Half Dome Fire 2014

Over the years I've put up a couple of posts about the Half Dome summit hike Chris and I did back in 2005, and then my return trip to Yosemite in 2010 - all labeled with the tag Half Dome, if you want to check them out.  So, as the news about the fire in little Yosemite Valley has come out, naturally I'd follow it with interest.

Here are a couple of photos I snagged from USA Today, which have apparently originated with Twitter users.  If I knew the sources I'd credit them, but you can probably find the images on the web as well.

As of yesterday, the fire had burned about four square miles up in Little Yosemite.  That is a popular campground along the main route to the Half Dome Summit.  Hopefully they'll get the fire under control soon, but I heard yesterday they had to evacuate hikers off of the mountain.

Be careful out there - be aware this kind of thing could happen any time out in the wild.

Almost Spring, Thoughts Turn to Adventure

Spring is almost here.  By some reckonings, it arrived on March 1, but for me I judge by the crocus blossoms, and they are still a few weeks away.

It's a time of year when I start thinking about recreation in the Shenandoah Valley, using Hawksbill Cabin as a basecamp.  We'll hike up in Shenandoah National Park, maybe do a canoe float on the river...and then, the farmers market in Luray will open and we'll start to grill with fresh vegetables and locally raised meat every weekend.  Add in a relaxing Sunday at Wisteria Vineyards, and you'll have a complete lifestyle statement!

During these last few days of hunkering down waiting for a thaw, my mind also wonders to adventures of the past.  My friend Marilyn discovered this high density video taken in Yosemite National Park - I've been fortunate enough to go three times, counting the Half Dome summit as among my achievements - but I never tire of getting another look at that remarkable landscape:



You can check out my Half Dome hike, and other Yosemite highlights (especially from a business trip there in 2010), from the links below.

Half Dome Reprise – Part 3

(Note:  Mary and I are traveling this week – we’ll be in Las Vegas for a trade show and then we’ll head down to Flagstaff and day trip up to Grand Canyon.  I’ll have some posts on that next week, but in the mean time, I thought I might repost this old series about hiking to the top of Half Dome during a trip to Yosemite in 2005. This will be the final post in this series.)

This first photo shows the view of the south face of the Half Dome from Little Yosemite Valley. When we got to the top of the mountain, we learned that there was a group of rock climbers who were making their way up this side while we were on our hike. They are invisible in this photo.

Also visible in this photo is the cable route. It is just to the left of the big pine tree on the right side of the photo, and shows as a faint line on the side of the Dome massif. As we stopped to take this photo, we could make out people up there, but they don’t show up in this view.

The next photo looks at the view that is behind the hiker as he or she approaches the Half Dome’s shoulder – there is a photo looking towards the Dome in Saturday’s post that shows that view. The mountains in the distance are called Clouds Rest.

Next, a rock climber is practicing the sport on the escarpment at the edge of the Dome. The escarpment is visible from the Valley below, but this climber would be invisible from there. The Valley, as seen from this vantage point, is 4,400 feet below! The time of year that we were there is the high season for climbers, as we later learned.

Final photo, the view of the top of the cable route, as you would see it on your approach back down from the peak. From here it appears to disappear off into nowhere…but the climb down is much easier than the climb up. The woods in the distance are part of the hike - characterized by switchbacks and probably 600-800 feet of elevation change.

I’ll close with a brief mention of the relatively new permit requirement for climbing the Half Dome.  When Chris and I did the hike in 2005, permits weren’t required, but NPS and Yosemite decided for safety and preservation purposes it would be best to limit the cable route to the summit to 200 hikers a day.  There are more details on the Yosemite web site under the “plan your visit” tab.

Half Dome Reprise – Part 2

(Note:  Mary and I are traveling this week – we’ll be in Las Vegas for a trade show and then we’ll head down to Flagstaff and day trip up to Grand Canyon.  I’ll have some posts on that next week, but in the mean time, I thought I might repost this old series about hiking to the top of Half Dome during a trip to Yosemite in 2005.)

Chris and I decided we would go out and take on this hike as an alternative bachelor party for him, as his wedding approached later that month. We had prepared for the long hike over the course of the year, relying extensively on the Shenandoah Day Hikes book, which supplied us with four training routes in SNP, and Hiking Upward, a blog-style site that provides a pretty exhaustive review of more than 50 hikes in the Northern Virginia area.

