Half Dome – Yosemite Musing
Unrelated thought worth quoting: “I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see. “ – John Burroughs
*MrHalfDome – Rick Deutsch – www.HikeHalfDome.com
Half Dome – Yosemite Musing
The “other Yosemite” outside the valley is the northern Tioga Road area that many just don’t get to. If you want no crowds, the greater Tenaya Lake environs isthe place to hang. As you know, the Planning Department of the NPS is busy with scores of projects. You may not be following things closely, but the Tenaya Lake Area Plan Environmental Assessment Public Review is now available for public review until November 17.
There are 5 alternatives presented – including “do nothing.” The preferred alternative includes an accessible trail along the western edge of the lake between East Beach and Murphy Creek and within the East Beach and Sunrise Trailhead areas. Many existing trails located within ecologically and culturally sensitive areas would be removed and restored to natural conditions. This alternative includes 9.7 acres of ecological restoration within areas currently affected by visitor use, creation of volunteer trails, and stormwater erosion. The trail systems around the lake and north of Tioga Road would be realigned to avoid sensitive natural and cultural resources and support protection and restoration, and use of pedestrian bridges and boardwalks over waterways and wetland habitat would restore hydrological function of major waterways. Visitor parking capacity would total 215 spaces.
There will be a presentation of the plan at 2:30 pm during the regularly scheduled open house in Yosemite Valley on October 27, 2010. The open house is from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Auditorium in Yosemite Valley. Park admission is free for open house attendees. Click <HERE> to learn more.
Unrelated thought worth quoting: “Walking is good for solving problems – it’s like the feet are little psychiatrists.” -Terri Guillemets
*MrHalfDome – Rick Deutsch – www.HikeHalfDome.com
Half Dome – Yosemite Musing
My trip to Yosemite last week ended with a pleasant surprise. I picked up a flyer promoting the park this fall. It hyped a special they are running – Stay one night in a unheated tent cabin at Curry Village and get another night free.
So $40 for 2 nights!! Done deal. They require that you book it under those terms. Luckily I had the flyer to show that I was aware of the deal (it did not say you had to have the flyer), so they gave me that rate. If you are heading up and have a good sleeping bag, you may be able to tolerate the chill at 3 am. There are restrictions – like the pre-booking mention and I think it runs thru Nov 15.But check it out by calling Park Reservations at 801-559-5000.
For those unaware of the real “Diving Board,” here is a photo.
Unrelated thought worth quoting: “Fighting soldiers from the sky. Fearless men who jump and die. Men who mean just what they say – the brave men of the Green Beret.” – Ballad Of The Green Beret, Barry Sadler
*MrHalfDome – Rick Deutsch – www.HikeHalfDome.com
Half Dome – Yosemite Musing
The 2010 Season was a success in that no one fell off the cables. The last (and only the 2nd one since 1919, when the cables are up for summer use) was last June. Weather was the main cause. Hail and rain. The storm we had out west 2 weeks ago produced a close call. A woman hiker slipped coming down sub dome and broke her hip. The Helicopter got her off. That day it hailed and everyone got off the rock safely. It was Oct 2; a permit day, so the light crowd may have helped the evacuation. Beats me why people go up when the weather is turning. In shorts and TShirts even.
The usage data is being analyzed and it looks like permit days were well accepted. But the mob moved to weekdays. The average then was about 700 hikers a day. The NPS needs to define the process for 2011 before the Xmas break. Coordination with recreation.gov is needed. Since campground reservations are good 6 months in advance, to help hikers coordinate accommodations and permits, I expect the plan to be rolled out before Santa takes flight. My advice is to book tent cabins NOW for your preferred hiking days. You can reserve them a year in advance. The permit process for 2010 and 2011 is an interim Superintendent directive, so I don’t expect the fee for permits to be raised. That would require a lot of NPS sign-offs. Indications are that physical “tickets” will not be needed, just the confirmation email. Stay tuned. You’ll be the first to know after I do.
Unrelated thought worth quoting: “Monday Monday, can’t trust that day. Monday Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way.” – Momas and Papas*
*MrHalfDome – Rick Deutsch – www.HikeHalfDome.com
Only photos today. Read the last blog for the exciting details.
Follow the cairns
Lost Lake
So near yet so far
Lost lake from above
You gotta be kidding
Hadrians Wall
A legend in his own mind
Unrelated thought worth quoting: “Can’t you see that I’m lonely – Rescue me.” – Fontella Bass
*MrHalfDome – Rick Deutsch – www.HikeHalfDome.com
Half Dome – Yosemite Musing
Thursday was “no excuses day”. As much as I wanted to curl up in my 700-fill down sleeping bag and wait until daylight, I got my tired bones up and out of my tent cabin and hit the trail at 6 am – on schedule. Although we are having a minor warm trend, it was nippy when I headed up the John Muir trail with my headlamp on. I wore my zip-off leg pants and a Northface APEX windblocker jacket. For this hike I used my suspension backpack with a 2 quart bladder and one 1-quart Nalgene inside. I was the only one on the trail. I didn’t see anyone until I was on the upper Mist Trail! The rain last week filled the falls.
