Half Dome - The Summit

Half Dome from Glacier Point

Date: 18th July 2014, Friday.
Duration: 10 hours.

Half Dome Ascent - Accomplished!

Yosemite called me again. This time,not to take pictures of her. But to reach her zenith. And I am glad I heeded the call. I completed the Half Dome hike/climb - one of the toughest in the valley.A day I want to get etched in my memory forever. Well, I didnt leave anything for chance to make it memorable. I diligently deleted all the videos of the ascent from the card before recovering after some searching around.

It all started a couple of months ago in April when I got the pre-season lottery for using the cables on Half Dome. After losing the lottery last year, I was happy and excited with the first hurdle cleared. However, at that point in time, I was not quite sure of making it. Since it was more than 2 months away, I had put it on a back burner. But as end of June neared, the crazy guy in me woke up and started pushing for doing the hike.

And so, a week before the hike, somehow I scrambled to find a campsite inside the Yosemite National Park. Why? So that I can sleep an hour or two longer. However, that was denied and I had to stay put at 30 miles away. Now, that immediately put a strain on me to wake up earlier than usual. When the tent was pitched well before 8.30 PM on the day before, I decided that I will wake up at 0400 hrs and drive into the park so as to start the hike between 0500 and 0530 hrs.

Well, the decision of waking up early was very easy to make. I woke up at 0500 hrs, (well within the limits of my standard clock ;-)) quickly freshened up and drove as fast as I could into the valley.

0630 hrs - Trailhead parking. Start of Hike. JUST an hour and half away from the scheduled start time!
Though I was late, it was heartening to see some people around starting their hike at the same time too. Without wasting much time, I got onto the Mist trail which would take me to the top of Half Dome after 8.2 miles of steep hike along some of the most scenic spots to reach a height of 8840 m ..err 8840 ft (I have no idea why I always get towards Everest with all my little hikes and climbs ;-)). Without much words, let me dive into the pictures and videos I captured using my Nokia Lumia cellphone on the way up. The cable ascent video is captured using head mounted GoPro camera. Hope you enjoy reading and viewing this.

The Hike started at Happy Isles Trailhead via the Mist Trail/John Muir Trail. Almost immediately, the elevation gain was visible. Since I had done this portion of the trek till the Vernal Fall Footbridge earlier, I knew the terrain and was able to quickly finish the first mile in around 20 minutes.

Vernal Fall from the Bridge. 1 mile from start

After the Footbridge was a new territory to me. A series of atleast 10 switchbacks provided the steep elevation gain for the next 2.3-3 miles. This was definitely sapping the energy out of me. But the cool breeze and the early morning chillness kept the trek very pleasant.

As the trek gained height, the canopies opened mildly to reveal the spectacular valley that had been left below.





The beauty of the valley continued to reveal itself on every step of the trek. Close to half way into the trek at 3.7-4 miles, the Nevada fall makes its grand appearance. It is hard not to stop and click some pictures here. Given a chance, I could spend hours together here with my camera. But with the mission of the climb in mind, I just recorded the shot and kept moving further. After 1.5 hours and 4 miles, I reached the top of Nevada Fall.

Nevada Fall

Top of Nevada Fall

After a couple of minutes on the lip of the Nevada Fall, a couple of clicks and a video footage, I continued on with the trek toward Half Dome which was still a good 4.2 miles away from this spot. Immediately after this spot, the terrain changed. It was quite dry and there was absolutely no water source whatsoever. The steepness of the trek reduced quite a bit but the upward incline was almost consistent for the next 3 miles as the trail passed through the Little Yosemite Valley. This was a dry area covered with huge pine trees providing good shade on the route.

Little Yosemite Valley

After meandering through the pines for the next couple of hours, I finally reached the spot where I could see the Half Dome clearly. I was so excited that I thought I would reach the summit in the next half hour. I was to be proved wrong. The initial speed, steepness and the long trek eventually caught up on me and it took me more than an hour to reach the summit from this point. Its from this location that the outgrowth density reduced and slowly the barren rocks started showing up.

First clear view of Half Dome. Close to 6.5 miles

Just below the Sub Dome, there was a Park Ranger standing with a tablet in his hand to check the Cable Permits. As I handed my permit to him, I casually asked him how much longer it would take. I did not want to hear the answer when he told it would take close to an hour to the top. That was a WTH moment for me. I mean, I could see the rock right in front of me and I thought taking an hour to reach the top was too much. Little did I know what I was getting into. Though the Sub Dome looked pretty much insignificant next to its taller and famous neighbour, this was definitely the toughest part of the hike for me. The trek wavered through cracks and step-like formations on the edge of the rock with a huge gain in height. This was one of the portion where I had to stop in the middle for a breather!

Stepping on to the Sub Dome Ascent

Half way up Sub Dome. One of the couple 'shaded' spots.

After an excruciating climb up the sub dome, I decided to take a 5-10 minute break before climbing the cables. Time was around to 10 AM and I had covered almost 8 miles in 3.5 hours and I was already panting for breath with the last portion. But the moment I sat down, I started hearing some people talking about how difficult and dangerous the cables looked and that they would not do it and stuff like that. When I looked at the cables, they indeed looked very daunting from where I was- a 90 degree uphill one! I started having second thoughts about climbing now. That's when I decided that I would not sit any longer and simply got ready to climb in less than a minute. I mounted the GoPro on my head and headed toward the cables. First few steps were a little nervous. But then, the nerves settled down and I started concentrating on the climb.

View from the top of Sub Dome

The Cables to the Summit of Half Dome

25 minutes later, at 8840 ft from sea level, the summit was achieved.

The Majestic view of the valley from the summit of Half Dome - 8840 ft

On the summit,the feeling of elation at having completed one of the toughest hikes/climbs was un-explainable. And when that came without any specific preparation and without any company simply added icing on the top. A pat on the back, a few selfies and 45 minutes later, I was on my way down the cables. 4 hours later, I came back to where I started, with a sense of accomplishment.Every step of the hike was worth the pains taken and I was glad I lived and loved every one of it!

Yours Truly on the summit

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Here is the link to the Ascent video. There is a problem with audio sync- thanks to a major goof-up I did. That is the effect of the recovery going a tad wrong after I deleted the videos from the memory card inadvertantly. However, I was glad I could salvage the video atleast!

A Shot That Spoke...To Me

I wanted to tell her that she looked beautiful. I didn't. Because she didn't look beautiful. 
She was beautiful.

Often pictures speak to the viewers. Sometimes they speak to the maker than to the viewer. I had this experience just recently. I am a landscape photographer and love being outdoors,away from the crowd. Not that I hate people, but just that I am not good with having an interaction while clicking photos. I like to be alone and get immersed into the surrounding landscape. Naturally, I tend to go away from people. And when I am around a few, I search for the faces and expressions from a fair distance. That too very rarely. 

And one such click in the recent couple of days made me write the first 2 lines in this post. Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. True. But not always. Sometimes it emanates from within the beholdee. I am not sure if I will be able to post the picture here, but I sure wanted to post my thoughts about it. And I did just that.