Saturday, Sep 6th, 2025, 0640-2030.
28.5 mi to top of Half Dome, then backtrack to Echo Creek, elevation 7,040′.
I had a lot of miles and goals planned for this day, so I got cracking at it early and as fast as I could. Basically, this entire day was a side trip to Half Dome, planned spur of the moment and having nothing to do with the SHR. But it was a hoot and well worth the 26 extra miles. I woke to my coldest morning yet, with a thermometer reading of 32 F. As soon as I entered some meadows, the temperature dropped even more and frost coated the grass. I warmed up going over Tuolumne Pass after just a few miles, which was barely a bump on the elevation profile. This was where I departed the SHR, which next goes over Volgelsang Pass and down Lewis Creek. I instead continued down Fletcher creek on a series of trails past Merced Lake. It was downhill all morning long…which meant I’d have a huge climb retracing my steps the next day. I made it to Echo creek around 11:30 am, where I decided to set up camp. I’d gone 12.5 miles by this point and had 8 more to get to the top of Half Dome. This meant I was committing to a 16 mile round trip slack pack, which is a lot, and a risk being separated from my gear for that long. I figured I’d be walking some of the last miles in the dark, but by setting up my camp mid-day, at least I’d have fewer chores to return to. I also hoped to go a faster pace without all my gear on my back. I rushed to get chores done and departed at noon.
I followed a trail up to a bench and through a large burn area covered with a 1st succession thorny underbrush that scratched the hell out of my legs. The ranger had warned me that the trail was overgrown, which I blew off, figuring it couldn’t be worse than all the cross country hiking I’d already done. Man was I wrong! I took more of a beating over these 2 miles (make that 4 since I had to come back this way later) than on any of the rest of my high routes combined. The trail improved dramatically once I intersected the JMT, though it was still through a burn for several miles. In the first half of the day, I only saw about 5 hikers total. But through this section, I encountered heaps, which was not surprising given the popularity of the JMT. I was pushing hard and flying past so many people with big packs (recall that mine basically had nothing in it).
My late arrival was actually perfect for Half Dome, since by the time I turned off on the side-trail, the early crowd of day hikers was gone and the stragglers were mostly coming down. When I reached the cables around 3:20 pm, there were only a handful of people on the sub-dome. I chatted with a girl whose father and sibling had gone up, but she’d decided to hang back. I respect the people that can hike the 8 miles up to the cables, give them a good look, and have the presence of mind to know that the last portion is not for them. But that was not the case for me this day, as I was very determined. I stopped long enough to ditch my water bottle (didn’t want to risk that it could become a projectile) and changed from my skirt into my tights (didn’t want to flash anyone, either). I was already wearing my cheap garden gloves, which were a part of my daily outfit, both as sun protection and for all the scrambling over sharp granite on the high passes.
Let me pause here with some Half Dome info and thoughts. According to Google, the cables cover the last 400 vertical feet of the hike, climbing a steep granite face at an angle of around 45 degrees, with wooden steps and steel cables for handholds. This makes it a thrilling, airy ascent after a long, strenuous 14-16 mile day hike with ~4,800 feet of elevation gain. It is indeed a hard hike and yes, people have died on Half Dome. Most of these deaths were due to lightning strikes, but a few have fallen on the cables, one as recently as 2024. Over half these cases involved wet, slippery conditions.
In this age of lawyers and lawsuits, I’m actually quite amazed that climbing the cables on Half Dome, without a guide or any kind of safety equipment, is still a thing. Personally I’m glad it is, because I’ve learned my own lessons in accountability, which gave me the skills to make cost/benefit judgements for every moment I’m in the backcountry, especially as a solo hiker. I’m also acutely aware of the large expanses of wilderness, where I’ve been free to engage in almost any risky business I want (i.e. Matterhorn Pass). No government could ever regulate all the cliffs, canyons, waterfalls, trenches, trees etc of nature, therefore it’s up to an individual to know and respect their own boundaries, as well as suffer the consequences of their decisions. This is how I feel about the cables on Half Dome, yet I also understand that they are a man-made feature, which raises some larger issues that I won’t go into.