As usual I started to sweat under the jacket which made things uncomfortable, but I didn’t want to get caught under-dressed on this big hike. Dark hits about 6:30 pm and I had no idea what time I’d be back. I carried internet summaries of the route. The beginnnig was pretty easy – taking a spur off to the left in Little Yosemite Valley. Then through thin woods and to Lost Lake. That was pretty cool. It’s a large area – maybe 3 football fields – and was about 20% full. It’s very marshy at the banks, but it could be used for pumping water. A nice worn trail runs to the south of Lost Lake for about a mile. Then things peter out. Rock cairns help point the way. I had tried to follow the text of my aids but ended up going down a large gully between Mt. Broderick and the Cap of Liberty. Backtrack for a half hour. I stumbled upon another series of trail ducks and an apparent route up to the Diving Board. The approach to Snake Dike is coincident for a while.
My quest degenerated to some hard core scrambling and old fashion bushwacking. Then a complete absence of cairns. I could have used a machete! Where to next? When I decided to backtrack to the cairns I could not find the route I came up on. It all looks alike. I heard voices and caught a fleeting glimpse of 2 climbers off aways. But I had a forest and boulders between us. There are a ton of Manzanita bushes to impede any forward movement. The base of Half Dome is vertical but the slabs at the base are very steep. I was maybe 100 yards from the wall. At noon I decided 6 hours was enough and I didn’t want to get caught lost and become a statistic. I found a nice shaded boulder and kicked back for an hour. It was totally silent. No noise at all. I could hear my pulse in my ears. I sat at about 6600 feet and gazed over at Mt. Starr King, Mt. Broderick, the Cap of Liberty and Merced Canyon. There are 2 huge formations there. I was pretty close to Half Dome but nowhere near the Diving Board. Enough. I hiked back and played a bit at Mt Broderick. Tried to scramble up the steep backside but the lichens made it real slippery. I had one nice slide down the slope on my butt, and decided to bring it home before I bonked on a hard granite block.
I’ll save it for another day. Adding to the fun was my use of a crappy Magellan Triton 2000 GPS. This was an eval unit I got last year and was subsequently pulled from the market. Firmware issues and the batteries were going dead in 2 hours. I brought it since I could not locate my Garmin 60CSx. The key would be to create a route using the long/lat from the internet summaries. Then my friggin’ bladder sprung a leak inside my pack down by the valve, soaking everything and wasting precious water.
Despite all this I had a blast. All alone exploring like John Muir. This is a great hike to just get away and see someplace new. It would be a fun overnight if allowed. No photos today. The Curry internet is having router problems and connection is a long wait. Pix clog the bandwidth. People doing Skype and downloading photos really put the kibosh on things.
I am off Sat to Groveland to give a talk to the Southern Tuolumne County Historical Society. Staying at Hotel Charlotte. Dunno if they have wifi so the blog might be late.
Unrelated thought worth quoting: “You need special shoes for hiking – and a bit of a special soul as well.” – Terri Guillemets
*MrHalfDome – Rick Deutsch – www.HikeHalfDome.com
Half Dome – Yosemite Musing
What a gorgeous fall day at Yosemite. Clear skys and about 75 degrees. I snagged a $40 tent cabin. Usually this time of year it’s cold at night, but the high pressure ridge will keep things in the low 50’s. The crowds are down and parking is a breeze. The gate had a sign saying all campgrounds were full. The trail crew got a little behind and the support poles and 2×4’s are all off the rock today.
My plan is to get up at the usual time (5:30) and hit the dirt up the Mist Trail. The goal is to get to the Diving Board. The real Diving Board on the west side of Half Dome where Ansel Adams took his famous face shots. I’ve found some info on the net and have printed out a guide route. Go to Little Yosemite Valley, and hang a left when the hills on the left peter out. Swing between Lost Lake and Mt Broderick then descend and stay in the woods and go up. I have my GPS and will give it the college try. There is some scrambling and fighting thru Manzanita but I have my full fingered gloves, long pants and gaters. I’ll use my poles as far as I can then stuff them into my backpack. I’ll get water at the Merced. I have a 2 liter camelback and a 1 liter Nalgene. Tons of beef Jerky and trail mix. Sunrise is not until 6:30 so I’ll use my headlamp. If I don’t blog tomorrow night, send the dogs. The wifi at Curry is acting up so I hope to get a blog out. I’ll give a summary Thursday night if I’m not famished. The hike is about 10 hours RT.
