Travel with Manfred

Travelogues from around the world

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Copyright © 1993 by Manfred P.. All rights reserved.

July 18, 1993

How to Spend a Full Day to Climb Half a Dome

Yosemite's Halfdome

by

Manfred P.

Keywords: U.S.A., USA, California, Yosemite, Halfdome, tourist, travel trip report, travel log, travelogue.

Most of you knew that for quite some time I was thinking of climbing Halfdome at Yosemite Nat'l Park. After delaying by quite a few weeks, we were finally ready. Don -- my usual hiking companion -- and Michael joined me on this weekend trip.

It started out hectic and stressful as always. We had a meeting at work that lasted later than expected and I barely made it on time to the airport. Luckily I wasn't bumped of the flight which was overbooked. On the flight to California I tried to get some sleep in preparation for the long night ahead. Once at the airport I had to rush to the office to drop something off, rush home and throw the tent, and other camping equipment into the car, and in 20 min I was on my way to pick up my friends. We decided to take the Southern route approaching Yosemite on 140. Since it was night there was hardly any traffic and we made it to the campground outside the park where we planned on staying in about 4 hours. It turned out that they were booked out and we got referred to another campground 10 miles away.

Before we went to bed at midnite I thought to myself: So, tomorrow's the big day. All three people that I talked to told me it was a 12-hour hike and that we should get up really early. Getting up at 6:45 was actually pretty easy because we were all quite excited and mentally pumped up. But it took us some time to get ready. Well, I insisted to have something warm to drink for breakfast because the fresh mountain air at 7am was kind of crisp and cool. Next, we wanted to get the hassle of worrying about a campground for Sat nite after the hike out of the way, so we picked up our reservation and claimed a campsite in the heart of the Yosemite Valley. Usually these reservations are made a year in advance, and naturally everything was booked out a long time ago, but I was lucky enough to be persistent in calling the reservation hotline, because the day before somebody cancelled and I got his spot. Finally after all of that was settled we had to have a solid breakfast. We must have been eating for quite a while because by the time we were ready it was 10am. 2 hours behind schedule. A wee bit of concern stemmed from this fact I accepted the fact that we'll hiking the last hour in the dark.

The trail actually circled three quarters of Halfdome. The overall distance one-way was 8.2 miles. On the foot of the mountain two gorgeous waterfalls enticed many tourists. The first miles of the trail are called "Misty Trail". The name did the path justice. We basically climbed a steep wall in spitting distance from the Vernon waterfall. The scenery couldn't have been any better. Golden sunshine, a warm breeze that was filled with the refreshing mist of the waterfall and contained the typical forest smell, lush green on both sides of the valley where bright green moss covered all rocks, and to top it all off, a rainbow sparkling in all colors lay across the bottom of the falls where the water smashed against big boulders with heavy force. As you can imaging, nobody wanted to miss this spectacular view and the trail was crowded like an ant hill. But the prime reason for being crowded was most likely that we were only 2 miles from the parking lot. The top of the falls was all flat and the river widened and formed a shallow lake-like environment. The in-crowd was hanging out here to check out to relax and work on their sun tan. Just a little bit upstream the river had smoothened the rock on a small incline to build a natural water slide of about 100 yards. Further up, the number of hikers dropped noticeably, but we were far from being by ourselves. Another hour later we made it to the Nevada Falls. Despite being bigger than the Vernon Falls, they were no match in beauty to what we have seen before. The next stretch was sort of flat again and the trail lead thru a forested area not to far from the river.

By noon we were half around the mountain and overall we hadn't climbed much. The top of Halfdome didn't seem any closer than hours ago. Finally it went uphill. First thru some more light forest were I enjoyed every second in the shade because I knew soon we would be out on the rock and the sun's going to burn down on us. Eventually it got steeper and steeper till we left the forest behind. Instead on a soft soily trail we were now on the rock. On the first really steep part was steps were carved into the rock and it felt like climbing the stairs of a ten story building. Then the steps vanished and I started crawling on all four for short stretches, or at least I always had my hands ready to hold on to the flat rock should I feel that I don't get enough grip on the rock with my feet. On the final 300 yards metal ropes were secured in the rock to all hikers to safely make it to the top. The two ropes were a yard apart, going straight up the rock to the peak. A long line of "ants" were on the ropes, moving forward ever so slowly since the slowest person dictated the speed for everybody because passing was impossible. Well, maybe not impossible, but risky. Anyway, 20 minutes later I was on the top. Ahh, what a feeling. The typical "You've done it" feeling. The view was breath taking, and the break was welcome. We were hanging out with some other 50 people enjoying a well deserved lunch. We lay down on the edge, stuck our heads out and looked straight down the vertical drop. Actually it is a little bit overhanging. Hang-gliding from here would certainly be a thrill of a lifetime. Besides the valley the 360 degree view reached from the sierras that were still partially covered in snow to the San Francisco Mountains. The way back was about the same as the way up and by 6pm -- way before sunset -- we were at the campground. After an improvised shower I felt like new-born. Sitting next to the bbq grill felt pretty good. The dinner covered everything from hot dogs, veggies, yoghurt, fruits, ... We were goofing around till 10pm and then we dropped into the sack.

Sunday was the day to relax. Sleeping long, taking time for breakfast, cruising around, having tea in the royal looking $200 per night Awahnee Hotel, touring the visitor center, and the Yosemite Falls. As the final destination we went to Glacier Point, another spot high above the valley. Not quite as high as Halfdome, but still impressive. Mid-afternoon we started heading back to the bay area. A work-out in the gym closed the weekend for me.

These are the no-time-wasted fully-active weekends I like. Next weekend won't be that much fun. I just found out that I have to spend all Saturday at work. Unfortunately not every weekend can be dedicated to enjoyment.