A Brit abroad

Climbing Half Dome

At 4am, 8 intrepid adventurers set out from Davis to do the 17 mile, 12 hour hike to the top of Yosemite's Half Dome. After a few mishaps (wrong turn, losing two of our party to motion sickness, trying to find a parking spot in Yosemite Valley) we began our ascent at around 9:30. The first part of the trail was a fairly steep ascent past two spectacular waterfalls. The spray from Vernal Falls was very refreshing!

White-throated Swifts are abundant around the falls (no Black Swifts unfortunately), while the California Ground Squirrels and Steller's Jays are highly approachable and eager to steal your lunch!

Having cleared the falls, the next few hours were spent hiking steadily uphill through coniferous woodland. At this hour of the day, much of the wildlife was inactive, though we encountered a few Mule Deer and Chipmunk sp. Several high forest bird species were in song, including Brown Creeper, Winter Wren, Nashville, Yellow-rumped and Hermit Warblers. As the trees began to thin out at around 8000ft elevation, I heard several Blue Grouse calling. In spite of hearing one almost directly overhead, I was unable to locate any birds - normally I would have invested more time looking, but today I had a mountain to climb!

We were all starting to feel a little tired by the time Half Dome came into view, and only 4 of us pressed on to attempt the summit. Reaching the summit of Half Dome involves a hair-raising climb along a metal cable - not recommended if you don't like heights!

Fortunately the thunderclouds looming over the nearby mountains didn't get any closer...

Here I am at the top of Half Dome with Liam. I felt the full weight of our eight year age difference as I watched him zoom up the cable ahead of me!

The exertion of climbing the Dome was rewarded with sublime views of the Yosemite Valley...

... and my first ever Yellow-bellied Marmot.

For me, the hardest part of the day was not the climb, but the knee-jarring descent down the steep steps at the base of the cable: two days have elapsed and I still flinch at the thought of stairs! After a well-earned break in which I consumed an obscene amount of food, we retraced our steps down the mountain. Greg headed out in front of us and had a close encounter with a young Black Bear - a species I have yet to come across. We stopped nearby to wash our aching feet in the refreshingly cold river:

We took a longer, but less strenuous route back to Yosemite Valley, and admired the granite bathed in the evening sunlight.

Due to our late start, we didn't make it down until after dark, and none of us were particularly looking forward to the prospect of the 4 hour drive back to Davis! Fortunately we remained in high spirits (with the help of Gatorade and a king-size Snickers bar), and I even saw my first shooting star. Thanks to Matt for organizing, and to Kim, Greg, Liam and Cinthia for great company - looking forward to next time!

The gang: Liam, Greg, me, Matt, Kim, Cinthia

Sunset over Yosemite

Posted by rjhall at June 28, 2004 11:22 PM