Yosemite and HALF DOME

15 miles? check. 

9 hours? check. 

4,800 ft elevation change? check. 

successful ascent and decent of the crazy half dome cables? check!

Last Saturday, Jeremy and I headed out for Yosemite National Park for our adventure to climb Half Dome. We had put a lot of time into training for this trip (we climbed Mt. Diablo - 13 miles and Mt Tallac - elevation 9,000+) because we knew it was going to be a pretty tough hike. Follow along our adventure of the weekend and Half Dome through the pictures below. 

Jeremy and I at Sentinel Dome eyeing our challenge for the next day

And the big day begins! This was what our sky looked like when we started the hike at 6am. 

 

Some lovely switchback stone stairs as we are headed up to Nevada Falls

 

This is the back side of Half Dome... the dip there is where we will be heading up on the cables

 And we can see the finish! Its a little ways away yet, but we are getting close!

 

See the cables?

 

Here is a better view

 And we are off! Its getting kinda slick since so many people have traveled this same path, the granite is somewhat polished. I wish I had a harness during this part!

 It was pretty steep. Good thing we had bright orange gloves to help us hold on!

 

WE MADE IT! PHEW!

 

 This is the lovely view toward Yosemite Valley.

 Not very impressive top of Half Dome... the view out was much nicer.

 The view toward the back side of Yosemite looking south east.

 Some other people coming up. Thankfully it wasn't that busy on Sunday so we didn't have to wait much on the cables.

 Headed back down. We've got this!

 I had to use multiple strategies going down... sometimes using both cables... other times using only one side... its tricky because you are passing lots of people in a very small space. And no one wants to move out of your way and let go of that cable.

 Some perspective. We started at the bottom of that valley, climbed around the back up to the top of Half Dome, then came all the way back down in 9 hours. Pretty amazing!

 

Jeremy and I aren't sure what our next big (or small, we like to write about those too) adventure that is coming up. Hopefully you will hear from us sooner rather than later :)