A week ago today I made a checkmark on my bucket list. Number 10 on my most current list was to hike Half Dome in Yosemite National Park in California.
About a year ago I had a couple of friends mention that they had hiked Half Dome, I had been to Yosemite for a day back in 2000 with my current roommate (she was visiting me in Sacramento) and my then boyfriend. As a flatlander from the Midwest I was amazed that there were people climbing and SLEEPING on the side of El Capitan and I bet at that time I didn’t even realize you could hike to the top of Half Dome.
The older I become the more risks I take, which is typically the opposite, but I’ve come to the conclusion you got to die sometime, so why not live life to the fullest, ride a mini cart down the side of the Great Wall, sit on top of a van in Murchison Falls 15 feet away from lions and get out into those woods and find a BEAR DAMN IT!!
If you’re facebook friends with me, you’ll know that I’m on the hunt (figuratively speaking) to see a bear in the wild. A word of advice don’t ever go bear hunting with me, you’ll never find one.
But let’s get back to Half Dome….a few months ago, I ring up my good friend Melissa and casually say “hey I have a trip to Hawaii at the end of June, why don’t I stop over in LA and we can go to Yosemite, maybe climb Half Dome?” We both google “Hike Half Dome” and collectively say, “oh shit…did you see those cables?”
So we start working out…errr I mean so Melissa starts working out and I occasionally climb some stairwells in whatever hotel I’m staying at and occasionally do some pushups. About 3 weeks before the hike, I get back on the Prepare for hiking half dome website…step one Start working out 2 months prior to your hike…well uh…let’s move on to step 2.
10 days before we head out to Yosemite, Melissa and I go on a hike with Mrrrrr (I’ll get to that story in a minute) at Sandstone Peaks in Malibu. It was 6 miles, there were a few times I clearly thought I’m out of my damn mind to be hiking Half Dome in 10 days. So I tell Melly later that day, I’m totally in for Yosemite, but the hike up Half Dome, ehhh doubt I’m in, I don’t want to be a casualty on the trail and drag everyone else down with me.
Mrrr decides a few days later he’s in for going to Yosemite with us. I tell him I’m not sure I’m going to do Half Dome; he says you can totally do it just pace yourself. I’m sure at the time he didn’t realize pace yourself would be a snail’s pace.
Before I get to the day of the hike I’ll explain why Mrrrr is called Mrrrr. Mrrr is in a witness protection program, that’s why I can’t refer to him by his real name. Just Kidding. His initials are M.R.R. and I said MRR huh? Kinda like Grrr…every time you’re crabby (or act crabby) we are going to MRRRRRRRR you…oh boy did we get a lot of mileage out of that…and were Melissa and I cracking up every single time.
The morning of the hike, we woke up at 4:30AM, made some breakfast, coffee and headed out from the North Pines campground to the trailhead. There were 5 of us to start, two of Melissa's friends, Stephanie and Melanie, Melissa, Mrrr and myself. Stephanie and Melanie are super cool girls….super cool girls who are like 25 and weigh 105 pounds on a bad day and who had been climbing all over the Yosemite Valley for the past 3 days and were now going on a 16 mile hike. Yeah you get the point they were way more fit than my old fat ass.
Within the first ½ mile the self-doubt was kicking in to full gear. Wow self-doubt is really a powerful thing. I was hiking along thinking- are you kidding me you dumb ass you’re not going to hike 16 miles in one day. You’ll never keep up with the rest of the group. This sucks I can’t breathe! Really why did you ever put this stupid goal on your bucket list…you should just go back to camp go back to bed and then sit in the river all day long.
I call out to Melissa and Mrrr overhears and I say, “I’m going to turn back. I don’t want to hold the group back. Nor do I want to be a casualty on the trail”. Mrrrr, sweet Mrrr says just make it to the waterfall. I say ok fine just to the waterfall. Mrrr was super sweet in that every 10 feet or so he’d peer over his shoulder just to see if I was still back there. I’d give him a wheezy smile.
We all made it up to the top of Vernal Falls (700 stairs later) thru the Misty Trail, and then up to Nevada Falls (another 700 stairs). By the time I got that far, I had decided I was going all the way albeit at a slow and steady pace, the thought of going back down the trail myself was more unappealing than pushing forward. Plus I wanted to be at the top of Half Dome!
There were all shapes, sizes and ages on the trail. Grandparents, grandkids, people in sneakers (which is really not advised for the granite part), people who’d made it to almost the top before but not the cables, people without water (which how they did it I’m not sure).
I’m not going to lie the last 2 miles up felt like an eternity, the last 3 miles down at the end of the night may have felt like an eternity and a half. It’s a toss up really. The final push before you get to the cables is another 700 stairs cut out of the granite, with very little shade, some open terrain and then finally the cables.
The cables are one lane with two way traffic and what feels like a 90 degree angle, people coming off the cables said it had taken them over an hour to get up to the summit (from the start to the end of the cables is a little over 400 feet…which seems easy until you realize that’s the equivalent of a 40 story building). It’s like a bad game of leapfrog or chicken on the side of the mountain. The rock climber girls had been up and down by the time we got that far, so one of them let Melissa use her harness. Mrrrr went first, then me, and then Melly behind clipped in, so if I did tumble down the side of the mountain maybe she could grab me by the nape of my neck.
As we start the trudge up the side of the mountain, I really focused on my breathing, my grip on the cables and tried to look only a few feet ahead of me, not the drops looming to either side of me. Twice people’s water bottles that had not been secured in their backpacks fell out and went “ting ting ting ting” down the side of the mountain. I’m pretty sure that’s when I said to Melissa “I think I might pass out”, but the fear and logistics of dealing with someone unconscious on the side of a mountain kept me standing on two feet. The people coming down the mountain were amazing with “you’re almost there. You have great upper arm body strength (which I said thank you but laughed at). You’re doing awesome” etc. really gave us the boost to push ahead and get to the top.
Being at the top of Half Dome was amazing, I said to Melissa and Mrrrr if I was a crier, I’d be crying right now. Those 8 miles up taught me a lot about myself, the push to persevere, how the encouragement of close friends, friends you’ve just met and strangers on a trail can give you the strength to carryon. I really feel like I can accomplish anything now, as long as I push the voices of self-doubt far out of my mind, keep a positive attitude and if you focus on just a few steps at a time, not the whole 8 miles it’s a lot easier to reach your goal.
We spent about 30 minutes up top and then cruised down the cables pretty quickly (not as many people coming up by that time of day). At one point as the sun was starting to drop Melissa “eh it’s about mountain lion feeding time”, while that encouraged us to move faster, we still ended up in the dark with our headlamps on. The last 3 miles were switchbacks down the John Muir Trail; while I was happy to not be taking the stairs past Vernal Falls and getting soaked again, those switchbacks were a bitch.
I’m going to do the Half Dome Hike again….I’m thinking next year but 20lbs lighter and with a harness and carbineer, so I cruise on the outside of the cables and skip the line like those bad ass 25 year old rock climber girls. Who's coming with me?
