Readers Who Write

People travel from all over the world to visit Yosemite National Park. A few of those will set out to climb Half Dome, which rises almost 5,000 feet above the valley floor and peaks at more than 8,800 feet above sea level.

In March, our group of four applied to the National Park Service for a permit to climb that world famous peak. In April we learned we had been lucky enough in the lottery to get our preferred date, July 6.

We arrived at the Mist Trailhead at 5:30 a.m. Renowned for its beauty, the Mist Trail ascends beside the Merced River past two spectacular world-famous cataracts, Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls. Because of record snowfall during the past winter in the High Sierras, the Merced River was surging with more water than I had ever seen in Yosemite. Not wanting to become drenched from the showering spray of Vernal Falls in the chilly air before sunrise, we decided to get off the Mist Trail at the junction of the John Muir Trail and ascend to Nevada Falls by that route.

We soon gained about 1,000 feet in elevation on hair-pin switchbacks. As the John Muir Trail leveled, and the sun was about to rise above the mountains, the trail split. The southern fork continued to the top of Nevada Falls, while the northern fork wound back down to the Merced River above Vernal Falls. To our disappointment, the southern fork was closed because of rockfall. Because of this, we had to take the northern fork down to the Merced River, losing most of the elevation we had gained. We had stayed dry, but at the expense of maybe two extra miles and the gain and loss of about 2,000 feet in elevation.

After crossing the Merced River over a wooden bridge, we started climbing again. At 7:23 a.m. we saw a jet of water spouting out of a blowhole in the top of a rock. At 7:37 a.m. we encountered volumes of water gushing out of the rocks and flooding the trail. (These were two of the most unexpected sights of the day.)

Above Nevada falls the trail levels out for about a mile as we easily passed through Little Yosemite Valley. We then began ascending through beautiful Ponderosa pines until we emerged above the tree line. For the first time we now could see the “sub dome.” And above it — majestic, daunting and towering — was Half Dome.

After scaling to the top of the sub dome, we stood at the elevated base of Half Dome. Ahead of us were the terrifying cables used to climb the granite face to the top. Here some people lose courage and turn back.

We pressed on. After considerable effort on the cables, we emerged on top of the world, googling nature’s beauty in every direction. After an hour on top taking photographs and visiting with others, we began slowing descending, going backwards and tenaciously gripping the cables.

Back at the sub dome, we shared food with a diabetic man who felt his blood sugars were not in balance. I offered to summon a helicopter using the SOS on my GPS. He declined, saying he only needed food. His wife assured us he would be OK. We also met a woman who had, for an unknown time, been trying to summon the courage to go up the cables.

On our long descent back to Yosemite Valley, we stopped beside a trickling stream to replenish our water, using an electronic filter to purify it.

As we descended beside Nevada Falls at 6 p.m., we noticed that the trail was dry where water had been gushing out of the rocks at 7:37 a.m. Reasoning that snow would melt mostly between noon and sunset, and then less between sunset and noon, we concluded that the snow feeding Nevada Falls must be about 10 or 11 water hours away.

As we passed Vernal Falls between 6:45 and 7 p.m., we became drenched in a tsunami of spraying mists that soaked our clothing and saturated our shoes.

When we reached the junction of the John Muir Trail, we rejoiced that we had taken that route in the morning and had stayed dry.

We continued back to the Mist Trailhead and then to our car, sublimely happy that we had successfully done a very hard thing.

So you say you want to write?

Go for it.

Send us 500 or so words of scintillating copy. Make it funny. Make it poignant. Make it count. Make it any way you want.

Just don’t cuss. Don’t be boring. And have a point.

If we like it, we’ll run it.

Email submissions to community@rv-times.com. Put “Readers Who Write” in the subject line.