We woke up bright and early saturday morning (4:30am). We hit the trail at 5:10am along with a few other crazy half dome hikers. I predicted our arrival to the cables to be 11am.We arrived at 10:55am! Not a bad prediction! Dave did great! He really powered through the 8 miles of up hill hiking and about 4800 feet of elevation gain. I was soooo proud of him!
So now for the meat of the trip! We reached the cables and sat down to eat lunch. I started watching people go up and realized why I didn't do them the last time. It just looks so daunting! Sitting there it looks like its almost 90 degrees upward. At that point, I really thought that I had hiked all that way, to just turn around again! I really didn't think I had it in to me to get up there. After about a half hour of watching people, I really started realizing this is what I'm here to do . So I started to put on my gloves and Dave and I walked to the start. All of a sudden it didn't look so bad. It really is scary because it just seems so dangerous. One false move and your falling a long way and most likely not surviving. So we manged to make our way to the top. At one point dave was feeling really tired and yelled up to me that he thought he was going to have to turn around. But everyone was so supportive and really encouraged him to keep going. I'm so glad he did. Once we got up there...what a view! We ended up spending an hour on top. Dave was totally wiped after the cable experience, so he ended up taking a nap for about a 1/2 hour on top of Half Dome! But the whole time I kept thinking about how was I going to get down the cables. That was the part I was most worried about. But with lots of encouragement from Dave I got down and never felt scared at all. My Garmin said it was 8.12 miles for us to reach the very top. So 16.24 roundtrip!
This was such an accomplishment for me. I don't really have a fear of heights, more of just falling. So this was really facing a fear head on. And I have to say I did really well. I never once got that butterfly feeling in my stomach like I usually get when I'm getting scared.
So on for some photos: Warning, I took my XT instead of the point and shoot ( I was not about to lug my 5D up there) with only a wide angle lens. Kinda of regretted not having a standard zoom lens, but oh well.
Dave at the top of Nevada Falls (about 3.5 miles up)
Top of Nevada Falls
Me at the bottom of the cables
The line to get up the cables
One of the views from the top of Half Dome
Me at the top, overlooking Yosemite Valley!
Dave and I up top!
The very top of the cables
A view on the way back down, half dome is the one on the left.
The big rocks and Nevada Falls
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