Business Trip: Because Hiking Half Dome is Serious Business

Half Dome: the icon of mountaineering. It's embroidered as the logo for North Face & Sierra Designs products, featured by famous photographer Ansel Adams, was lauded by famous conservationist John Muir, admired by President Teddy Roosevelt, and climbed by hundreds of people from all over the world every single year. This mountain is so popular and dangerous that they had to install a lottery-permit system to limit the amount of people that hike it. The last 500 feet of the trail is literally up the side of a sheer granite dome with only cables to hold onto. A park ranger awaits at the bottom of the cables to check peoples permits before hikers summit. Now, they only allow 350 people per day to climb Half Dome. There have been some accidents and deaths which have propelled this system into what it is today.

I remember first talking about hiking it with Dad when I was a teenager, but we got too busy with life and didn't make it out. Coming back to live in the Bay Area after I graduated college almost ensured I would get up there at some point. In 2010 I set out to climb it with some friends. In 2010, you only needed a permit if it was a weekend or holiday, so we showed up to hike it on a Friday but they had so much snow that year that the park couldn't put the cables up yet. This was mid-June, too! In 2011, they required a permit 7 days a week all year. You had to enter the lottery to get a chance to climb it. I didn't apply for a permit, and my opportunity was lost.

Fast forward to 2012: I apply and win a permit in the Half Dome lottery! It also happens that they allowed my request for a party of 3. I was thinking "Who wouldn't want to climb with me? Finding someone should be no problem." I was thinking it could be a family thing with one of my brothers and Dad, but that idea dried up. Then I got a couple of really good friends who committed back in April. They ended up backing out for various reasons a few weeks ago (one within a week of the hike). By then, it was too short of notice for most people. And I was faced with this dilemma: Go alone, or don't go at all. We are moving to Maine in a few weeks, and I was NOT going to leave California without climbing this! I have been training for this all summer too (personal thanks to Madie for letting me haul her around on my back while I hike). So I went alone. This was my business trip.

I got to my camp at Crane Flat in the park at 9:00 pm on Thursday night, and slept in the car. I woke up to my alarm at 1:30 am, and was on the trail by 2:30 am. It was intimidating to go at night. You can't help but think about being stalked by a bear when you are carrying fresh fruit and beef jerky with you. It was pitch black, no moon. When I turned off my head lamp, I literally couldn't see my hand. The stars were amazing though. I made it to the top by 6:00 am. Not bad for 8.5 miles and climbing 5,000 ft! The cables were steeper than the pictures indicate. In all, I am so glad I was able to do this! Special thanks to Mallory for taking care of the kids and letting me cross this off of my bucket list.

And now good bye to Yosemite for a while. I regret not going to more National Parks while we lived in Northern California, but at the same time I don't regret a single Yosemite trip. That place is absolutely amazing and we will miss it.

My view from the top after summit.

Victory!

There were four German guys about my same age that were camping at the top when I arrived. It was nice to have someone to snap a few pictures for me.

Do you see me?

Where's Waldo?

The Germans and I all watched the sunrise together, which was one of the reasons I left as early as I did. It was really amazing to watch the rays beam through the peaks and light the surrounding scenery.

Looking across the top.

Half Dome's shadow on the side of El Cap.

Top of the cables.

Seeing the silhouette of this in the dark was intimidating. Much friendlier in the light. 

The back of Half Dome and Liberty Cap.

Liberty Cap & Nevada Falls.

Leche, Crazy Girl

I just have to write some of these down so we'll have them for future reference.

So far today I have heard from the mouth of my eldest:

"Mum! Look!"
"What?" I look.
She gathers the pages of a book in one hand and proceeds to flip through them only using that hand.
I look astonished. "WOAH! That's cool!"
"Yeah! I'm like Gaston!"

Later...

"Mooooom!" She comes running round the corner of the kitchen. 

"What?"

"Mom! I need a bandaid!"

With concern, "Why? What happened?"

"Because I got a owie!"

"Let me see." I look at her finger. "I don't see anything."

"No I do!" She goes to the wall and knocks her knuckle against it. "See?"

"Oh, right." I get her a bandaid. 

"I need two." 

"But you only have one owie."

She starts to take off to the kitchen, "Wait here, I gotta go get another owie."

Ai adai! This girl has me thinking in Micronesian, that's how crazy she is!

