Rob has a list of hikes he wants to do someday - a bucket list of sorts, I guess. Near the very top of that list is Half Dome, a formidable granite dome in Yosemite. It's a renowned destination among hikers and is certainly a familiar landmark to anyone who has been to Yosemite. In the past few months he had been mentioning it more, and I was considering planning a trip out there to celebrate his 30th birthday next month. This 30 number is sort of a big deal, even though I know everyone reading this who is older than us is all, "Aw, 30 is nothing." And I'm sure you're right, that it is truly nothing, but just to be safe I was thinking we should probably get this hike in before he turns 30 and needs a walker or something.

As it turned out, his company sent him to a conference in San Jose and so we made a trip out of it, meeting up with my brother and heading to Yosemite after the conference to conquer Half Dome.

Half Dome

Reaching the top of Half Dome requires a 17-mile hike with almost 4,800 feet of elevation gain. Some people train seriously for this hike. Before Half Dome, the longest day hike I had done was 14 miles and significantly less steep. To "train" for Half Dome, we took a couple short hikes in the weeks before, but we actually weren't too worried about our ability to do this hike. We figured that would be the easy part. The hard part would be the cables.

Those ants you see are people.

The hike leads you to the base of Half Dome, whereupon you are confronted by the looming dome's steep rock surface that must be scaled in order to reach the summit. It's not a sheer vertical face, but it is easily a 60 degree angle, I would say. Fucking steep, in other words. And utterly unscalable without rock climbing gear. However, to allow for non-climbers to ascend, metal poles and cables have been installed so that hikers can pull themselves up.

I'm not afraid of heights, but the idea of this still gave me pause. I mean, if you fall, you fall. There are enough people on the cables with you that you would probably fall onto the folks below, but I'm not sure that makes it any better. I'm picturing a domino effect down the cables....yikes. Right as we were starting up the cables, someone above us dropped their water bottle, which quickly slid and bounced its way all the way down the rock and served as a reminder to hold on tightly.

With my brother, about to begin the cable section

We'd read that wearing grippy gloves is recommended, and that was the most critical piece of advice we got, in my opinion. I would have been pretty panicked without a good grip. As it was, I was fine. Going up was tough work, but not as hard as I'd built it up to be. Still, it took nearly 45 minutes, mostly because so many people were coming down the cables at the same time, and passing beside each other took communication and concentration. I found going back down the cables to be much more disconcerting. The path on the rock is worn and feet can easily slip, so I was definitely thanking Baby Jesus for my super-rubbery gloves. We went down face-forward, which was mentally a little harder to handle (you are basically looking straight down, clinging for dear life to the cables) but seemed easier to navigate than heading down backwards, although we saw people doing it both ways.

Starting up the cables

There were definitely people who had full-fledged freakouts on the cable section - tears and trembling and being talked down by friends. On my way up, I passed one girl who was coming down backwards very slowly. As I brushed past her, I heard her mumble, "I am facing my fear. I am facing my fear." She was my hero for the day, because if I actually had a fear of heights, there's no way in hell I would have even considered that climb.

View of Yosemite Valley from the top

We were in surprisingly good shape at the top. We'd hiked over 8 miles by then, all of it consistently steep, including a ridiculous section of trail right before the cables that consists of huge boulder steps that left my leg muscles shaky with fatigue. Still, we were feeling good at the top and much less exhausted than we thought we'd be. And the trail back down was a breeze since it was all basically downhill. At Mile 12, we were all feeling great. A couple miles beyond that, it hit me. I was getting a sharp pain in my lower back with every step. I also had a couple blistery places on my feet that were really starting to rub. My brother was also feeling it. His feet were sore, and his legs were hurting. With 3 miles left, we fell into a silent march down the mountain.

I will note that Rob was without complaint.

With about a mile left I thought I might die. Or, perhaps, thought I might want to die. At this point the trail was not at all taxing, but my body was just so tired. We'd been on this hike for 12 hours now, having started at 6 in the morning. My legs didn't want to carry my weight anymore and my back pain was bordering on unbearable. I could tell my brother was in the same place. We were exhausted enough that mentally we were beginning to shut down as well. You know when you become SO tired that you can't cope, can't think clearly? That's where we were at. Rob, however, was still without complaint.

We were staying in a cabin at Curry Village, which lies at the bottom of Half Dome in Yosemite Valley, about 3/4 mile from the trailhead. As we came off the trail, we trudged on until we reached our cabin door, where my brother immediately flung himself onto the porch floor. Or, rather, gently eased himself onto the porch floor. Moaning. I waited while Rob fished out the keys and opened the cabin door, and then I dropped my backpack and fell onto the bed. Moaning. Rob might very well have skipped through the door. I wasn't watching, but needless to say of the three of us, the old man wasn't the one who could have used a walker.

Rob in his new tshirt, with Half Dome in the distance

The next day we were remarkably recovered. We all had some muscle soreness, but we were in good enough shape to do two short hikes, including one to a spot where we could admire Half Dome and marvel that we'd stood at the top.