Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Fatal Fall From Half Dome

Here's a story about putting up the cables this year: http://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=20558
Note that the crew tied to the cables using prusik knots.

When I turned 40 my way of saying I wasn't getting old was by hiking to the top of Half Dome. I have made it to the top 17 times now. One simply needs to stand at the base of the cables and determine whether or not you are ready and able to make that 900 foot climb. My first 10 or so climbs to the top were quite uneventful but pleasant. I could set my pace, rest when I needed, even take some pictures on the way up or down. Those days don't exsit anymore unless I am at the cables early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The crowds have taken the fun away from the experience, and have made it a much more dangerous adventure. Families with children, indivuduals who get up there, etc, crowd the cables to a point where you can only move as the endless line of people move. Thus, when a child or someone else get scared and stops moving, everyone behind or above them also stops moving. On summer days, that literally can man up to a hundred of us stuck where we are until things move again. I have taken as litele as 30 minutes to get to the top, or as long as 1 1/2 hours.When the traffic stops on the cables, some brave folks go outside the cables to get up or down more quickly (including me) increasing the risk factor. I have never seen anyone clip on to the cables, not that one couldn't do it that way. However, if you need to do use that type of protection, it would slow the entire line up as you would need to clip and unclip numerous times where the cables a splice together and where the support poles are located, about 20 or so feet apart, all the way to the top. For me, I have found that unless you do Half Dome in the early or late season, or at night, the fun and experience is no longer there. Be safe, and enjoy the great outdoors!

Bobd

Four times. I think the first two times were the same summer on two separate trips out from NYC. 1972. First a day hike from the valley, next an overnight and we did spend the night on top. Perseid Meteor showers - absolutely incredible.

The next times were part of more extended overnights. One from Reds Meadown to the Valley. Camped about 2.5 miles from the Dome and was first one up in the morning. No one to compete with. More folks on the way down, of course. About 1993.

Next time was 2002, I believe. Part of a Toulumne to Valley via Clouds Rest and Half Dome backpack. Again, camped about 2 miles from the Dome. I was 3rd up that day as two women were just starting as I got there. Again, more on the way down, including a woman with her two children who were "slinged" to the cables with 'biners. They did have to clip/unclip at the poles and junctions but moved pretty smoothly.

There were no piles of gloves years ago, but I do believe that the granite had a texture back then that has been worn smooth my many thousands since those early 70's ascents.

I would not like being part of the herd.

I am also some what of an acrophobe but manage to swallow. But putting it off with hordes waiting would not help my mental state. Funny, I have always found starting up harder than eventually coming down.

Hope to do it again some day and again, with fewer folks as part of a backpack through.

I climbed it a long time ago. Must have been before the cables.

Um... Bob R., you are a *little* older than I, but the cables were put up in 1919. You ain't that old

Hi B think it's a set up Bob make have climbed up the face using those string things I see people carrying all over the Valley floor . Doug

The FS is probably trying for that elusive middle ground between nannyism and allowing for personal discretion, and evidently at HD (and many other places)they're inclined to the latter. What often escapes our attention is that every time you step into the mountains you're stepping into a time machine. You are going back a million years with all the attendant life risks that we are not used to accepting. It is good that we try to minimize risk, but it is not so good when we lose perspective on how much larger life's teeth are in the mountains than in the advanced urban construct in which we spend most of our lives.

As for the FS being sued, I believe that the government cannot be sued for civil torts unless it first consents, which indeed it has done in several areas but I'm not sure about wilderness accidents.

For those who know Kurt Wedberg, his Vinson team made it to the ice cap yesterday from Punta Arenas, unfortunately a week delayed in Punta owing to weather. They are probably on the mountain now. Think good thoughts for luck and fair weather for those guys.

John