So our hikes included Limberlost, Dark Hollow, and Hawksbill Summit, as well as the New River Falls, all in SNP. On one day, in fact, we hike the first three in succession. We also had an early climb of Sugarloaf in Maryland, and did a couple of the Knob hikes from Hiking Upward.

I figure our longest hike, crafted out of these excellent resources, would have been about 8 miles and included 2,000 feet of elevation. Even though this kind of workout in the heat of August here in Virginia went a long way to preparing me for the Half Dome climb, I could have used a bit more prep. And next time I will be sure to get it!

Now, more photos…the first two, above, are photos of me at the beginning of the hike – we started out while it was still dark. Folks who’ve visited Yosie will know that because of the depth of the valley, the light takes longer to get there – this photo was actually taken at around 7:30 am, something like two miles into the hike.

The second one is Chris at a stop we made at the top of the Nevada Falls. The trail leads up through the gap behind him, which goes to what is known as Little Yosemite Valley. There is a backpacking campground up there, available only during the summer.  At this point we were about ½ of the way through the outbound portion of the hike, and probably had only covered about 1/3 of the total elevation change.

Also, there are two photos of the waterfalls that highlight the hike – the Vernal (317 feet) and Nevada (594 feet) Falls. These two falls are within a mile of each other…but it is a steep mile - almost 1,000 feet of elevation change!

There is a fairly rigorous hike called the Mist Trail along the Merced River that takes you up to the Vernal Fall. One part of the trail, which walks along a cliff, is shown in the final photo. During the spring melt, these falls are really a show – I was lucky enough to be there during June and caught an incredible view from Glacier Point, shown here.

Half Dome Reprise – Part 1

(Note:  Mary and I are traveling this week – we’ll be in Las Vegas for a trade show and then we’ll head down to Flagstaff and day trip up to Grand Canyon.  I’ll have some posts on that next week, but in the mean time, I thought I might repost this old series about hiking to the top of Half Dome during a trip to Yosemite in 2005.)

 

The post starts with a map highlighting our route to the summit.  My friend Chris and I did the hike as an alternative to the traditional bachelor party, and it worked out nicely for that purpose.  We’d trained over the course of the summer by hiking several routes in Shenandoah National Park and on Massanutten Mountain, but none of those hikes quite prepared us for the altitude challenges we’d face – I guess we never quite tested ourselves on anything quite this long either.  Still, we made it, and we share some fond memories of the event.

The first photo shows a view of the mountain from Mirror Lake in the Yosemite Valley. The vantage point for this photo is accessible from most of the lodging and camping sites in the Park; it is a short walk from one of the bus route in the Valley. There is another vantage point that is always crowded with people. Which I find ironic, because it looks like blissful solitude abounds, but most likely the shot is being taken while the photographer is surrounded by 50 or more people! Of course I have a photo or two from there.

The next photo is the view as we approached the summit, about a half mile away and something like 600 to 1,000 feet left to climb. We did this in October 2005, while the trail was under construction and only open Friday through Sunday. The number of people in this photo is probably only 20 to 30 percent of the people who might be on this hike in the summer while school is out. 

The third photo is of the famous cables. This route is open from April to October every year – our hike was the last week in 2005. In 2010, NPS and Yosemite set a policy limiting access to 200 permitted hikers a day – check the Yosemite web site for details.

It is said that this route is unscalable to the average hiker without the cables. There are horror stories about people falling down, but the majority of folks can do this without much trouble. More likely there are traffic jams and the like that make this tough, as opposed to accidents. Not to say, there haven’t been any.

This last photo is Chris and me at the summit. It was a great feeling and a great place to be. While our training hikes were throughout the Shenandoah Valley, we’d not encountered anything quite like this (4,500 feet of elevation change, 17 mile round trip, etc.). As we started to climb the cables, clouds passed over and a wind started up, quickly dropping the temps to the mid-50’s, so we put on the long sleeves for the final ascent. Soon as we were up, the temp got back into the high 60’s and those duds had to come right off.

There are two more posts in this series to come.  Enjoy!

Half Dome Hiking Permits

(December 2010 update:  NPS has just made permits a requirement 7 days a week when the cables are up - http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/hdpermits.htm)


I’m a big fan of the cable route to the Half Dome summit – clicking on the Half Dome label at the end of this post will link to my story on this hike from when Chris and I did it in 2005. When I was at Yosemite National Park last month, one of the things I was reminded of was the new requirement for permits on some days to climb the Dome.


