We arrived in Yosemite on August 20, 2010 and got our first glimpse of the BIG ROCK that we would be climbing the next morning. We then moved into our canvas tent in Curry Village and instantly appreciated not having to set-up or take down our own tent or make food!
Half Dome in all it's glory
Welcome to Camp Curry
The kids outside of our tent
We knew we would be having a 4am wake-up the next morning, so we got to bed early our first night. Much to our surprise we couldn't sleep because of a noisy trash can outside of our tent, a bear running around the camp, a family chasing the bear with bright flashlights, and a multitude of other happenings. I think I came out of that night hoping for 8 hours, but only getting about 3! Luckily the adrenaline kicked in and tired was not even in my vocabulary that morning.
We hit the trail at 5am! Hiking in the dark for about the first hour was a little terrifying knowing what kind of wildlife was out there, but luckily we only ran into a baby skunk and did NOT get sprayed.
Only 8.2 miles to go!!
The beginning part of the trail consists of A LOT of stairs!! These stairs are tall and torturous and really made us wonder if we would make it to the top. Luckily some highlights of the neverending stairs are that they lead you to two beautiful waterfalls: Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls.
Let the stairs begin!
"Fire Power" was what got us up those stairs
Vernal Falls
Nevada Falls
After a steep climb to the top of the last falls, Nevada, the trail leads you into Little Yosemite Valley where you get a little less of an incline in the trail. The perfect place to catch your breath and keep pushing on! Just when you start getting used to the nice foresty area you climb out and hit the Sub-Dome. This is where the trees end and you begin your last big climb to cables in direct sunlight on pure rock!
Welcome to the Sub-Dome (yet Half Dome still looks so far away)
Climbing the stairs up the Sub-Dome (just a straight fall down)
Once you complete the Sub-Dome you are at the cables. Nothing can prepare you for what you see when you arrive! These cables are close to a 90 degree angle straight up!!! We took a little breather at the base of the cables and then went for it!
The four of us right before we climbed the cables
We then were at THE TOP!!!! Everything that we had just done seemed so minor at this point. The view from the top of Half Dome was UNREAL!!! We could see where we started from along with a 360 view of everything! If the wind hadn't been as bad as it was up top, we might have wanted to stay up there for even longer.
We started way down where that road is
Jason holding the valley in his hand
Laying down to get a good view down below
Me and my dad on the very edge of Half Dome
Can't get much closer to the edge than this!
The 4 of us made it to the top!!!
We were anticipating the climb down the cables to be tough, but much to our surprise they seemed easier than going up! It only gets tricky when you have someone coming up while you are heading down and then you just need to find a way to brace yourself. We felt very accomplished once we made it down the cables!
Coming down the cables
Thumbs up for making it down safely!
The hike down (after the cables) was a little rough on the joints. We were starting to feel tired and sore, but knew that we had to keep going. Since we didn't want to take those awful stairs down near the falls again, we decided to take the longer trail (the John Muir trail) to the bottom. Less stairs was a nice thought!
At the top of Nevada Falls
A look back at Nevada Falls (on the right) and Half Dome (on the left)
We reached our camp after 20 miles in 12 hours!! We were feeling the pain at that point, but felt a huge sense of accomplishment for what we had just done that day! This was truly an adventure that we will never forget!
Back to where we started at 5am!
It was about 4:30pm at this point
If you want to see more from our trip, check out our video (compliments of Jason):
Way to go Leia and Jason! I'm happy you were able to achieve your goal. What an adventure, one that very few people can say they've done. I can't imagine how breathtaking it must have been up there, although I must say I cringed just looking at you next to the edge. Amazing! Thanks for sharing... we liked the video too, nice job Jason. And I REALLY like the picture of all 4 of you at the bottom of the cables.
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