Half Dome pt 3

So... I took a nap under a pine tree, instead of climbing the cables of Half Dome. Why did I skip the last 400 feet of the hike to the summit? I am deathly afraid of heights. The pictures you see on the internet make the hike look less steep that it truely is. This is a class 6 climb without cables. Many people get stuck due the the fear that flows through your body when looking out from the top. I did not want to be one of those people. And naps are good.

Andrea started her ascent around 12:40 p.m. She made it to the very top at 1:22 p.m. She indicated that there were human traffic jams up there, and that she did have a few instances of doubt, but fought the feelings off. She did drink alot of water and ate snacks. She made it down the face by 2:30, and back at the base of the sub-dome at 2:45. The ranger stated that she was in the last group allowed to summit that day and that we had started a bit late. The ranger was correct; we could see a weather pattern coming in, and at 3:00 p.m. we heard large thunder claps. And we still had 8 miles to hike down the mountain before the sun sets. And one has to keep in mind the sun sets quickly in the shadow of the mountains. Then I got attacked by a tree.....

We stopped and filled our water bottles at the top of Nevada falls, where a tree jumped out onto the path and attacked my sexy thigh. Andrea was totally fried and dehydrated, and soaked her feet in the river while I striped in public to clean off my leg. She did 2 extra hours of hiking, and was ready to eat anything. We finally got off the mountain at 7 p.m. and stuffed our faces with more sausages and pickles. So all added up, we did about 11 hours of hiking (well, Andrea did 11 hours, I did 9 hours of hiking and 2 hours of napping.)