The Adventure on Half Dome!

Ever since I was little and have been going to my cousins house I would see this picture hanging on their wall .

It was a granite rock/mountain named half dome. My aunt had grown up hiking it and I wanted to too. She told me I had to be 13 before I could go up (it can be very dangerous) so I still had a few years until then. Over the years, I sat back and watched as she began taking my cousins there and I still wanted to do it. Finally, 3 months ago or so she asked me if I wanted to make the journey to Yosemite and conquer Half Dome? I immediately said YES! But of course I knew I needed to talk to Joey before I could totally commit to it. You see, Yosemite park requires a permit to go all the way up to the top of Half Dome. In previous years they had as many as 1500 people going up the side of half dome to it's summit in a single day. That's a ton! So last year they began the permit system and only 400 are issued per day. You have to get them well in advance and can only get up to 4 at a time. My Aunt got her 4 and I was so excited by the possibility being one of the select few to go. I talked to Joe and he was okay with it so I told her to count me in!! 

After waiting for a few months and after many conversations with family members who had done it, I was getting nervous. From the time I committed to going I think a total of 5 more people died there and each time a conversation with my Aunt would follow, with her trying to explain to me what they did wrong and why I would be okay. So finally, 2 weeks into the semester, I packed my bags and headed to Yosemite with my mom and my Aunt. We flew in to Fresno, got out rental car, hit up Whole Foods for a ridiculous amount of time (we love that place!!) and started our road trip towards Yosemite. After a 2 hour ride, with the final hour consisting of nothing but swirling mountainous roads, we made it Tunnel View, a little parking lot where you have a spectacular view of part of Yosemite. 

Gorgeous huh?!

We carried on and made it to Camp Curry where lots of squirrels were awaiting our arrival so they could dig into our delicious food we brought. 

I discovered they like peanut butter filled pretzels!

We stayed in tent cabins, which are exactly as they sound, a little cabin covered in canvas. It was perfect!

We explored the shops a little bit, had some pizza and rocky road ice cream cones :) One of my Aunt's friends met up with us that night and we all tried to hit the hay by 10 or so. After a rough night of pretty much no sleep, the alarm went off at 4 am and it was time to get ready for the big hike. By 5am we were on the trail beginning our 19 mile journey. 

This shows our path, 9 miles each way

We spent the first hour hiking in the dark (kind of scary when you know bears are lurking all around) and made it to the first Waterfall, Vernal Falls. 

The people in the picture are not us, I just found this online so you can have a picture in mind.

We carried on, just the 4 of us girls through the mountains of Yosemite. We made it to the next big waterfall, Nevada Falls. 

Again, we did not take this picture. Thank you everytrail.com! :)

After a few more miles and a lot of switchbacks we made it to Misery Hill, an "oxygen stealer" hill that was named by my aunt's dad. All feeling good and also nervous for what we knew lie ahead, the cables, we carried on up Misery Hill! Unfortunately my mom was kind of struggling by this point just due to the extreme height and cliffs that were on each side of us so she turned around and waited for us at the bottom of Misery Hill. I don't blame her, it was kind of crazy! It could be called the "pre-half dome" because the same goes for both - if your not good with heights... well you probably shouldn't go up! 

This was all of us before we went up Misery Hill

Yep, I'm in a skirt and proud of it! :)

Once you get to the saddle, there you see the cables right in front of you. It definitely makes you second guess going up them!

The faint line in the middle are the two cables. 

I sat on the saddle for a good half hour, talking to other people to see if they were going to do it. I texted Joey and told him "I don't think I can do this. It's so much more extreme in person." Luckily, being the motivating soul that he is, he told me I could do it! Why do we need to hear those little reminders sometimes? Because it helped! But I still was not 100% convinced. I was nervous as heck! So my Aunt and I sat there for quite some time discussing the matter (this was going to be her 9th or 10th climb). She asked if I'd regret it if I didn't do it. I knew I would be so ticked at myself if I didn't! She said we'd take it one post at a time. We threw on our harnesses and headed for the cables about 100ft away. We clipped on our carabiners and started up. At first I was a little scared, but I quickly became so comfortable and was absolutely loving it! All of my fears disappeared!! There are times when it is very slippery (it's granite for crying out loud) but my Brooks Cascadias handled it like a champ! Eventually we made it to the top! I believe the actual cables part is about 400 ft and it probably took us a good 15 to 20 minutes to climb up and it was so worth it! Here are a few pictures of the insane view!

I was flippin excited!

As we were up there, a guy climbed over the edge finishing up his rock climbing on the face of half dome. Seriously nuts. It took him 4 hours.

It was so fun seeing all these people up there that were so freaked out before going up and every one would cheer for ya and you just felt such a great sense of camaraderie. Loved it!

After getting some food in us, we began our journey down the cables. I thought that was going to be the scariest part, but by then I was just so in love with Yosemite and the absolute majestic place that it was that I didn't even care that I was going down the side of a cliff looking out at everything. More people were coming up by this time so we'd have to stop and hang out at some points to let other people pass. We made it down, safe and sound and I was ready to go right back up those cables! But instead we continued down Misery Hill to where my mom was anxiously awaiting our arrival 2 1/2 hours later. As much as I would have loved to have my mom come to the top with us, or even sit on the saddle watching us, I'm glad she stayed a little below and out of view from the cables. I would have been concerned that she might have a heart attack watching me go up there! So I think it worked out well for us all! 

We started the hike at 4000 ft elevation and reached the top of half dome which was 8800 ft. 

4 hours later we made it back to camp.  After 12 hours and 19 miles, we were happy to take our shoes off, eat some food, and shower off. After a cruddy night sleep the first night, we slept like babies, just passed out and cozy in our tent cabin. 

The next morning I got up a little early and went for a 5 mile run through the valley of Yosemite. Holy cow, most beautiful run ever. I expected my legs to feel heavy and beat from the adventure the day prior but nope, they felt more strong than they have in a very long time. I was on cloud 9! 

It was an absolutely awesome trip and I am so grateful I was able to go with my mom and my aunt. I love them both so much! The only thing that would have made it better was if Joe could have been there. He would have loved the hike and I kept thinking of him the whole time! We are absolutely going to go together hopefully next year! The next challenge, doing the big hikes two days in a row (my aunt wants to do it back to back in the same day!). Why you may ask? Well, we know we can do it so why not test ourselves a little more. It just seems appropriate! So cross your fingers those park permit people will give us passes two days in a row! 

This trip taught me that if you have the desire to do something and it is a righteous desire, then sometimes you need to put your trust in Heavenly Father that he will protect you (I said a lot of prayers on that hike!!) and let the person your with, who is also interested in your well-being, nudge you in the right direction. I needed to have my Aunt up there with me because she is darn near fearless and she got me to take that first step up the cables, which is exactly what I needed. 

I absolutely can not wait to go back!

My mom took this picture outside of our tent cabin.