Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Half Dome 8-12-06

I climbed Half Dome yesterday with 800 of my closest friends. ...well, actually, there were 5 in my group. But there was a park employee counting heads at the base of the cables, and when we descended, he had counted around 650. And there must have been more than 100 going up after us.

The cables were a big traffic jam. Unfortunately, people move up or down only as fast as the slowest person. I always climb outside the cables, and skip the congestion.

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I'm glad I did it last year AFTER Labor Day. This attraction is screaming for a permit system.

Heading up to Yosemite in 2 weeks. We're doing Half Dome, but leaving at midnight for, hopefully, sunrise on the summit. Glad I did the Slabs Approach last year, before it tanked by rockfall. Nice Pictures!

Gusto

Gusto: Two years ago I did just what you intend to do: hike that Half Dome trail at night to see the sunrise. I started at app. 11:00pm. When I got about a mile above Little Yosemite Valley I encountered a mountain lion that was watching me from about 50 feet off the trail. I was stopping every 10-15 minutes to check my surroundings. I would swith my Myo 3 headlamp from LED to Xenon Halogen and caught his eyes in the beam. He was not threatening me, just watching. That went on for about 20 minutes, while I was blowing my whistle and hittiing my trekking poles togther. It them dropped to a croutching position and came forward several yards. At that point I put my back to the largest tree I could find and kept making noise. Never once did I take that xenon beam out of its' face! I needed to make myself make look bigger and I remembered I had my emergency blanket in my day pack. I took that out and wrapped it around me. The lion left after about 10 minutes. I stayed where I was for about another 30 minutes making sure it wasn't trying to come around the back side of that tree. Reality was that if it wanted me, I would have been dinner. I finally thought it safe and headed back down the trail. I highly recommend a Myo 3 or similar head lamp. You can use the LED for hiking the trail and switch to the xenon buld to check your surroundings as it throws a beam way out there. I chose not to summit that day as I had little energy left! Good luck on that hike and be careful. Bob

Wow!

I did the midnight hike a few years ago, but won't do it again, but because the drive home after being up all night was dangerous -- everyone was so sleepy!

That night I did the hike, we weren't scanning the perimeter with a bright light, but there were at least 50 people on the top at sunrise. I got there several hours before dawn, and you could see headlamps many places through the forest.

This past weekend, we met people coming down early, and I asked them about the sunrise crowd. They reported there were maybe 50 up there at dawn. And the moon was just past full, so the number may have been higher this weekend than on others.

It sounds like bob was out on a night when there weren't any other hikers -- he didn't mention anyone else coming along. I am passing on the warning to several guys here who like to lead groups up every year.

Yikes!

Freaky story. The only encounter I've had with mountain lions has been in the Santa Monicas (from a distance, luckily!). I'll keep that in mind as we trek up the trail. I'll be going with 3 other hikers, so numbers should help in that respect.

The only other time was when I was hiking out of the Grand Canyon at night. We left Bright Angel Campground at 3am and were hiking along the Coloardo. Where the trail bends inward and up towards the South Rim I came around a corner. The top part of my LED caught two green eyes staring at me from about 15 feet away in a crouching position. I screamed, "Holy ****." My friends behind me got totally freaked. Turns out it was a deer on an embankment with its head crouched down. After that, I was on high alert! HIking in the dark has its exciting moments for sure.

Gusto

when hiking in grand canyon area - not only are mountain lions a concern - but now also jaguars too have crossed the border and found a new home

Wow! Just saw that photo of the cables. I have been up there twice. In 2000 and 2002. In 2000 I was one of two people on the cables as i ascended. I never saw the cables that crowded. Just as the freeways become more crowded, so do the trails. It's good to know many people out there hiking, but yikes, that's insane! I did Cloud's Rest from Tenaya Lake this year. Great long day hike. Passed a few hikers and backpackers and enjoyed the thrill of walking on the crest with only 3 others around. Try that next time you are in Yosemite.

That cables picture reminds me of the pictures I have seen of Everest lately.