There is more detail at this site: http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/hdpermits.htm , but it appears that the NPS decided to limit weekend and holiday traffic on the cabled portion of the trail to 400 visitors a day for safety purposes. Apparently the permit requirement applies only to the portion of the trail from the subdome to the summit – the cable route, shown in the photo below.

I recall shortly after our 2005 trip, there was an extensive San Francisco Chronicle article that mentioned some accidents, including two fatalities, which had occurred because of the crowds. The dome is slick granite and is considered unclimable in this area without the cables. So if a person were to fall away from the cables…apparently that’s what happened.

The link above provides information about how to get a permit if you are considering the hike. Despite this requirement, don’t be discouraged from trying it – it is a true highlight of my hiking career. As an alternative, plan your trip for a weekday when the trail is less crowded. This is an interim measure, but the Park Service is working on a long-term plan to improve the management of this very popular route.

Upcoming Adventures

The gang at AOA have a couple of blogs that I have been enjoying quite a bit lately - one is adventure oriented and the other gear oriented.  Both are in my blog roll to the left.

I'm going to borrow one of Gary's posts about his Tech 4-0 watch later this week for the Tech-watch Geek series.  And Howard posted about a training ride they did the other night in preparation for a twenty-four hour adventure race coming up...

http://adventuresinthevalley.blogspot.com/2010/07/adventure-race-gear-shake-down.html

Looks like I have a couple of adventures coming up myself.  First, next week I have a work assignment in Yosemite.  I won't get to do the famous cable route, shown here from Chris's and my hike in 2005 (click to enlarge-those are people), but I count myself lucky on this one and will work above and beyond to get the deliverable right - there could be some downstream projects at other National Parks.  Way cool.

And my hiking group - we've done Signal Knob and Duncan Knob in Massanutten, as well as a hike in Shenandoah National Park - is trying to put together a wilderness overnighter in Dolly Sods (link is  http://fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5090664.pdf ), an adventure that is going to test the limits of what I've experienced on our hikes and adventures.

But I'm looking forward to these...as they say at AOA:  "Thrive Outside."

Post 3/Final - Half Dome Summit, Oct 2005

Here’s a final post on the Half Dome Summit Hike…the view near and at the top.


This first one is the view of the south face of the Half Dome from Little Yosemite Valley. When we got to the top of the mountain, we learned that there was a group of rock climbers who were making their way up this side while we were on our hike. They are invisible in this photo.



Also visible in this photo is the cable route. It is just to the left of the big pine tree on the right side of the photo, and shows as a faint line on the side of the Dome massif. As we stopped to take this photo, we could make out people up there, but they don’t show up in this view.


The next photo looks at the view that is behind the hiker as he or she approaches the Half Dome’s shoulder – there is a photo looking towards the Dome in Saturday’s post that shows that view. The mountains in the distance are called Clouds Rest.




Next, a rock climber, practicing the sport on the escarpment at the edge of the Dome. The escarpment is visible from the Valley below, but this climber would be invisible from there. The Valley, as seen from this vantage point, is 4,400 feet below! The time of year that we were there is the high season for climbers, as we later learned.




Final photo, the view of the top of the cable route, as you would see it on your approach back down from the peak. From here it appears to disappear off into nowhere…but the climb down is much easier than the climb up. The woods in the distance are part of the hike - characterized by switchbacks and probably 600-800 feet of elevation change.




Last year Chris and I took a recommendation from Hiking Upward, and hiked a three-state route (VA, WV, and MD) starting from the Loudoun Heights trail near Harper’s Ferry. This hike starts with a rigorous climb and traces part of the AT, walks through the old town and follows the C&O Canal for a short time.




After that hike, despite the fact that at one point hikers are on a bridge over the Potomac that also carries highway traffic, we agreed that this Mid-Atlantic trail was possibly as rigorous at the Half Dome summit. Although the views in Yosemite and the incredible Sierra climate are well worth the trip, there is plenty to do and see here in our area. No shortage of natural beauty or outdoor activities here!

Post 2, Half Dome Summit, Oct 2005

While I am on the recent topic of the Half Dome climb in October 2005, thought I would add a couple of additional photos and tell a bit more of the story.

