life and I had some help from other hikers on the slope.

We head back down. Masses of humanity coming up the "steps." Maybe it was a good thing we didn't make it to the top of HD or we would have never of made it back down.

Looking around at the base of the cables, the views were magnificent. We had never been here before. We were not disappointed.

Nevada Falls was packed with people. I opted to go down JMT instead of Mist Trail since I figured it would be crammed with people coming up. Good call on my part as we made it to the wooden bridge and noticed all of the people.

We encounter a pack of mules going down JMT. They let us pass at one of the switchbacks.

We finish at 4:30 p.m. Ten hours. My perennial New Year's resolution is "have fun." My GF and I had a wonderful time. We will definitely come back probably with TeamBruin since they were successful with their trip last October.

Lessons learned:

1. NEVER EVER GO ON A 3-DAY WEEKEND AGAIN EVER! I knew it would be packed, but OH MY GOD! Go during the week if possible.

2. Go up JMT and come down MT. The late afternoon shower should feel refreshing.

3. Go light, go light, go light. Pack your smallest Camelbak pack (H.A.W.G) with your Osprey Stratos pack. Dump the Stratos and don the HAWG and GO!

4. Climbing shoes? Maybe.

5. Snapping in? Maybe. I saw it done by a couple of hikers going OUTSIDE the cables.

The trailhead is easy to get to. When you enter Yosemite valley follow the signs that say Curry Village. Once you pass the village shortly after you will see a sign that says trailhead parking. From there you just walk on the main road a short distance further to the trailhead. I went another direction like an idiot and walked a couple of hundred yards down stream instead of on the trail itself because in the beginning the trail is so wide I thought it was a service road. This probably did not inspire much confidence in my party. Interesting about the rattlesnake. My friend asked me to bring a snakebite kit which I did for her sake but normally I would not take one. We went up and down the JMT. I will probably go again in June and I will consider going up the Mist Trail on the way up, and the JMT on the way down. The Mist Trail requires concentration and I may not want to think that hard on the way down.

Rafael...

In response to where did the early hikers come from: Three sources.
1. Like Whitney, one can do this as a multi-day, and many do, staying overnite in Little Yosemite Valley. They are already halfway.
2. Coming from other directions, like Tuolumne Meadows, with an intermediate overnite that does not require climbing out of the Valley.
3. Smart folks that know what they are facing, and knowing that a very early start avoids a lot of the crowd problems.

When I'm on a crowded trail it reminds me of this. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little. But on the other hand, the climb up the granite backside of Half Dome on a busy day probably looks more crowded than this. But then the guys in this picture are probably the winners of some trail permit lottery.

Ya know, I last went up Halfdome last year in June via Snakedyke... man, coming down the cables routes scarred the sh*T out of me! The climb up for 1100' was fine with 100' runouts. it was the (forgive my judgement and madeup stereotypes, it is a running joke among friends) fat German tourists coming up and heading down behind me on the cables that had me shaking in my climbing shoes! I was worried the whole way down that someone was going to take a fall on me, or try to pass having no idea about safety concerns and take us both off! My opinion is the climb on teh Sw corner is MUCH safer and better than the hike!

Good luck either way


Matt

We went up Half Dome from Upper Pines campground on Wednesday, so missed the holiday crowd. It was still more crowded than same time, last year though. Not bad on the cables, though coming down was a bit frustrating (going up, I take two "stick-steps" and wait a bit, then two more, etc., so waiting for down traffic isn't bad. When it gets less steep, I increase to 3-4 "sticks" depending on traffic. A few thoughts while they're still fresh:

If you're going up the cables as a group of more than 3 or 4, have mercy on the downbound folks and don't all go at once; space yourselves out in groups of no more than 2 or 3 and things go much smoother.

I tried Steve C's idea of no gloves on the way up, and liked it. However, I'm not one to wear gloves for things like gardening. If you do, you may find it less pleasant, as there's quite a pull needed on hard steel on bare skin. Coming down, leather gloves are tops; they slide just enough that you can regulate it as needed. The rubber-nubbed gardener's gloves are OK for going up, but useless on the way down...the rubber nubs whiz right off and you're left with canvas and no traction. Leather works for going up, but not as well as bare hands as it tends to slip a bit on the smooth cables.

