Objective: Hike up Half Dome 16+ Mile Round Trip, No Permits, Cables Down
Crew Members: Dehnis DelaCruz and Nicholas Perez
October 13th, 2023 - Arrival
Departed San Diego at 6:00am.
Arrived at Yosemite Valley Tunnel View 1:47pm.
Set up Camp at Lower Pines Campground Site #066 with Jon-Ian, Tenaya, and Francis (aka Team Little Debbie 😁, they had already been crushing it in the valley for days before our arrival).
Supported the crew on a few boulder problems.
Then called it an early night for the big day the next morning.
October 14th, 2023 - Half Dome
Nic’s alarm was set for 4:30am and I had asked him to wake me up. Ate a small breakfast(an apple) to keep me light on my feet.
Our hike began at 5:06am with our headlamps on lighting our path.
Taking the Mist Trail, we passed Vernal Falls and could only hear the water crashing on the boulders below. We could see from a distance another party of two ahead of us from their headlamps.
As we hiked alongside the Merced River, the need for headlamps became unnecessary as the sun began to rise. The ascent up towards Nevada Fall had patches of vibrant Fall colors adding to the developing view.
Hiking through the terrain, the trees became less and less as we got closer to Sub dome.
We got to the top of Sub dome at 10:18am and already there was a good amount of people waiting their turn to ascend the cables. Had a snack break (another apple, almonds, and a fig newton) and then geared up with our harness, PAS(personal anchor system), Prusiks, and gloves.
Began our final ascent up Half Dome a little before 11am. Nic was able to capture a lot of GoPro footage on this section. His videos give a great representation of our efforts up to the summit. Thanks Nic for capturing these!
Because of the traffic of people, it took us a little over an hour to climb the last 400ft of cables. We reached the top and I looked over the edge of Half Dome at 12:14pm. We decided to enjoy the moment of our success and have lunch with an amazing landscape view.
After reaching our halfway point at 8+ miles in, we began our descent back to the valley floor a little after 1pm.
With most of the hard efforts now behind us, we powered through the rest of the hike trying to make it back to camp at a reasonable time. We decided not to extend our hike back through the John Muir Trail, mainly because I was definitely feeling the soreness kick in on my feet. We got back to the valley floor and arrived back at camp at 5:41pm. Total elapse time came out to 12hours and 35minutes.
October 15th, 2023 - Departure
Departed Yosemite Valley 7:18am.
Had a well deserved lunch at Panini Kabob Grill - Bakersfield. The food was delicious and I highly recommend it!
Arrived in San Diego at 4:58pm.
Reflection:
Another amazing trip to Yosemite in the books. This hike was my longest activity ever. I was a little intimidated at first because I haven’t done a hike at this length before. Also, I wasn’t sure how my endurance and fitness would hold up, since I haven’t been training as much as I would have liked. Sure enough though, I was able to overcome and accomplish the goal. I could not have done this without the help, encouragement, and motivation given by my good friend Nicholas. Thank you for the push(off the couch…lol)up/down the mountain. This gives me a new perspective of what the body is capable of. Thank you to my other crew members/camp mates(Jon-Ian,Tenaya, and Francis aka Team Little Debbie. We wouldn't have had this success without your help in letting us crash with you at your site. It's always a good time sharing stories next to a camp fire with you all. Looking forward to the next adventure and summit!
—DEHNIS
