This post is a little late but is still worthy of posting. Earlier this year we tried to make it a goal to hike to the top of Half Dome since I (Skylar) had never done it before and Alyssa had done it a couple of times before. So two weeks before Alyssa had to go back to teaching we decided to apply for the Half Dome permit to climb to the top since they only give out 300 permits a day to hike up the cables.
Waiting for the News
We applied on Tuesday with the intentions that we would probably not get the permit, like several attempts before, and that we would be going up to San Francisco just to see the A’s and Giants play. I decided to check that night to see if we had gotten the permit and to our great surprise that we got it. We packed up the night before double checking that we got everything we need for the quick trip and the next morning we were off to meet up with Cameron and Ciera to watch the baseball game. We all met up at 5pm in Walnut Creek, got dinner and made our way across the bay. The traffic was busy but not unbearable and we made it to the game a little late. We enjoyed watching the Giants get beat by the A’s on their home turf as well as drinking some delicious Ghirardelli Hot Chocolate . We decided to leave the game a little early since we would have a short night. We said goodbye to Cameron and Ciera that night.
Off to Yosemite at 4:00AM
We woke up at 3:45 am and packed up to make the 3 hour drive to Yosemite National Park. It was a very enjoyable drive, except from being tired from the lack of sleep. We made it to Yosemite and the Half Dome trail head by around 8:30 AM. Normally if you were to do this hike you would have started at 6:30 AM at the latest, we didn’t have any other choice. We kept a good strong pace up to the top of Nevada Falls and then I could feel the tiredness kick in. Alyssa, on the other hand, was just flying up the mountain like normal. Once you make it to Nevada Falls the trail flattens out for quite some time and you get to walk along a river and experience Little Yosemite Valley. I think next time I wouldn’t mind backpacking to the campsites found there in the Little Yosemite Valley before going to the top of Half Dome as to recover some energy and get use to the elevation. We only had one day for the permit so we kept on going.
Walking and Climbing
After a little bit of flat walking it was time to continue up the next hill before reaching the sub-dome. It was a hill that seemed to go on forever, probably because of the fact that I was already exhausted from the climb up to Nevada Falls and we hadn’t hiked or prepared before going up. Finally after making it to the bottom of the sub-dome a ranger was next to a tree waiting to check permits. We handed her our permit and we were off on the next steep and short leg of the mountain. It was like a stair case to the top, except this stair case was straight to the top, top of the sub-dome. Once we made it to the top of the sub-dome were were staring at the famous cables to get to the top. From a good distance away it doesn’t seem that bad to go up. When you are on them heading up it is a whole different ballgame. Alyssa loves to climb high things and she has done the hike a couple other times and so she flew up the top. I, on the other hand, was scared out of my mind and I couldn’t help climb only little by little and get over the panic attacks my mind was creating. About half way up we had a couple people taking their sweet time resting nearly at every cross board which made me have those mental panic attacks. I knew I could make it up to the top quicker without these people but it was difficult to just go around them. After about 20 minutes of height horror we made it to the top and that when I just wanted to lay down and take a nap. I think I was getting altitude sickness because I sure didn’t want to eat, drinking water was all I wanted to put in my stomach but I had to be conservative since I was already more than half empty.
Thunder and Lightning Ahead
I do have to admit the view from on top of half dome was quite exciting and not as scary as I thought it would be. We took lots of photos and a little bit of video and then we could hear and see the thunder and lightning in the distance coming our way. We said goodbye to the top and dashed for the cables. People were still on their way up the cables as several others were on their way down to avoid the rain and lightning. By the time we made it to the top of the sub-dome the rain started to come down, and looking back at the cables there were still people coming down. We were just glad we weren’t one of them. We pulled out our ponchos and continued down the hill to get to the Little Yosemite Valley.
The rain lightened up a little bit before we made it to the Little Yosemite Valley but came back with even more of a downpour. Off in the distance you could see specs still climbing down Half Dome, still we were glad we were not them. Finally after making it to the Nevada Falls the rain decided to go away but we were stuck with the rest of the trail with slippery rocks and muddy dirt. The last mile down to the trail head was pretty tough. I was also out of water by the time we made it down to the bottom of Nevada Falls and after descending downhill for a good few miles my feet were toast. Thankfully there was water at the trail head and so I filled my pack and headed to the car, still had to go another half mile to the parking lot. Sadly it wasn’t the end of journey for the day. We still had to drive out of Yosemite and find a place to stay and get some food to eat. Alyssa and her dad have a tradition to go eat some pizza from the Pizza Factory and luckily there was a place on the way down the mountain. We looked at local places to stay for the night but they were all way too expensive and I just wanted to sleep with air conditioning and a shower.
Rough Hotel in Fresno
We drove all the way down to Fresno where we found some cheaper hotels. We found a place that was reasonable and took a shower and went to bed, at least that was the plan. We had a crazy old person and his girlfriend in the room next to us and they were yelling completely through the night and would not be quite. It wasn’t until 5 AM that the hotel finally got the couple to leave the hotel. I was tempted to call the police and have the couple leave but decided to let the hotel take care of it. I regret not calling. Thankfully we got some sleep after they were gone. The next morning we drove home and got ready to go to the Angel Game. It was a long and short crazy 2 days of vacation.
Check out our video of the Yosemite Half Dome hike below. It maybe 10 minutes long but it really is a quick 10 minutes.