2L of water is not nearly enough if the weather's hot. I went through nearly a gallon, and the filtered spring water just above the 2 mile sign tasted like heaven, as did the Merced River's unfiltered water.

We were finishing lunch on top around 12:30, and noticed some suspicious clouds in the distance. By 1:00, we saw that they were definitely worthy of concern, and headed our way. We headed down, and as we reached sub-dome, the first sound of thunder hit. We watched in amazement as people went up the cables, despite the thunder and signs warning them. Even more amazing was some "experienced" hiker advising a newbie that "she personally would go up in those conditions, but didn't want to advise them either way". Quite a number of people showed enough wisdom to skip the summit on account of the storm, which restored our faith that not everyone is a fool. 8^)

We also watched Thursday from Glacier Point as people stood on top of the Dome as lightning hit the mountains north of there and headed their way.

The above is another good reason to leave early; 5 AM is great if you can do it (we were lazy and left at 6).

Friday or weekends may not be the best day to schedule your hike; watching from our Upper Pines campsite this (Friday) morning at 5:00 there were tons of Half-Domers heading up...far more than Tuesday through Thursday mornings.

The mist trail is pretty light this year, and ponchos are nice to have with you, but not as important as in a more normal late-May-early-June when you can get throughly drenched by halfway up the steps. I still feel that Mist trail up, JMT down is best because of the tall steps on tired legs on the mist trail, but there's no "right" way, just whatever works for you.

It was again a great hike, despite the heat and the thunderstorm...the rain felt good to us, being down where it was safe.

We did Half Dome this weekend (June 3/4). Heard about the crowds at the cables so decided to do it in two days. There is an outstanding campground about .7 miles past the half dome trail spur on the JMT just past the clouds rest junction. Camped there and got an early start to miss the crowds at the cables on Sunday. At 9:30 AM there were probably 20 - 30 people at the cables and on top of Half Dome. By 11:00 when we got down from the cables there were probably 100 with another 100 coming up the granite steps. We heard stories from people on saturday about 1.5 hour waits at the cables at 11:30 AM, so get up there early if you don't want to wait.

We saw something very disturbing on half dome. A family, with a two year old boy and a four year old girl were on top when we got there. We followed them down the cables, the dad had the boy in a holder and the girl tethered. She was crying and screaming a great deal of the way down. It was obviously terrifying. We felt that this was bordering on child abuse. Fortunately they made it, but it REALLY upset us. I think you see this type of thing often on day hikes that atract inexperienced hikers. Places like half dome, Whitney or the Grand Canyon.

Anyway, other than that it was an awesome trip with great weather and a good way to kick off the 2007 hiking season.

Re: heart_of_a_tiger's story about the little girl

I suspect the little girl wasn't upset on the way up because she didn't look down.... maybe. I expect that some adults feel the same way on the way down. Many years ago before the crowds, there was a moment when I was coming down when I could feel the fear creeping in. I was relieved when I got to the bottom.

Regarding fear in general. Fear protects us by keeping us out of dangerous situations. However, once someone inadvertently gets into a dangerous situation, fear is your enemy. Fear comes from considering the consequences. Thinking about the consequences is a distraction that doesn't help in solving the problem and makes it more difficult to figure a way out of the situation. So focus on solving the problem and not on the consequences. (I guess easier said than done.)

That's sad, I feel sorry for the poor kids. Any parent who thinks they can cram a love for hiking down their kids' throat is way off base. A relative with 2 kids was somewhat this way, though certainly not to the extreme of Half Dome. But she was a hiking fanatic, to where she was obsessed with hiking even on extended family vacations where no one else was hiking. It ended up with both of her kids absolutely hating anything to do with hiking, though the older one in her early 20's is now somewhat recovered, and can enjoy it to some extent.

I have a 4-year-old grandson who I hope will want to do Half Dome with me one day, maybe at 10 or 12, but only by his own choice and when old enough to realize what it involves. A "great hike" to him was a couple of months ago, from Upper Pines to Happy Isles, where he could throw "Pooh sticks" in the water and watch them come through. That's maybe 1/2 mile, but that's what they need at that age. Leave the little ones behind, do your "adult" hikes, then do a "kid hike" for the little ones.

Maybe they'll figure it out the next time they mention a hike and the kids start screaming and whining and looking for excuses; probably not though.