Half Dome is one of the most iconic images of Yosemite National Park and of the United States. It’s spectacular to view from the floor of Yosemite Valley and offers amazing views from the top of the dome as well. At 14 miles roundtrip and a few thousand feet of elevation gain (and then descent), it’s a challenging hike to reach the top, but not extreme. Needless to say, this hike is popular.
Last weekend, a few friends visiting from the east convinced my boyfriend and me to hike Half Dome. They planned it for September 27th, a Saturday, and while I expected crowds, I thought that it wouldn’t be nearly as crowded as during the height of summer. We started on the trail at 8AM with dozens of others that got off the shuttle bus with us and the race began. We started hiking quickly, passing several slower parties, but if we stopped to take off a layer, we were quickly passed by dozens more. When the trail bottlenecked, 10 or more folks would quickly file in behind the slower hikers. The patient would wait for the slow hiker to pull over, while the impatient would ask to pass.
For the first six miles of the hike it was like this, until we reached the top of the ridge with the view of the final climb ahead of us. Up until this point, we had been making pretty good time, hiking at this point for just under 4 hours, and hoping to make it back down well before dark to enjoy with some pizza and beer. We were naïve. Ahead was an impressive sight—lines of people like ants following the switchbacks up to the cables that assist the final steep push to reach the summit of Half Dome. Our pace was forced to a slow crawl, as we hiked for 15 feet, then stopped to wait for some descenders to pass on the narrow switchbacks. At the top of the hump just below the cables, you are almost at the peak—it’s just a final push to climb up the steep slab that’s protected by some sturdy cables to help your climb. At the base of the cables, we encountered a large swarm of people waiting at the base of the cables. Convinced on reaching the top, we got in the unmoving line. An hour later and 30 feet farther, we reached the base of the cables. Now it was only a few hundred feet to the top but we were at a dead stop.
There are two parallel cables that run up the steep slab to the top. If people climb on the outside of the cables and use one cable as the ascending line and one cable as the descending line, the pace would move smoothly and quickly. But people get scared with the exposure and steepness (understandably!) and instead, climb in between the two cables. When an ascender meets a descender head-on, one person has to step aside to the let the other pass, and the whole line halts. Thus, we were looking at another hour to climb a few hundred feet of cable. At this point, my boyfriend and I lost patience, and moved to the outside of the cables, quickly passing everyone on the inside. My east coast friends were a bit reluctant to leave the safety of the two cables however, and arrived at the top quite a bit later than we did.
After a quick snack, we began the descent. Again, the outside cable line moved quickly but the inside line was at a standstill, even at 3PM! There were several folks that were not going to make it down before dark. The rest of the descent flew by, and we made it back to the car just before dark, but hours after our estimated time of arrival. The pizza and beer tasted even better though.
Yosemite holds some fantastic treasures from the domes surrounding Tuolumne Meadows to El Capitan and Half Dome. But don’t expect to enjoy these sights in John Muir style solitude!
Have you experienced the crowds of any national park? Do you think there are better ways that the park staff could manage these crowds?