Half Dome Cables

After creating a day-permit system in 2010, they are evidently "re-evaluating" the entire plan for this year. The three options they are evaluating: returning to a no-permit system, continuing the permit system or... removing the cables! I'm curious to see how it plays out.

BTW -- the permits were only for Fri/Sat/Sun. If you are able to camp on the way up you can usually beat the crowd. You are no longer allowed to camp on top.

- JG
 
wow, even worse than Angels Landing :eek:
I would love to do Half Dome one day, but way too many people.
Do you really need the cables?
I'm wondering, because for Angels Landing you don't need them on a single part up or down.
 
From what I've read it's a 60 degree slope. That's pretty steep. I'd use the cables, but to each his own I guess. There is also traction boards like every 6-10 feet or something like that.
 
I did Half Dome the day after the cables went down in 2011. It is probably the way to go because I only saw four other people on my way up and down.
 
Deadeye008 said:
I just read an article about doing half dome on a full moon. Looked pretty sweet.

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Click to expand...

I (obviously) like the night hikes. I would not attempt to hike the Half Dome trail at night; the majority of the trail is fine, including the cables section. However, the Sub Dome is treacherous during the day and I can't imagine trying it at night with the shadows from the moon and headlamps/flashlight unless your depth perception is that of a jet pilot's.

I would also avoid the Mist Trail in the dark (I've done it and I had one of my worst spills;) Take the JMT from the top of Nevada Falls.
 
Looks like the cables are staying and there will be a permit system.

Half Dome cables will remain, hikers still limited
January 4, 2013Associated Press
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - The hike up the granite monolith Half Dome in Yosemite National Park is one of the most iconic in the nationwide system, but on Friday officials announced approval of a plan that permanently limits how many can do it.
National Park Service authorities will issue permits to limit the number of hikers to 300 a day, the target number since an interim plan was approved in 2010 to reduce congestion in a wilderness area and make the hike safer.
In a blow to environmental groups, the park also decided to keep in place the heavy metal cables drilled into the monolith that hikers use to steady themselves on the 45-degree final climb up slick granite. Some groups had argued that handrails do not belong in a federally designated wilderness area.
"With a place like Yosemite that is so dear and important to millions of people, everyone has ideas about what wilderness protection is. We tried to find a balance that allows people to still experience Yosemite while protecting Yosemite," said spokeswoman Kari Cobb.
Over the past decade the route had been inundated with up to 1,200 nature lovers a day seeking to experience the iconic mountain that is stamped on the California quarter, stitched on a line of outdoor clothing and painted on the side of the park's vehicles.
Congestion on the dome made it difficult for hikers to descend when inclement weather struck, as it often does on summer afternoons.
At least five people have died on the cables since 2006, nearly all with rain as a factor. Park officials want visitors to be able to descend the slick granite in 45 minutes if they have to escape the fast-forming storms, and limiting numbers is the only way to do that, they say.
As calls for rescues increased, park officials began looking for solutions in 2008.
Two years later an interim plan was introduced to allow 400 permits through a lottery system that takes place in March in an effort to keep the number on the trail to 300. Authorities have tweaked the system since then to account for no-shows and to allow a secondary lottery two days in advance for those who travel more spontaneously.
"It was a really good tool that we used to provide no-show and cancellation permits to people who made last-minute plans," Cobb said.
In 1874 the slick dome that rises 5,000 feet above the valley floor was described as "perfectly inaccessible." But in 1919 the Sierra Club installed the first cables along the 400-foot final ascent so that visitors without rock climbing experience could hoist themselves to the summit _the size of 17 football fields_ to drink views of Little Yosemite Valley, El Capitan, endless Sierra and the Valley floor.
There is no doubt that if the decision were made today, there would be no braided steel cables and stanchions drilled into Half Dome. Congress passed the Wilderness Act in 1964, and 20 years later designated 95 percent of Yosemite, including Half Dome, as land that should not be altered by man.
The eight-mile round trip hike is the busiest by far of any in the National Park's designated wilderness areas. Over the decades the number of visitors to the park has steadily climbed, topping 4 million – in part because the park is an easy drive from Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
Now scaling Half Dome is a measure of personal fortitude for some who had worried that without cables access would be lost.
"At this point I'm happy that the plan was selected to keep the cables up," said Rick Deutsch, a Bay Area hiker who has written a book about the trek. "I'd say that based on the situation that exists with overcrowding, they have come up with a plan that looks like it should work."
 
I think I'm ok with that plan, though 300 seems a little on the light side. There are 110 people in that bottom photo (yep -- I counted.) I'd also like to see an exception for anybody who has a overnight permit (ie thru-hikers or those who get a backpacking permit for Little Yosemite Valley or elsewhere nearby shouldn't have to ALSO get a Half Dome permit.)

"eight-mile round trip hike" is not correct. It's 8.2 miles one way and likely to be a little longer with some of the variations.

- Jamal
 
Nick said:
Nuts... are they cables totally necessary for most?
Click to expand...

After having climbed the Snake Dike climbing route on the other side of Half Dome and then descending the cables I would say well, that depends. On that descent I down climbed on the outside of the cables and used the traction boards as steps and the cable as a hand rail because the panicked look on many people's faces inside the cables made me not want to frighten them any more than necessay by getting in their way. I would probably say it would be difficult for me to climb/walk down without protecting it with a rope without the cables. I would be OK going up without the cables or a rope but it would get my heart rate up. My opinion: almost all non-technical rock climbers would consider it crazy scary and shouldn't attempt it. Half the problem is that it is more difficult to down climb safely than up climb. So many would get stuck on top. The exceptions to this statement would be some of you people here at BCP since you are adventurous. I feel pretty certain the prospect of taking the structure out really worries the Park Service because it is a famous legacy trail and it would still draw thousands to try it even without the artificial aid.

A couple of poor pictures I took to give you a reference on the angle of the dangle... The crux is the top 1/4 where it steepens.

CableRoute1.jpgCableRoute2.jpg
 
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