souptree
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2005
- Messages
- 1,175
Hello, my friends,
Well, this post is a month overdue, but here it finally is. I brought my Ti PD-S to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park one fine Tuesday in May, and I thought I'd share it with you. We hiked about 90% of our route up in the dark, so the lights you see in the pics literally helped make this accomplishment possible. Total trail miles: 22 (you can do it in as few as 17 miles, depending on the route you choose). Total elevation change up and down: 10,800 vertical feet.
The first picture is the view from Yosemite Valley, where you leave your car. To get to the top, you walk in a very large fishhook and approach Half Dome from exactly the opposite side you see above.
The view of Half Dome from almost exactly the opposite side. I took this one on the way back down, (it was dark on the way up) but I post it here for the purpose of a clearer narrative. In front of Half Dome (or behind it if you are down in the Valley with the cars) is Quarter Dome. You must first climb up Quarter Dome to get to Half Dome. At this point on the way up, we had gone about 10 miles and up about 4000 feet.
This is my foot on the switchbacking steps hewn into the solid granite of Quarter Dome. There are no handrails, and lots of gravel to keep you on your toes. If you slip off, you die, no ifs ands or buts about it. This was the scariest part for me, mostly because of the gravel and the total absence of anything to hold onto.
Clouds' Rest at sunrise, from the top of Quarter Dome (looking away from Half Dome and Yosemite Valley).
Half Dome from the top of Quarter Dome. You get your first glimpse of the cables you use to climb up to the top from here, which can be seen as a lighter streak going down the side of Half Dome, about halfway across. Most people have been asking themselves what the hell they have gotten themselves into for a while at this point! If you are familiar with Ansel Adams' famous photo of the face of Half Dome, it was taken from that shelf off to the right that you see jutting out. If you think about what camera equipment weighed back then, you realize he must have had a pretty major load to contend with getting it there!
This is the view from the cables, just after sunrise. At the steepest point, the cables approach 60 degrees. At the base of the cables, you see the top of Quarter Dome, and further down, there is a patch of trees, which is where pic #2 was taken. That big peak straight across the way there is called Clouds' Rest, and I am hoping to bring Ti McGizmos to the top of it in September. In this photo, you are looking at the largest granite face in all of Yosemite, over 4000 feet of sheer granite from the top of Clouds' Rest to Tenaya Creek way down below.
These cables are the tourist trail! Real climbers go up the face. Tourist trail is pretty generous though. A person fell off these cables, and fell 300 feet to their death, just a couple weeks ago, which is a surprisingly rare occurrence given how many people make the attempt. A helicopter was required to retrieve his body. The granite between the cables is well worn from tens of thousands of people going up and down the same narrow strip for over 80 years, and I could easily see how someone could slip if they weren't careful and/or didn't have the upper body strength necessary to hold themselves up with arms alone. Reportedly, in this recent tragedy, he was carrying a heavy backpack. We left one of the backpacks with most of the heaviest stuff down on the top of Quarter Dome and only took food, water, camera gear and flashlights to the top. It was bad enough doing those cables with a 20 pound backpack on. I can't even imagine how someone could have attempted it with a full 40-80 pound pack. On the other hand, this is the single most popular trail in the United States. Over a thousand people will attemp the cables on an average summer day. The cables have been ascended by 8 year olds and 80 year olds. Personally, I don't know any 8 year olds or 80 year olds I'd be willing to let try, but they are reportedly out there. Incidentally, the leading cause of death on Half Dome is being struck by lightning. There are signs posted warning that lightning has struck Half Dome in every month of the year, and to get to lower ground FAST if there are dark clouds ANYWHERE on the horizon.
I was the first person to summit Half Dome that morning. A few hours later there were probably a hundred people up there, but for a few brief moments, I had it conquered all alone, which was a pretty amazing feeling. The original goal was to get all the way to the top in the dark and see sunrise from the summit, but it got too intense to finish in the dark, so we waited out sunrise from just below the top of Quarter Dome and then went up as soon as the sky got light. I still want to go up in darkness and actually see the sunrise from the top, and plan to do it in the future. I definitely think it will be easier and less scary the second time. If there is time, I am considering making that attempt in September, the morning after summiting Clouds' Rest. 2 summit sunrises 2 days in a row would be pretty spectacular, I think.
I don't know who this guy is, but now he's famous. He's standing in the exact spot the red arrow is pointing at in the first picture. Below him and a little to his left, you can see a world class waterfall -- looking kind of puny from way up here!! That's Yosemite Valley spread out below -- where the first picture was taken from. That big monolith in the center is world famous El Capitan.
The view straight down the face of Half Dome to Tenaya Creek below. :green:
You were probably wondering when the money shot was coming. I really love how the colors in the Ti refract where the sun hits inside the bezel. You can see hundreds of miles and dozens of peaks in the Sierra Nevada from the top of Half Dome.
Ti PD-S looking out at Clouds' Rest.
Family photo: clockwise from top: SF M4, HDS U60XRGT, Atwood Wharncliffe Booger, PT Apex Pro (NOT good enough, hint hint
), Atwood Ti Keyton, Ti PD-S.
Anyway, thank you for reading this far. I hope it was interesting, and I hope it wasn't too long!! And thank you for the PD-S -- it was pretty much the only light I used -- or needed.
These lights might be fun toys to play with when a life isn't on the line -- and I frequently do -- but they really help enable me to accomplish things and get to places I wouldn't otherwise be able to succeed at in a safe manner. To me, they are worth their weight in gold for that. I picture people going up or down those steps in the dark with a Maglite and shudder, but I'm sure thousands have. Not for me -- no thank you! At least if *I* plunge to my death, I'll be able to see where I'm going!
