Conquering HalfDome

To the uninitiated people, who don't know what/how/why is Half-Dome, do follow the links

* About Half-Dome in wiki
* About Hike in NPS site




Technical Details of our Trip:

Date : 26th July 2008.
People: 6 (Amar, Kiran, Lakshmi, Schunder, Shilpa, Sudarshan)
Vehicle: 1
Total distance walked: 18miles = (16 - HalfDome hike + 2- lower yosemite falls)
Total hours spent in Yosemite : 14hrs (12 + 2)
Places seen/visited: HalfDome + Nevada Falls + Vernal Falls + LowerYosemite Falls
Distance Traveled (on car): 350Miles
Some Photos : My Picasa Web Album
More Photos by Kiran: Kiran's Picasa Web Album
Video clip made by Scud: check here @ youtube

The plan for the hike was made sometime back only by Kiran/Scud and friends. I had plans of going to NewYorkCity and hence had told them that I can't make it. But my NYC trip got canceled, and I should admit it was all for good. I requested them that I too will join them in this hike, and well, they all agreed.

Well, here was what we had planned for Saturday - 07/26/08
leave bayarea by 10:30pm (on friday night)
reach Yosemite ~ 2.30am
start hiking from 3am
reach the peak ~ 7.30am
- have break fast
start down at 9am
reach the bottom at 3pm, hunt for camping site - if we dont get any and are in a bad condition - we can head back else camp.


What happened exactly:

We started almost 1hr30mins later from Bayarea. Reached Yosemite valley base by ~3:50AM, Slept for ~1hr inside car only. Got up at 5AM and took some fruits, energy bars, and water+electrolytes. After using restrooms, packing food, when we left Base to hike HalfDome, it was ~6AM. We started slowly.. Yosemite is a cool place, and also the trail to hike goes inside redwood forests, hence it was all cold and perfect whether. Hence it reduced our water consumption. Along the way, I got the first view of HalfDome, at a long distance. The site along the path were beautiful.




After crossing top of NevadaFalls, me and Kiran picked up some speed, as we were talking about kannaDa literature and similar stuff. We reached the base of HalfDome ~10:30AM. The only thing left to conquer HalfDome was Hiking with the help of Cables put up. There was already a big queue. I took a long rest of 25mins there.. ate some fruits and a energy bar. When I reached the top of HalfDome, it was 11:45AM and the feeling was great. That too, the last 400ft hike with the help of cables made the trip completely unique. Unfortunately all in the team couldn't do the last stretch.
While coming down, we came along with Nevada and Vernal Falls. After coming down, went to Lower Yosemite falls too. Couldn't find a camp ground there as it was already late, and hence came back home.

From Friday morning 6:30AM Till Saturday/Sunday Night 2AM (~43hrs), I (and some others in the team) had just 1hr of sleep :O