Unrelated thought worth quoting: “In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
*MrHalfDome – Rick Deutsch – www.HikeHalfDome.com
Half Dome – Yosemite Musing
It’s been under the radar for months, but the park is continuing the effort on the Merced River Plan. It goes beyond the ¼ mile boundary of the river and will include mitigation plans for the valley – wall to wall. This also covers the parking situation. Oh yes. Years ago there were ideas to have everyone park outside and take busses into the park. That did not fly. Then they thought about building a parking garage at the west end. Nix on that one too. But pay attention when the drafts begin to come out. This MRP is in response to the lawsuit that hands were shook on to satisfy the plaintiffs.
I’ll be at Yosemite Wed – Fri and may attempt to get up to the Diving Board. No cables so I gotta find something challenging to do.
Unrelated thought worth quoting: “If I could not walk far and fast, I think I should just explode and perish.” – Charles Dickens
*MrHalfDome – Rick Deutsch – www.HikeHalfDome.com
Half Dome – Yosemite Musing
As a Half Dome aficionado, I think it’s time we recognize George Anderson, the Scotsman who first made it to the top of Half Dome. At 3pm on October 12, 1875, George completed his days long trek to the top of the backside of the dome. Records were not too reliable back then so we only have 2nd and 3rd hand accounts of what he did. In 1873, master trail-builder John Conway and his “lizard-like” sons aimed to reach the top by climbing barefoot with a rope they fastened to eyebolts driven into fissures in the rock. They climbed three hundred feet above the saddle in this manner, but abandoned the attempt when they realized the upper part would require drilling the eyebolts into the granite. Anderson used the rope the boys had left to scale part way up. Anderson fashioned his own iron eyebolts, using approximately forty in his ascent of the dome.
Anderson free-climbed the incline wherever he was able to maintain a foothold. When he could climb no farther, he would reach as far as he could and drill a six-inch hole into which he drove one of the iron eyebolts. This drilling was done using a chisel-like tool that was turned by hand and struck with a hammer to dislodge the rock. Each eyebolt was a half-inch in diameter and stuck out approximately two inches from the rock. Anderson then fastened his rope through the “eye” or ring-shaped end of the bolt. The greatest challenge arose when he had to pull himself up onto that bolt and balance on its protruding ring while drilling the next hole. He continued this process for approximately 450 feet up the side of the Dome. The route is not known and is the subject of an NPS study to identify it.
Each night Anderson returned to his camp at the base of the dome where he would prepare the bolts and rope he needed for the next day. His drills also had to be re-sharpened on a regular basis. The next day he would climb back up the rope he had left in place and recommence the slow, laborious process. It is not known exactly how long it took Anderson to make his way to the top of Half Dome; some sources say it took about one week others believe it was longer.
His rope lasted just a few years due to the severe winter storms. He died in 1883 of pneumonia and is buried under a humble rock in the Yosemite Cemetery. A tip of the hat to George Anderson.
Unrelated thought worth quoting: “There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.” – Sir Rannulph Fiennes
*MrHalfDome – Rick Deutsch – www.HikeHalfDome.com
Half Dome – Yosemite Musing
Columbus Day means the last day for hiking up Half Dome. If you didn’t do it this year, keep alert for the process for 2011. Odds are that permits will be required every day, but we shall see. On the good side, permits days were actually very light. Only about 200 of the available slots were used. Look for a rise in the “fee’ from $1.50 this year to something more of a deterrent to no-shows next year. People who have to spend $20 or so will be less likely to buy an overage and then toss them. And don’t think the NPS will keep the cables up a few more days since the current weather is good. They need to schedule crews to get up and remove the poles and boards, then store them away. You can still do the hike but you wil not be able to safely get to the top. Although the cables are physically still there and are NOT taken down, they are used by trained climbers coming down after their big wall summit. Two women hikers died in 2006/7 by slipping while rappelling using just the cable.
In other news, last week CHP officers examined 30 commercial buses that travel into the park. Those behemoths carry international tourist s from gateway towns into the park then clog spots like Tunnel View and Bridleveil Fall. Out of the 30 inspections conducted, 18 buses were found to be safe, with no violations, and were released without citation. A total of 12 minor “fix-it” tickets were written. Of those 12, three were for logbook failures. Another two buses were taken temporarily out of service for logbook violations. No buses were taken out of service for mechanical deficiencies.
Unrelated thought worth quoting: “An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.” – Henry David Thoreau
*MrHalfDome – Rick Deutsch – www.HikeHalfDome.com
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