Well, this post is a month overdue, but here it finally is. I brought my Ti PD-S to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park one fine Tuesday in May, and I thought I'd share it with you. We hiked about 90% of our route up in the dark, so the lights you see in the pics literally helped make this accomplishment possible. Total trail miles: 22 (you can do it in as few as 17 miles, depending on the route you choose). Total elevation change up and down: 10,800 vertical feet.
The first picture is the view from Yosemite Valley, where you leave your car. To get to the top, you walk in a very large fishhook and approach Half Dome from exactly the opposite side you see above.
The view of Half Dome from almost exactly the opposite side. I took this one on the way back down, (it was dark on the way up) but I post it here for the purpose of a clearer narrative. In front of Half Dome (or behind it if you are down in the Valley with the cars) is Quarter Dome. You must first climb up Quarter Dome to get to Half Dome. At this point on the way up, we had gone about 10 miles and up about 4000 feet.
This is my foot on the switchbacking steps hewn into the solid granite of Quarter Dome. There are no handrails, and lots of gravel to keep you on your toes. If you slip off, you die, no ifs ands or buts about it. This was the scariest part for me, mostly because of the gravel and the total absence of anything to hold onto.
Clouds' Rest at sunrise, from the top of Quarter Dome (looking away from Half Dome and Yosemite Valley).
Half Dome from the top of Quarter Dome. You get your first glimpse of the cables you use to climb up to the top from here, which can be seen as a lighter streak going down the side of Half Dome, about halfway across. Most people have been asking themselves what the hell they have gotten themselves into for a while at this point! If you are familiar with Ansel Adams' famous photo of the face of Half Dome, it was taken from that shelf off to the right that you see jutting out. If you think about what camera equipment weighed back then, you realize he must have had a pretty major load to contend with getting it there!
This is the view from the cables, just after sunrise. At the steepest point, the cables approach 60 degrees. At the base of the cables, you see the top of Quarter Dome, and further down, there is a patch of trees, which is where pic #2 was taken. That big peak straight across the way there is called Clouds' Rest, and I am hoping to bring Ti McGizmos to the top of it in September. In this photo, you are looking at the largest granite face in all of Yosemite, over 4000 feet of sheer granite from the top of Clouds' Rest to Tenaya Creek way down below.
These cables are the tourist trail! Real climbers go up the face. Tourist trail is pretty generous though. A person fell off these cables, and fell 300 feet to their death, just a couple weeks ago, which is a surprisingly rare occurrence given how many people make the attempt. A helicopter was required to retrieve his body. The granite between the cables is well worn from tens of thousands of people going up and down the same narrow strip for over 80 years, and I could easily see how someone could slip if they weren't careful and/or didn't have the upper body strength necessary to hold themselves up with arms alone. Reportedly, in this recent tragedy, he was carrying a heavy backpack. We left one of the backpacks with most of the heaviest stuff down on the top of Quarter Dome and only took food, water, camera gear and flashlights to the top. It was bad enough doing those cables with a 20 pound backpack on. I can't even imagine how someone could have attempted it with a full 40-80 pound pack. On the other hand, this is the single most popular trail in the United States. Over a thousand people will attemp the cables on an average summer day. The cables have been ascended by 8 year olds and 80 year olds. Personally, I don't know any 8 year olds or 80 year olds I'd be willing to let try, but they are reportedly out there. Incidentally, the leading cause of death on Half Dome is being struck by lightning. There are signs posted warning that lightning has struck Half Dome in every month of the year, and to get to lower ground FAST if there are dark clouds ANYWHERE on the horizon.
I was the first person to summit Half Dome that morning. A few hours later there were probably a hundred people up there, but for a few brief moments, I had it conquered all alone, which was a pretty amazing feeling. The original goal was to get all the way to the top in the dark and see sunrise from the summit, but it got too intense to finish in the dark, so we waited out sunrise from just below the top of Quarter Dome and then went up as soon as the sky got light. I still want to go up in darkness and actually see the sunrise from the top, and plan to do it in the future. I definitely think it will be easier and less scary the second time. If there is time, I am considering making that attempt in September, the morning after summiting Clouds' Rest. 2 summit sunrises 2 days in a row would be pretty spectacular, I think.
I don't know who this guy is, but now he's famous. He's standing in the exact spot the red arrow is pointing at in the first picture. Below him and a little to his left, you can see a world class waterfall -- looking kind of puny from way up here!! That's Yosemite Valley spread out below -- where the first picture was taken from. That big monolith in the center is world famous El Capitan.
The view straight down the face of Half Dome to Tenaya Creek below. :green:
You were probably wondering when the money shot was coming. I really love how the colors in the Ti refract where the sun hits inside the bezel. You can see hundreds of miles and dozens of peaks in the Sierra Nevada from the top of Half Dome.
Ti PD-S looking out at Clouds' Rest.
Family photo: clockwise from top: SF M4, HDS U60XRGT, Atwood Wharncliffe Booger, PT Apex Pro (NOT good enough, hint hint
), Atwood Ti Keyton, Ti PD-S.Anyway, thank you for reading this far. I hope it was interesting, and I hope it wasn't too long!! And thank you for the PD-S -- it was pretty much the only light I used -- or needed.
These lights might be fun toys to play with when a life isn't on the line -- and I frequently do -- but they really help enable me to accomplish things and get to places I wouldn't otherwise be able to succeed at in a safe manner. To me, they are worth their weight in gold for that. I picture people going up or down those steps in the dark with a Maglite and shudder, but I'm sure thousands have. Not for me -- no thank you! At least if *I* plunge to my death, I'll be able to see where I'm going!
