I overslept, and only Brady got through of the other people planning this hike on June 19. I've done it once, about 16 years ago, with Brady, and he's done it once since then, with Faith. It was really tough, as I was not in shape, but it was well worth it and I'll never forget it. Last year they instituted permits, and limit those to 400 per day. This is another cost we pay for refusing to somehow limit our population. See the story below from the San Francisco Chronicle.
In the fastest five minutes of the year, Yosemite sold all the permits to climb Half Dome for weekends in May and June. For weekdays, the new required permits sold out in 23 minutes.
"We knew they wouldn't last a day," said Kari Cobb at Yosemite National Park. "It's the most popular hike in the park."
The rush could make the April 1 event, when Half Dome permits for July go on sale at 7 a.m., the most intense two or three minutes of the vacation season. If you're lucky, for a service fee of $1.50, you can get four permits.
On the first day of sales last year, when Yosemite first required climbing permits for weekends at Half Dome, they sold out in 32 minutes.
The hike up Half Dome in Yosemite Valley rivals Mount Fuji in Japan and Mount St. Helens in Washington as the world's most popular trek. In past years, so many people in Yosemite Valley attempted the climb on impulse that traffic jams of humanity often formed on the climbing cables.
On one trip with brother Rambob, we were stuck in place on a ledge at mid-wall for 30 minutes, with nothing to do except to wait it out and gaze across Tenaya Canyon. There were just too many people in one place, going both up and down on the cable.
Many have been unprepared for the physical challenge. From Yosemite Valley, it's an 8.5-mile ascent one-way with a 4,800-foot elevation gain. You climb past Vernal Fall, Nevada Fall and Little Yosemite en route to Half Dome's backside. The ultimate is the 440-foot cable ascent, where hiking becomes an act of faith, and you emerge atop the 13-acre (mostly flat) summit.
From the perch of a rock cornice atop Half Dome, Yosemite Valley looks like a miracle. Below you is nearly a mile of empty air. The canyon walls are framed by El Capitan on one side, three-spired Cathedral Rocks on the other. Long silver-tasseled waterfalls slide down the massive granite exposures of the towering canyon walls.
The best strategy to get a permit is to go to recreation.gov, the park's website for reservations, and create a user profile in advance. When the race starts at 7 a.m. April 1 (and again on May 1 for August), all you have to do is punch in a date and hope you don't get locked out. You can be out of luck if your server is slow or you can't break through the logjam of users. To get a reservation by phone, (877) 444-6777, seems virtually impossible. Many Chronicle readers e-mailed their frustrations over their failed attempts to get permits Tuesday.
By requiring permits, Cobb said, park rangers achieved two goals: reducing the number of people on the cables and increasing the level of planning and expertise for climbers.
"The numbers of people on Half Dome are down a quarter to one-third per day of what it used to be," Cobb said, with 300 permits now available from the reservation service, recreation.gov, and an additional 100 through wilderness permits from the Yosemite Wilderness Center.
The new process requires climbers to read safety information about the trek. That includes bringing enough water and food, and not wearing the wrong footwear. One time, at the foot of the cables, we ran into a group of kids on their way up the big rock who were carrying empty plastic jugs, and they asked brother Rambob, "Where's the water?" Another time, we saw someone wearing flip-flops who stubbed a toe. There are many such tales.
"Our search and rescue calls have been dramatically reduced," Cobb said. "With fewer people, you get the wilderness experience and they love it, not a parking lot of people." Providing, that is, you get one of those permits.
The Half Dome cables are usually in place the weekend before Memorial Day. Updates and info are available at nps.gov/yose; reservations at recreation.gov.
No comments:
Post a Comment