The mountain lion story gives me mixed emotions. A recent story in the LA Times quoted the Fish and Game Department saying that bringing back hunting with a quota system would reduce the number of encounters with humans as it would once again give lions something to fear. Right now lions are on the top of the food chain and have no natural predators. The same article quoted a recent study that said hunting does nothing to prevent human lion interaction. The study was done by a mountain lion preservation group. I don't know where I stand but do know that it would be good for both humans and lions if they BOTH had a healthy fear of each other. I don't think that is the case now. So maybe I do endorse limited hunting.

Wow! The last two times that I hiked Half Dome just happened to be free admission days to the park (one was in June and the other was in September). Fortunately, the second time we left before sunrise so we only were surprised going down (and we found out by making a rhetorical remark about the previous trip to the people coming up).

So what are the people doing that look like they are waving their hands up high? Are they coming down? Somebody is even in a squatting position!

> So what are the people doing that look like they are waving their hands up high?

Just before I took the picture, I yelled something like "OK everybody, look this way and wave!" It looks like a few were game. Don't know what that person was doing sitting down.

The park employee I spoke to remarked about the stuff that people lose while on the cables. That day it was a camera and a GPS. On a previous day, it was two cameras.

The last time we did Half Dome, the cables were just as jammed as they were in the above picture. I'm guessing that the guy sitting down is doing so because it's more comfortable than standing for the next 5 minutes while waiting for the line to begin moving again. At least that's why I sat down once or twice the time we went.

CaT

Jeez! What a nightmare!

I'm planning on hiking up there over Columbus Day weekend (October). I hope it's a little thinner when I go, but also hope for that beautiful weather!

No thanks! Looks like a line to a Disney ride. I explore the wilderness to escape crowds. I can have all the traffic jams I want on the 405 freeway.

Sheesh, that's a lot of people.

The first time I did it as a day hike from the Valley was in 1969. There were about 4 people along the way. The second time was later that summer as an overnight - slept on top during the Perseids Meteor Shower (around now I suspect) with 2 others.

The next two times were about 10 years ago and 4 years ago - both as part of backpacks, one from Reds Meadow and one from Tenaya Lake. On those I was camped about 2 miles from the top and was the first one up in the morning. So either the sunrise types had come and gone or there weren't any. There were more folks as I headed on down but still nothing like that.

I know that I would not be able to deal with that kind of crowding and waiting. I want the anxiety over quickly and not keep staring up waiting my turn.

I also believe that the granite is much smoother, boot-worn than when I did it years ago.

And do I read that there is now an employee (ranger) stationed at the cables full-time?

Oh, there were also no piles of gloves when I did it years ago!!!!!!

I did Cloud's Rest just about two weeks ago - there were quite a few folks on top.

> And do I read that there is now an employee (ranger) stationed at the cables full-time?

No. He was just up there documenting the conditions on an August weekend. It sounds like YNP may be considering some changes -- not sure what.

Bob - glad you were ok. I just can't resist:

Two Yosemite mountain lions were talking-

Marge, you can't believe what happened to me last night.

What?

I had just finished dinner and was relaxing next to the Half Dome hiking trail. This climber comes huffing along and sees me. Instead of just going on his way, he shines this very bright light at me.

How rude.

Yes, then it gets more interesting. He started making making a bunch of noise. So I decided that I better quiet him down before he woke every animal around and started walking towards him.

Did that work?

No, he just tried to hide behind a tree, but still keep making a racket. Not sure what that was all about, since the noise made it easy for me to find him if I was still hungry. Don't much like human for dinner anyway.

Then what?

Then he put on this shiney thing. Made him look rather silly actually. He didn't do anything else very interesting, so I finally got bored and left.

Silly humans. First they spend all this time climbing up that dumb rock where there's nothing up there and then they pull a stunt like this. I never could understand why they think they're at the top of the evolutionary tree.

WA, That was pretty funny. I liked reading it. What may have been in the mountain lion's mind wasn't even thoughts like we have. My speculation of what's going on in its mind was: food, caution, kill, eat. And they're all blurred together in some automatic instinctual behavior and behaviors that were learned from its mother and adjusted by experience. Bob

I'll be doing Half Dome the day after Labor Day. I've been wanting to do it for awhile. If the cable section is that crowded, I'd consider going outside the cables. Is it that slippery and steep or are the cables just for the tourists? Would I have any trouble just using one cable?