Let me tell you something, Linda. (If you don’t get that reference, please do yourself a favor and google it). ANYWAY, Half Dome was an incredible hike that definitely pushed me to my limits. It is NOT for the faint of heart. The hike is incredibly steep, very long, and a lot of the time you just have to keep repeating to yourself, “Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot” because your body most definitely wants to give up. That being said, this hike (and the park in general) in incredibly beautiful and serene, once you get past the mass groups of people trying to park and such. Here’s my journey:
Before we drove to Yosemite, we reserved a camping spot in one of the camps that was close to the start of the long hike. We arrived the night before, got our stuff ready for the morning so we could just get up and go without thinking! We made sure we had filled our camel backs, double checked our headlights worked, put out our hiking poles (which is a must for this hike, trust!), and put out our instant coffee and some snacks. Pro tip: put your hiking clothes inside of your sleeping bag during the night. I made the mistake of laying them out the night before. Waking up when its 40 degrees outside and putting on freezing clothes is the worst thing to start your long ass hike with.
The hike is very long so you HAVE to start out early af! Pro Tip: decide on a “turn around” time, meaning, if you haven’t hit the half-way point by a certain time, you turn around. NO EXCUSES. The whole point is to make sure you are not hiking down in the dark. Hiking down any mountain is very dangerous because you obviously can’t see as well, and by that time, your body is spent which causes you to try and get down as fast as possible. The best thing to do is just take your time and make sure you have a good footing before you decide to take another step. This particular hike was very steep so it was really important to follow this rule. We started our hike at 0400:
The first couple of hours was pretty brutal. It was dark, cold, and wet. A large portion of the hike in the beginning had us hiking either near huge waterfalls or IN huge waterfalls. So yeah, be prepared. Wear a warm jacket and a waterproof jacket on the outside. Don’t forget your gloves and beanie!
Honestly, the whole hike up was a blur to me. I literally had to say out loud “left, right, left, right” to keep going. The hubby made sure he was always ahead of me to keep me going. Every hour or hour and a half, we would stop for a breather, for no longer than 10 minutes to replenish with water and snacks. Pro tip: make sure you have some type of watch on during the hike to keep track of time and don’t forget about your turn around time! Having to take out your phone to keep track is seriously distracting. Other than repeating a mantra to myself and trying not to fucking die, I saw some pretty epic views!
So, we started at 0400 and reached Sub Dome at around noon. Here’s the thing for me, we decided to go during the off-season (so we didn’t have to get a pass to hike the Dome). This means that there is snow, lots of it. This also means that some of the paths were totally invisible and the actual cables to go up the last part of the hike (400 feet straight up) are just laying on the rock, instead of propped up with wood like it normally is during the season. Once we hit Sub Dome, I called it. I tried to hike up but it was so covered in snow, we couldn’t see the path. It was also very windy and there are no trees or anything to catch you if you take a misstep and fall. This scared the fuck out of me so I ended up sitting on Sub Dome while the hubby took my little brother to the end of the hike, up the main dome!
Here was the view at the bottom of the cables:
Here is the view looking down from halfway up the cables:
My hubby and little brother made it to the top! I didn’t get to see them do it (I was behind that second hump in the rock in the picture above) but they told me it was hard to keep their grip. A lot of people knew how to create their own harness on the cable for safety. However, they said they both ended up climbing the second half without a harness because there were studs in the cable, which means that they had to keep untying their harnesses, tying it to the next set of cable, over and over again. They said it was too tiring and took too long so they just went for it. Here’s the view from the top!
Once they were done getting back down, it was time to go back to our camp. Hiking down was actually harder than hiking up, to be honest. Your toes, ankles, knees, and hips are just screaming at you to stop. But…you have to get down so you suffer through it. We were pretty ahead of schedule so we did have some nice stops along the way down, here are some of my favorites!
Pro tip: Don’t be a dumbass like I was and decide to leave the park the same day you finish the hike. After a 17 mile, 14 hour hike, the last thing I wanted was to hop in my car and drive for hours. Another Pro-tip, do not take off your hiking boots until you are completely done with the hike unless you plan on wearing very open sandals. Your feet WILL swell up after such a long hike and you will not be able to get any closed-shoe back on for a while. Other than that, the hike was amazing and I definitely do not regret doing it! I actually took my little brother on this journey for his 17th birthday and he said it was the greatest gift he had ever gotten. So, big sister points for me! If you’re ever up for the challenge and want to push yourself, this hike is definitely on my recommendations list!