Chris and I decided we would go out and take on this hike as an alternative bachelor party for him, as his wedding approached later that month. We had prepared for the long hike over the course of the year, relying extensively on the Shenandoah Day Hikes book, which supplied us with four training routes in SNP, and Hiking Upward, a blog-style site that provides a pretty exhaustive review of more than 50 hikes in the Northern Virginia area.




So our hikes included Limberlost, Dark Hollow, and Hawksbill Summit, as well as the New River Falls, all in SNP. On one day, in fact, we hike the first three in succession. We also had an early climb of Sugarloaf in Maryland, and did a couple of the Knob hikes from Hiking Upward.
I figure our longest hike, crafted out of these excellent resources, would have been about 8 miles and included 2,000 feet of elevation.

Even though this kind of workout in the heat of August here in Virginia, went a long way to preparing me for the Half Dome climb, I could have used a bit more prep. And next time I will be sure to get it!


Now, more photos…the first two, above, are photos of me at the beginning of the hike – we started out while it was still dark. Folks who’ve visited Yosie will know that because of the depth of the valley, the light takes longer to get there – this photo was actually taken at around 7:30 am, something like two miles into the hike.

Second one is Chris at a stop we made at the top of the Nevada Falls. The trail leads up through the gap behind him, which goes to what is known as Little Yosemite Valley. There is a backpacking campground up there, available only during the Summer. At this point we were about ½ of the way through the outbound portion of the hike, and probably had covered somewhere between 1/3 to ½ of the total elevation change.

Also, there are two photos of the waterfalls that highlight the hike – the Vernal (317 feet) and Nevade (594 feet) Falls. These two falls are within a mile of each other…but it is a steep mile - almost 1,000 feet of elevation change!


There is a fairly rigorous hike called the Mist Trail along the Merced River that takes you up to the Vernal Fall. One part of the trail, which walks along a cliff, is shown in the final photo. During the Ppring melt, these falls are really a show – have to admit I’ve only been to the park in the Fall season.

Fall Hike Plans and Half Dome Summit Memories

As the summer gets on, I’ve been thinking a little about some Fall hikes. We’re in the preliminary stages of planning but I have been thinking about Duncan Knob over in the GW Forest and then another Old Rag summit…we can do Duncan Knob on a weekend, but Old Rag is best during the week, probably in November. Proximity to these activities was a big part of our decision to buy the cabin.


These thoughts raised some nostalgia…it’s been nearly three years since Chris and I went out and hiked the Half Dome in Yosemite. Here is a hike map and some highlight photos.






First, a view of the mountain from Mirror Lake in the Yosemite Valley. The vantage point for this photo is accessible from most of the lodging and camping sites in the Park; it is a short walk from one of the bus route in the Valley. There is another vantage point that is always crowded with people. Which I find ironic, because it looks like blissful solitude abounds, but most likely the shot is being taken while the photographer is surrounded by 50 or more people! Of course I have a photo or two from there.




Next, a view as we approached the summit, about a half mile away and something like 600 to 1,000 feet left to climb. We did this in October 2005, while the trail was under construction and only open Friday through Sunday. The number of people in this photo is probably only 20 to 30 percent of the people who might be on this hike in the summer while school is out. Click on the photo and you'll be able to make out all the people on the trail - don't forget to nav back!

The third photo is of the famous cables (click on the photo for a better look, and nav back to this page!). This route is open from April to October every year – our hike was the last week in 2005. It is said that this route is unscalable to the average hiker without the cables. There are horror stories about people falling down, but the majority of folks can do this without much trouble. More likely there are traffic jams and the like that make this tough, as opposed to accidents. Not to say, there haven’t been any.






This last photo is Chris and me at the summit. It was a great feeling and a great place to be. While our training hikes were throughout the Shenandoah Valley, we’d not encountered anything quite like this (4,500 feet of elevation change, 17 mile round trip, etc.). As we started to climb the cables, clouds passed over and a wind started up, quickly dropping the temps to the mid-50’s, so we put on the long sleeves for the final ascent. Soon as we were up, the temp got back into the high 60’s and those duds had to come right off.


I think I will post a few more highlight photos of this trip during the next week or so. We lent to cabin to Chris and Jeanene this weekend, so we will have been away three weeks when we get back.