Half Dome

Thursday September 3, 2009, phone call to talk about my trip to CA. 5 minutes later, deciding to do the half dome hike. Next 30 min endless calling to ask others if they want to join. In 2 hrs all plans made, all flights booked! That was the beginning of Half Dome hike in Yosemite National Park.

I have been to Yosemite many times. But I have never camped or hiked in there. Most of my visits were like just tourists. So the trip up Half Dome was long pending. It is of course a scary trip. I did not worry about the mileage or about the elevation gain. The cable rope climb in the last section was the major worry, can I do it? Secretly I knew I can do it, but its like marathon, you know you can do it, but still its not truly true unless you actually do it. So finally all stars aligned and the trip was decided. We were going to fly to CA on Saturday 12th, drive to Yosemite, stay in a hotel and do the grueling 14 - 16 mile hike and drive back. Yeah, it was as hectic as it sounds.

The flight to CA was at 6:50am, meaning had to wake up really early Saturday morning. I am lucky that I can sleep well on the flight. I slept the moment I sat on my seat. Do not remember the take off also. I woke up when we were almost over the bay bridge. It gave me the much needed 90 min of sleep. We had nice home made parathas for brunch and then started for Yosemite close to 12:40pm. It proved to be a longer drive than we thought becaue we were all so tired from the flight.

Once in Yosemite, we decided to skip the Galcier Point and head straight to the campsite. The plan was to enjoy Bridal Veil falls, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls on the way. The first surprise came in front of El Capitan. The rock is impossible to miss, but the surprising part was missing Bridal Veil falls. There was almost no water in the fall. It was like a small stream of water dripping, being throwing from one side to other by wind. It looked like no water was hitting the ground as most of it was just getting blown away by wind. Quite a sad situation. But wait, we thought this was sad. When we reached Yosemite Falls, it was even harder to believe. There was not even a drop of water on this fall, the Yosemite Falls were dry, both upper and lower.