So this weekend was Yosemite weekend and going on the trial "Half-Dome". What is 'Half-Dome' you ask? Well, according to the Yosemite National Park's website, it is the 'ultimate' hike, taking usually 12 hours (16+ miles roundtrip), taking you to more than 8000 ft above sea level.
So the hike was pretty nice... Saw two waterfalls during the hike, and got to see very many very nice landscapes. The climb was not easy, but definitely worth it.
A pic of the last 0.25 mile of the climb (the famous half-dome cables):
Up close, the hill looks very scary... and actually, if you climb half-way up and the line stops and you look down... well the feeling is interesting. But this part of the climb wasn't that bad.
The line was pretty long to go up this last part - supposedly some ppl waited for 3 hours and didn't get a chance to go up. But we waited and did get up to the top. Btw, if you wanna 'jump' the line, here's a trick that we used (after seeing the ppl lining up behind us do it - we followed them).
1) put on those gloves they have -- very useful
2) You saw two cables in the photo above right (and people in the middle)? There are acutally planks in the middle between the two cables for ppl to rest on. So now, imagine going along side the cable (not the middle) where no one is going up... you now have urself another way to go up the hill...
***DISCLAIMER: this method is not for the weak hearted! I am in no way endorsing this and will not be responsible if you fall in any way using this method...***
For me, what I did was this jumping the line technique for about a quarter of the hill, then looked down and went 'oh sh*t!' and decided to be a good boy and go back in the middle... but doing so got us ALOT farther up the line to the top.
On the way down was pretty scary at first (especially w/ zero grip shoes), but you get used to it and so the down part w/ the cables was definitely easier... also since it was getting late (we came down at 4:30pm), very few ppl were going up so the down part was not too delayed...
The most dangerous part of the descent was actually after the cables... 8000 ft above the sea level + zero grip shoes + going down rocks that were slanted + tons of debris and gravel covering it = one hell of a long fall if I made a mistake...
I slipped 3 times during this descent part, was going extra slow... and w/ my sore right thigh from soccer, and busted left ankle that hasn't fully healed, it was the hardest part of the hike for me (though others who went would probably say otherwise)... this part I struggled most with...
But having made it down this part was nothing...there was another event that few non-experienced hikers would ever want to experience: hiking on an unknown trail after the sun had set...
So as I mentioned before, this hike usually takes 12 hours total... if I had gone on the pace I wanted, I swear this hike can be done in 8 hrs or so; probably even less if I had some good shoes... but in the end, it took us 11 hrs -- since our team sustained some minor injuries along the way and was not at peak form probably due to the aggressive itinearay we had this wkend (see below)
Back to the night hiking... so since we started at 9:00am... we knew we would be pretty close to hiking in the dark towards the end... with 2.5 miles to go at 6:30pm (4+ miles if we chose the 'easy' trail), we were in for a scary ride when it was 7:30pm, and the sun had completely set. What made things even worse was the guy I had been following (some old guy who knew where he was going... decided to check out up on his injured friend - who had to get her leg bandaged along the way... putting me in charge of leading EVERYONE who was caught in the dark (which by a rough estimate.. was at least 30+ ppl)... Hiking on an unknown trail in the dark is very dangerous and taxing... what made theses trails hard was the trails don't look like trails in the dark.. since at one point you would go right through rocks that don't look like a trail at all; or there are two sand 'paths' to take... with one leading towards the edge of a cliff; or you are going down weird steps... with one side completely open for free falling!...
Needless to say, these 2.5 miles seemed much much longer than 2.5 miles. In the dark, it was impossible to see without a flashlight; I could have been walking towards the edge of a cliff had I not have a flashlight on me. Most memorable moment:
(as I am leading like 30+ ppl for what must have felt like 30 min now.. having passed yet another column of these neverending steps)
Me: What the fuk?... There's a cave in front of us...
Person right behind me (L): What?.. Sh*t.. There's a cave?
(... slowly the broken telephone line starts to propagate... )
(shining the flashlight around, frantically looking for a trail so we can avoid this cave route... but everything led to a free fall into the rocky recesses of Yosemite)
(Me thinking... there is no fu*king way I am going back up the way we came...)
(walking further into the unknown darkness and seeing what is inside this cave... it turns out to be an overpass)
Me: Phewf... It's not a cave... It's not a cave... Still good!
L: It's not a cave.. It's not a cave!
(... slowly the broken telephone line starts to propagate... )
Someone behind the line (later ID'ed to be Odogg): Fu*k! Make sure before you scare the sh*t out of the six seven thousand ppl behind you!
So eventually we got back... everybody in one piece...
So all in all, this Yosemite trip was pretty interesting. I would want to go to Yosemite again, but probably not on hard core trails or night hiking if I do.
Here was the 'proposed' itinerary for this weekend:
Fri 8:00 pm meet, eat and buy necessary items in San Jose
Fri 9:00 pm start 4 hour drive to Yosemite
Sat 1:00 to 2:00 am, arrive in Yosemite and sleep
(5 to 6 hr sleep)
Sat 7:00 am, up and prepare for hike
... 12 hours later (ca. 7pm) --> Half Dome Complete, sitting back enjoying some Heinis at the campsite
Sun
And here is the actual itinerary:
Fri 8:00 pm still at San Jose
Fri 9:00 pm still at San Jose
Fri 9:15 pm, started shopping for stuff
Fri 10:01 pm, wandering in mall to find dinner
Fri 11:15 pm, start 4 hour drive to Yosemite
Sat 3:00 am, reach Yosemite
Sat 3:01 am, lost in Yosemite, park ranger comes and takes us to registration
Sat 3:15 am, lost again in Yosemite (couldn't find our tent)
Sat 3:30 am, found the tent, move stuff in
Sat 3:45 am, we start cracking jokes cuz of our 'cabin situation (top secret classified event)', some guy knocks on our tent to tell us to 'stfu'...
Sat 4:00 am, we slept
(3.5 hr of sleep later)
Sat 7:30 am, woke up and got ready for hike
Sat 9:00 am, actually started hike ...
Sat 8:30 pm, eating pizza at the bottom
Sat 10:30pm, left from Yosemite -- the "city boys" didn't want to stay in Yosemite... the dark trail and fatigue got to them... the hiking in the dark might have gotten to me too, had I not been concentrating on ensuring I don't walk off the cliff as the head of the lemmings line...
Couple of advices below:
1) If you are planning to hike on hills, etc... consider using shoes that have grip.
2) Bring lots of water or gatorade (I had 3L)... that stuff hit the spot good
3) Walking stick helps a lot (imagine a stick that elders use... one of those things helps the hike uphill alot easier... a ski pole .. or my favorite -> a branch found off the ground is perfect)
4) Bring a flashlight if you know your hike might extend into the dark; without any kind of light, it gets EXTREMELY dark...
oh and btw... if you get in at 3:00am in the morning and leave at 11pm at night, there is no $20/day park entry fee!.. haha...
Another pic of the beautiful scenary taken along the trail...
And so Sunday, we went to good ol' Safeway and Ranch 99... bought 10 lbs of meat and coldcuts.. (and this time, I split up the meat before putting it in the freezer)... wuhahahaha...
2:44am Monday Morning - Mson out.
No comments:
Post a Comment