last friday at around 4pm dan, dave and i loaded up dave’s ford previa van with all of our hiking gear and set out north. we stopped at rei san carlos to pick up some important details, and then we were off to a very slow drive to yosemite. normally a 4-hour drive, we didn’t get to the valley till 11pm. still, it was worth it–my first glimpse of yosemite was of el capitan in the moonlight, faintly glowing as the light grey of the granite reflected the ghostly rays. i wasn’t particularly prepared for the immensity and grandeur of the rock, and we stood on the side of the road and watched for a few minutes before driving the last few miles to curry village, near the base of half-dome, where we parked.
we were all probably a little tired from the tedious drive, but excited to be out of the car and ready to be on our way. we stashed our extra food underneath the car so that bears wouldn’t rip the car open trying to get at it, stretched a little bit, then started walking the mile or so to the trailhead. at the base we said a quick prayer for safety before beginning the epic trek. we opted to go up the mist trail, a shorter and much steeper trail than the john muir, until it intersected john muir at nevada falls. the first hour of the hike was fairly intense, and most of the going was up narrow stairs hewn out of granite and placed at precarious angles along the sides of the mountain.
bears are more or less numerous in the forested yosemite valley, and night is their hunting time, so we had to be careful to make a continuous stream of conversation lest we be too quiet and catch a bear unawares. so with all the talking and stair-hiking we were pretty exhausted by the time we reached nevada. we ate our only trail food, a ration of 2 granola bars each, and refilled our nalgenes with water filtered from the stream above the falls. my pack had a platypus hydration system, which i found to be the most fantastic thing in the world, and which lasted all the way to the summit.
after our very steep introduction, the relatively level section of john muir just past the falls was a welcome break, but the odd sand floor made the going a little slow. still, it was nice, because we were able to turn off our headlamps and walk like stealthy (but noisy) wraiths, our shadows just as visible as ourselves under the light of the moon. soon the trail started cutting back and forth uphill, and we passed the first of the many hikers we were to see on our ascent. as it turned out, there were probably 4 or 5 other largish groups of hikers who were attempting the summit that night.
until we neared the top, the hike was more or less uneventful, staring at the ground and plodding quickly up the steepening trail. we did make one half-an-hour-long error where we missed a fork to the summit path in the dark, and didn’t realize it for about a mile. unfortunately for those who were just close enough behind us to see our lights, they followed us astray. still, not much damage was done and we went back and found the missing fork. from there the cardiovascular nature of our hike increased threefold, and we sweated and pushed our way up neverending winds of stone and forest, tired, but excited about the adventure and wanting to push our endurance some.
finally, we got to The Stairs–steep, narrow, and dangerously sandy prismatized rocks providing little better footing than the granite slabs surrounding them on the last leg to The Cables. we gritted our teeth and pushed up hundreds of them. eventually dan and i forsook the stairs for the smoother, if more dangerous and adventurous route of the rock wall. it was quite angled, but not too much for a good scramble with dan’s 5.10 approach shoes and my grippy trail runners. at the top of that second-to-last peak, i got a glimpse of the cables for the first time, just across a small dip. i got really excited. from my elevated vantage point it looked like the twin metal cables ran at a nearly vertical angle to the top of half-dome. as we got closer, i saw that the angle probably wasn’t more than 45 degrees. still, 45 degrees is more than it sounds like.
the next 15 minutes were spent gloves gripping the cables and pulling myself up, step by careful step, to the top. it was only when i finally crested the last round that the elevation hit me, and i could tell that the air was a little thinner–the final exertion had made me more aware. half-dome stands over 8,000 feet above sea level, and the base of the valley around 3,000, if i remember correctly. so, we had hiked 8 miles in length, and 1 mile in height, to get to the top.
i can only say that i can’t wait to do it again–as i stepped out on the highest rock on the summit and looked around at the moonlight panorama that greeted me, i was immensely joyful. there is a perfect 360 degree view of truly amazing scenery. to call it “scenery” seems a little blasphemous. “scenery” is used to decorate stages for school plays. what i saw were raw, huge mountains thrust upwards from the earth in an immense ring, covered in beautiful coniferous forest, shining with a dim white light, the photons of which reached my eyes across a phenomenal space: clear, without sign or sound of the ravages of human progress. a giant frosty field, the stars gleamed like cold, bright diamonds as the wind whipped across my body, carrying 40-degree-fahrenheit air. i was exhausted, sore, and happy.
the time was 4:30am, roughly 5 hours after our embarking. to our delight and credit, we had reached the top before any of the other groups, all of which started hours before us. thus for about an hour we were the masters of the yosemite early morning, and we used our reign to thank god for his creation.
the spectacle, fortunately, was not yet over: the sunrise was yet to come. we hunkered down in between some rocks to fight off the cold, and made hot chocolate with dave’s whisperlite stove. thus armed, we made it through until sunrise, which greeted us like a color brush to a black-and-white world. all i’d seen for so long was the dull (enchanting nonetheless) palette of the moon, so the sun surprised me with its color as much as its warmth. we expressed our delight at dawn by cooking up instant oatmeal for breakfast–3 packets each, and i’m surprised we weren’t starving for more.
after the sun had been sufficiently raised in the sky, we explored the enormous top of half-dome, chatting occasionally with the others who had finally made it to the top for sunrise. we found a nice rounded crest looking west at the shadow of our monolith, and each had a celebratory cigar, brought specifically to enjoy on the summit.
sooner or later we decided that we had better begin our descent while we were still awake, since none of us had slept in 24 hours and we might have begun to fade fast. we geared up, then went down the cables. going down was nothing like going up–i would grab hold of the cables, give a little jump, and slide from one pole to the next, feet in the air below me. in this fashion i sped down the side in record time. dan was right behind and dave joined us shortly.
from there the descent was mainly mechanical–we moved our feet quickly as we dreamed of the large pizza we would devour upon reaching curry village at the base. all told, excluding one stop at nevada falls to wash feet in the cold stream, we made it down in under 3 hours, following the longer john muir trail from nevada instead of mist. the last half mile of the trail, our legs were so sore that we had to jog, to ease the joints and relieve some tension from muscles. but finally, we made it back and had our ginormous pizza.
food was simply marvelous, but we needed more–sleep. we layed down in various ridiculous positions in dave’s van and napped for a good 3 hours before waking up and deciding that it was time to head back. the original plan had been to camp at yosemite (or outside, for free) saturday night, but we figured that that would be superfluous, since no more events were planned. thus we loaded up the car and made record time back: 3 hours and 15 minutes.
the weekend was most definitely amazing, and seemed like two amazing weekends for the amount of time i was awake. it’s always awesome to see completely stunning examples of god’s power and beauty, not to mention the little touches like grace and love.
