Half Dome 2012 Lottery

[djhopscotch]

The lottery for Half Dome lottery opens today http://www.recreation.gov/unifSearchInterface.do?interface=applypermit&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=79064

I put my name in the hat, anyone else going to try this year?

 

[Robert Hall]

The lottery for Half Dome lottery opens today http://www.recreation.gov/unifSearc...ce=applypermit&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=79064

I put my name in the hat, anyone else going to try this year?

Just did.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[Vaughn]

My boys and I hiked to the top last summer. It was my second time to the top and at 57, it most likely to be my last. It is sort of a national park Disney ride. A tough hike, to be sure, but a bit of a zoo even with the limitation of the numbers. I am glad I have done the hike, and I am glad that I had the opportunity to do it with my boys.

If I am going to put that much effort into a day hike, I'll head off on a path less traveled.

Vaughn

 

[fotch]

Good luck.

 

[ROL]

Rather stick needles in my eyes than join that circus. There are other ways to "climb" Half Dome:

[video=youtube;H8ge8WA23T8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ge8WA23T8[/video]
​

FYI: Ansel Adams helped put up the cables one spring, though I'm not sure he was even sure of the year (not the same cables used today).

Source: CONVERSATIONS WITH ANSEL ADAMS
With Introductions by
James L. Enyeart
and
Richard M. Leonard
An Interview Conducted by
Ruth Teiser and Catherine Harroun
in 1972, 1974, and 1975

 

[PKM-25]

I bet it would be easier during the week like Mt. Whitney. 1/2 dome would be cake compared to what I normally do in the high country out here, I trail ran all 22 miles of Mt. Whitney in just under 7 hours a few years back...

Mountains = life, cities, premature death...

 

[paul_c5x4]

It was my second time to the top and at 57, it most likely to be my last.

A few years back, I took my mother up to the top - She was 72 at the time and put a few blondes out on a hen weekend to shame.

 

[Vaughn]

A few years back, I took my mother up to the top - She was 72 at the time and put a few blondes out on a hen weekend to shame.

If I do go again, I'll camp in Little Yosemite Valley or just a bit higher up. I'll take my boys and have them carry some of my camera equipment for me (probably just the 5x7 and not the 8x10). So I won't rule it out altogether, it is just that photography is more important than another trip to the top...and the view from the top is not all that unique or interesting photographically for me.

For that amount of effort, I'd rather take the 8x10 and start at Porcupine Flat and head to Indian Rock and North Dome (and back down to the Valley via Snow Creek or Yosemite Falls), or a similar hike...and on that hike I would not be seeing more than a handful of people, if that (except for the Yosemite Falls leg).

My parents hiked up to Mount Whitney at 60 years old. I have not been there yet, but getting to the top of mountains has never been a driving force for me. While backpacking in the Sierras I have done quite a bit of wandering towards the tops, sometimes getting there, most of the time not. Lying on my back in a high Sierra meadow at 11,000+ feet elevation calls to me as much as standing on the top looking down at them.

Vaughn

 

[DREW WILEY]

I recommend Balloon Dome instead. No lottery. No other cars at the trailhead. Think of going rim to rim at Yosmite, add a few thousand feet, PLUS climbing a dome considerably bigger than Half Dome. Bring your own cable. Other than that, about the same thing. Or if you'd like a bit
more casual hike, there's always Tehipite Dome down on the Kings,
with 52 miles round trip plus an even taller dome to climb. No lottery there either.

 

[Vaughn]

You are freaking nuts.

I got to meet you someday! And if I am nuts enough, take a serious hike with you!

Vaughn

 

[DREW WILEY]

Maybe we can hook up when I'm returning down the coast someday. From time to time I drive my
wife to Portland to see her mom then take the slow way back, then pick her up at the airport at the
end of the week. I'm not likely to be doing anything like Balloon Dome myself because I don't have the heat tolerance in summer I once had for the deep canyons. More of a coast and high country
guy now. But I am contemplating a late Spring tuneup hike to the overlook way above Balloon, though the odds of clear air for a really clean shot are not good due to pollen levels down in the
canyon. I'm slowing getting to be a geezer, but am planning a hundred mile backpack this summer with a fair amt of steep off-trail, but no real class 3 stuff, mainly because the fellow going with me
isn't a climber. But my hands are starting to get stiff with either age or carpal. I'm eager to retire and get away from these damn keyboards.