I read some figures that up to 50k people climb the cables each year, so one death a year or even every 5 years, while tragic, is still a very small fraction of those who make it back. My guess is that quite a few stop short of the cables yet still say they went to the very top, so who knows what the real numbers are. Just know that if you decide not to climb the cables, that’s perfectly ok too! It’s still a beautiful and worthwhile hike, with nearly the same views, so don’t let the cable part stop you from hiking the rest!
It just so happened that I was almost completely alone as I climbed the cables this day. I passed only one guy that was going down early on, so I didn’t really have to deal with any of the uncertainties or jockeying around due to others. I’ve seen the pictures of the trains of people that are usually going up and down simultaneously, so I know I got really lucky in this regard. But the lack of anyone to share the experience with also made it feel more sketchy. Due to my good fitness and the late-afternoon solitude, I probably did the climb in record time! I was also just trying to get through the experience as fast as I could, lest I get stuck or change my mind. So I scrambled up without looking down or even taking a pause. I didn’t time myself, but I’d guess the whole thing only took me 10 minutes.
One thing I did notice right away was how sturdy my shoes felt on the polished rock. I intentionally chose the Salomon Speedcross for my Sierra hike due to their aggressive lugs. I’d been pretty happy with them thus far, but this experience solidified my high trust in them. The girl mentioned that she’d felt her boots slipping when she went up a short ways, which was why she’d turned around. But I never once felt my Speedcross giving way. On the contrary, they felt as if I could walk up entirely without the cables. Obviously I still depended heavily on the cables and was also glad I was wearing my garden gloves…I’d say they are quite a must-have for this hike. There were even a couple pairs that people had left at the bottom of the sub dome for others to use. If you forget your own pair, look and ask around for some spares, you might get lucky.
At the top, I basked in my success, exploring the broad expanse of the dome. I had a few late-day companions, just enough to commiserate with and share in the requisite picture-taking. I met 2 women that were really cool and later a couple of really nice Swiss guys. It was just the right amount of people to enjoy a sort of communion with, while not feeling crowded or over-run in the least. I was so grateful for this experience and given my lack of any advanced planning whatsoever, I couldn’t have asked for better timing. It was a little smokey, but at least the air quality had improved from the morning. Little did I know, if I’d waited just one more day, I would have been completely smoked-out.
The downside of cramming so much into this day was that I couldn’t afford to linger at the top for very long. I thought about how nice it would be to watch the sunset and maybe even see the stars come out, but was leery of going down the cables in the dark, alone. Maybe also if I only had 3 or 4 miles to return to my camp instead of 8. So after about 30 minutes at the top, I started the long trek home. It was 4:15 pm, plenty of time. First the cables…as I’ve said before, going down steep stuff is often easier for me than going up, and such was the case here. I hurried to catch up to the 2 ladies and this actually made the experience much more fun. Seeing how nervous they were helped me realize it wasn’t just me. I put on a positive and encouraging front, which boosted my confidence in myself. I even loosened up enough to turn facing down to take some pictures. Of course I was mindful of how awful it would be to drop my phone on the heads of my companions, which made me more nervous than falling. I did get some awesome pics, though!
The ladies took it slow, which was fine by me since it gave me time to enjoy more views. There wasn’t one moment where I felt afraid and wondered how it was so much easier on my second pass…well certainly the gravity helped, but also the company. One of the ladies stopped to take some pictures just as we reached the sub dome and later we exchanged photos over text. In the last pic, I look like I’m sliding down the rock, but I was actually skipping down the last few feet, my grippy shoes giving me complete confidence…the angle there was also pretty slack. Look mom, no hands!
I joined the 2 Swiss guys for the remaining mile to the trail junction, which made the time pass quickly. They were really interesting to talk to. The rest of the way I was on my own, as all the day hikers went right towards Yosemite valley and all the backpackers were already settled into their camps for the night. I stopped to take a dip and filter water from a stream before the remaining dry miles through the burn. The nail in the coffin was the scratchy 2 miles through the overgrown section. My poor legs were on fire afterwards…yes I could have mitigated the damage by wearing my tights, but it was just too hot. It took longer than expected to make it back to my camp, but I only had to use my headlamp for about 30 minutes and still managed to cook dinner before I crashed. Plus the sunset views looking back towards Half Dome and then the moon rising over the white granite fields were an extra treat. What an exhausting but fun day. Now to get back to the hard stuff!
