Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Half Dome -- Easy or Hard?

Wait!!! How do you know my name????

Three of us did Half Dome last June. Left Curry Village at 6:15am, before the first shuttle bus, and hiked to the trailhead. Did the entire roundtrip (18.5 miles) in 10 hours, got back to Cury Village at 4:15pm. A long day, and the months of doing stadium stairs really paid off. Plenty of granite steps going up the Mist Trail, at Nevada Falls, and at Quarter Dome just before the cables. The cables were really quite easy, took about 15 minutes up, and 35 minutes down (many more people on the cables as the day wears on). We'll be back this June 21st for our second time.

Michael T.

Hi Earlene hiked Halfdome I could never make it. Doug

FYI, the John Muir Trail route is about 1.2 longer than the Mist Trail route. Half Dome is about 7.6 miles from Happy Isles via the Mist Trail and about 8.8 miles from Happy Isles via the John Muir Trail. In addition, there is a walk of about 1/4 mile each way between the trailhead and the road.

The 16.4 mile figure sounds right for going up the Mist Trail and down the John Muir Trail. As I noted earlier, that is the best route.

Heck if i were you, with a tent and a few days, i'd leave my car at Yosemite Valley, get a walk-up camping permit for leaving from Tuolumne Meadows, hitch or shuttle over to Tuolumne, and take 3 or 4 days to work my way back. It's possible to even do it in one really gigantic day, but Lembert Dome and Cathedral Peak were mentioned, plus you said Half Dome of course. So you could tool your way across and do all three, great places to camp are everywhere, and then you'll have more latitude about time of day to be on the cables when there aren't too many people. And there are streams closer to Half Dome if you're approaching from that direction.

To clarify:

Day 1- park, get your permit, shuttle/hitch to Tuolumne, do Lembert Dome, camp at Tuolumne or at Cathedral Lakes.

Day 2-climb Cathedral, hike to a couple miles before Half Dome. (you'll want a bear canister)

Day 3- Half Dome ahead of the crowds, down to your car, not too late to get to Mammoth or Bishop for dinner.

So not to drag this one on too far, but has anyone done the Class 2/3 variation from the bottom of half dome?

I've done Snake Dike (seeing the dikes profiled at sunrise is beautiful), but it was a little more than class 3 To keep it vaguely relevant to this thread, we then had to descend the cables without gloves, but it wasn't too bad -- just be sure of each step.

I'm curious, though, about a class 2/3 route. What's the approach and which side does it climb from there?

An approach on Summit Post called the Slabs. I was wrong though, it is rated as Class 3/4. Anyway, was still wondering if anyone has done that and if so what was their impression of it?

I didn't see if anyone mentioned it above, but there was a death on the cables route last week: http://www.sierrastar.com/news/story/13513922p-14119934c.html.

Should probably wait until the posts are put back up (and dry weather prevails) if you are uncomfortable on steep slabs.

Dave

Hey -- I looked up the slabs route on summitpost and it seems pretty nifty. However, it doesn't go to the top itself: it starts at Mirror Lake and heads up to the base of the serious rock routes on the main (northwest) face. That appears to be the top of the slabs route per se. From there you can either go left (east) and join up with the main trail (and up to the top if you want); or right (west) and to the base of Snake Dike (on the southwest face) and then over to the Diving Board or back down the usual trail to the valley. Or of course you can keep going straight up the face.

Anyway, it sounds fun. I'd also be curious to hear from anyone who has done it...

Sorry to read about the woman on the cables. When I was there I was surprised at how slick the rock is along the cables themselves (from so many people over the years) and the number of people on it who looked pretty casual. Not to say that was the case with her, but it's good that there haven't been even more accidents.

There was discussion of the previous death in Nov 2006 and ways to do it more safely when the cables are down. http://www.whitneyportalstore.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=005377#000000

It's always amazed me that considering the complete lack of margin of error on the cables that there haven't been deaths.

This seems to indicate that there have been zero deaths with the cables UP since at least the 70s.

I guess only competent people make it up there?

Joel, there are hordes of totally clueless people that climb every year.

I've considered it one of the astonishing facts, that no one has died with the cables up. People lose hats, for example, and try to retrieve them. Nutty.

The slabs route is a climber's direct approach to the routes on the face of Half Dome. It doesn't go to the top of the dome as someone else mentioned. I've used it as approach when I lived in the Valley and it is not Class 2-3. It is Class 4-5 and depends on the use of some fixed ropes which may be of questionable vintage and has significant route finding issues. It can be wet, is subject to falling rock (and sometimes debris tossed from the summit). It is dirty, not fun or aesthetically pleasing in any way. The only purpose it serves is to provide a fast approach to technical climbs above.
Of course this is only my opinion, I could be wrong.

Ken -

Competent and Clueless don't have to be exclusive. I'm sure a lot of people on the Cables are both.

I'm also sure that a lot of them are scared witless and are hanging on for dear life. Something is going on that has kept them all safe and accident free.

I've been on the cables working my way up along with the crowd only to hear a water bottle making a hollow boing/ping/slide noise as it went down the granite. I'm sure everyone stopped, turned around, and watched it on the way before it went over the edge.

I wonder how many thought "Better the bottle than me!"

Quite an incentive to be careful.