Family Camping at Tuolumne Meadows

Back in March, I went crazy and made a bunch of reservations in Yosemite. I really couldn't help myself. There were a lot of openings, and I knew we were going to want to come anyways. Hence, we headed up to Tuolumne Meadows for this trip. 

We got to see Half Dome from the north, offers a much different view. You can almost see the cables that people use to climb to the top. I'm going to cross this off my bucket list next weekend.

The Finn-Man was so happy to get out of the car and stretch!

Madie was really enjoying the rocks and stumps around. Our campsite was at 8,600 ft. elevation. It got down into the 30's at night! Luckily these kids have warm little bodies, they did great.

Madie had fun running around, but she was really anxious for her friends to get there. The Paradise family got in a little later.

Finn was enjoying the fire.

Mal made these homemade gram crackers that were perfect for smores! The best part of these is they don't crumble when you bite into them.

A keepsake from my morning walk.

The facial expressions here are pretty amazing.

The kids playing in the bear box. There were some tears shed with all of them wanting to open and shut the door. Lots of pinched fingers didn't make any of them happy.

Amelia is probably one of Madies favorite people, next to Jessica Blanscett.

We went for a walk in the meadows, though the meadows are pretty much done for the season.

The kids loved playing in the Tuolumne River. You can see the clothes slowly coming off...

We ended up leaving for a slough of reasons, all of which mounted to Madie having a major melt down and becoming the star attraction near Soda Springs. We had to force her to put on her clothes, and put her into her backpack. I then carried a crying/screaming Madie 1/2 a mile to the car. Then, she fell asleep for two minutes until we arrived back at the campsite. Parenthood....got to love it.

Katriana and Finn were getting fresh with each other. She kept taking the initiative and was holding his hand.

Madie was in a much better mood and read the babies a book.

Madie and Amelia loved playing in the driver seat of our car.

Finn at the visitor center. Finn slept really well the first night, and not so well the second night. He was so happy to be home.

Bethany & Katriana with Mallory and Finnegan.

We went for a small hike near the overlook. The kids loved climbing all over the rocks.

Loads of granite!

Madie was so sweet on the way home. My favorite memory of her for this trip will be her trying nectarines for the first time. We have been quoting Green Eggs and Ham a lot to encourage her to try new things to eat. After refusing to eat dinner, we offered her some options: nectarines or salad. After we had all tried to convince her to eat something for 5 minutes, everyone was distracted with other conversations. I was standing next to Madie and holding a nectarine in one hand. Madie reached out and grabbed it from my hand and took a bite. I said "Saaayyyy, I like nectarines! I do! I like them Sam I am!" Then we were all quoting it and congratulating her. Now, she is sold on nectarines. Though she doesn't get close to the pit, she still skins the outside. A milestone for Madie.

Lucky Us!

It's official folks--we get to move to one of the most beautiful places on earth. 

Where we can get our thrill fix.

And our fog fix.

And our fall fix.

And our winter fix.

And our boats and sea-food fixes.

Not to mention all the Dyers (or Dyuhs) Mike has been dying to meet.

For what it's worth, I have really enjoyed living in the Bay Area. It's beautiful, even if summer in the east bay lacks weather. And the people here have been so friendly. California is not at all what I thought it would be--namely, tons of snobby rich people with kids who did nothing but surf and flunk classes. BUT, I would be outright lying if I didn't say I am thrilled to be leaving apartment life behind us, hopefully for good! Things I won't miss:

Smokers

Pot smell

Chihuahuas

Stinky Pakistani food

Trash in the playground

Older kids at the playground leaving their trash

Things I will miss:

Sweet old women I hardly know dropping off their stinky Pakistani food

Walking to church

Blackberry picking 10 minutes from home

Yosemite

Karin and Oliver, Jessica and Ryan, Aurora and Josep, Talia and Casey--all such awesome neighbors

The Paradises, the Cheneys, the Atheys--all our other great friends who have made us feel so welcome

Sitting in the car with Jennifer Daily after RS presidency meetings being sarcastic and cracking ourselves up

Dinners with Allison and Gabe--two words: food heaven

Things I might miss:

Drunken women shouting outside their apartments in the middle of the night and getting pushy with the cop who comes to tell her to settle down.

Over-weight men in Speedos throwing their curtains wide open when I am in the living room facing their windows.

Old women from the assisted living down the street tossing bread crumbs everywhere--seriously, everywhere--even though it's plain to see no animal has touched them since the day before.

In the words of Mr. Bennet: 

"For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?"

Pictures:

I love this woman's blog.

And Acadia Magic is beautiful!