Before you read any further I need to address two things.

 

• This blog is long so feel free to scroll down just to look at the pictures.

 

• Most of you will have never seen a picture of my wife Jaclyn before. You are going to be startled at the disparity in essentially every quality between us.  I am extremely aware that I ‘married up’ so there is no need to email me to remind me or mention it the next time we see each other.

 

This whole escapade began back in February when I was mentioning to a few people that I wanted to do something special for my wife’s 40^th birthday.  Since we had our third kid we have never been away alone.

 

One issue……my wife is what can be described as ‘frugal’.  It’s more that she hates spending any money on herself.   Fine, she’s cheap (which I love).  I knew the only way this would happen was if I just booked something and then told her.

 

I consulted some very well traveled folks I know and a couple of them suggested California, and specifically Yosemite Valley.

 

One particular recommendation caught my eye called the Half Dome Cable hike. My thought was simple: Jaclyn likes to be outside, she’s in incredible shape, and I think our marriage would likely survive my incessant complaining on the way up the mountain..…..a hike would be perfect!

 

I went online back in February and it turned out that this particular route is so popular that they limit it to a pre-season lottery and only allow 225 permits per day (plus 75 for people camping on the mountain).  Some days, up to 18,000 people apply.  The lottery application window was open and I noticed if you are willing to go towards the end of the season you have a much higher chance of winning a date (closer to 1 in 3).  So I chose some dates, submitted and forgot all about it.

 

Fast forward a month and I got an email saying I had won a permit!

 

Uh-oh.

 

I asked the person that recommended the hike some questions.  He completed the hike 25 years prior while living in San Francisco shorty after graduating from college.  His recollection was that you needed a bottle of water and ‘some people may have brought granola bars’.  Feeling confident I consulted Dr. Google and the first site I clicked was this.

 

A little more reading revealed the last 500 feet of the hike are on slick glacier where you have to pull yourself along two thick cables in the rock surface.  A ranger has to check your shoes before they let you up for grip and you have to wear thick rubber gloves to use the cables.  Some people clip in via harnesses ‘just in case’.

 

What had I gotten us into?

 

After convincing Jaclyn the odds against death were in our favour, we set out for California October 1^st.

 

And then Air Canada happened.  Fast forward 14 hours at the airport, one cancelled flight and another delayed flight and we were off!  (Thank god we left our 3 kids at home!)

 

We arrived at Yosemite after a day in San Francisco.  Our half dome hike permit was for our second full day there.  Normal people would have taken it easy on the first day, knowing they had over 8,800 feet to climb on day 2.  But normal people are not married to Jaclyn.

 

Instead, we did a famous hike called The Four Mile Hike which inexplicably is actually a very difficult 9.6 mile (15.5km) round trip hike straight up via switchbacks to Glacier point 7,220 feet, and then right back down.

 

Was it worth it?  Well here are the ‘yes it was worth it’ pictures.

 

(My wife overlooking the valley at sunrise)

That bugger in the back is the Half Dome which we inexplicably chose to hike to celebrate her birthday.

And here is a pic from the view at the top of Glacier point.

The case that maybe we shouldn’t have done it was two-fold.

• Here is a quick video of ‘two little friends’ we met about 30 minutes into the hike. For those that don’t click it’s two little bear cubs less than 30 feet from us.  About 15 seconds in I realize if there are two little cubs, there must be a mom somewhere.  I’m the rational one in the video that says “lets get out of here”.  To which Jaclyn replies “No, get a picture”.  Ladies and gentlemen….my wife Jaclyn.

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZWLQxVsqQcI

• I had trouble getting out of bed the next morning because my legs were so sore. Not exactly what you want for what would be the most physically challenging day of our lives.

 

Half Dome day began as good as any day that starts with a 4:30AM wake up call to hike a total of about 29km to 8,844 feet total elevation (the hike itself is about 5,000 feet from the valley floor).

 

We made it to the start of the trail right at 5:30AM and started the climb.

We ended up doing a fair bit of reading about the hike.  We knew you wanted to get to the cables early.  It’s much more daunting (and scary) if too many folks are on the cables at the same time.

 

We were a little alarmed at how many people started before us.  We passed people that started as early as 2AM (they wanted to watch the sunrise from the half dome).  Another group of hikers that we passed started at 4AM.  There were LOTS of people ahead of us, so we started by just putting our heads down and climbing.  We made great time before the sun came up and were rewarded with this view at Vernal Falls.

(Note: most deaths on this hike actually happen here by people trying to get too close to the falls, and not on the cables).  Don’t worry, there was a railing there to protect idiots like me from falling in.

At this point I was drenched in sweat.  I’m not exaggerating. I looked like I had just finished running a marathon.  On one hand this was funny because of how ridiculous I looked but on the other hand it was a bit worrisome.  For the entire 29km hike, the LAST place to get water is just 1.5km up.  You have to wear all the water you think you will need.  Did I mention it was an unseasonably hot 80 degrees outside?  Jaclyn wore 2L of water, and I carried 7L (some was for her…..I’m not a monster!)

We put the headlamps away and continued on to Nevada Falls.

At this point the Half Dome hike kind of gives you a head fake.  You get to walk on a steady incline through a forest of beautiful sequoia trees.  You occasionally get glimpses of the half dome and think you are almost there.

 

Then you hit the Sub Dome.

This was BY FAR the most brutal part of the day (even worse than the actual cables).  You are already over 8,000 feet up so fatigue sets in a bit early due to the elevation.  There are hundreds of big steps that seem straight up on exhausted quads.  The path is no longer set.  In fact there are sections with no stairs that you just have to pick a piece of granite, lean forward and walk up (making sure you don’t slip!).

But the WORST part by far is that no one is prepared for it.  Every person we met later in the day said the same thing “why the heck aren’t the instagrammers and bloggers warning us about the SUB DOME?!”

One memory that Jaclyn giggles about but I did not find funny at the time was getting over the subdome when the trail was essentially gone.  We had to choose a path as there was nobody around us.  Jaclyn scampered up a route holding on with both hands and told me to follow.  I started to go up, and quickly realized if I slipped things could turn out really badly.  I essentially laid down and came up in an army crawl, with her laughing in the background.

Two young Aussie guys were coming down the mountain after already being up and down the summit.  They saw me struggling and they looked at my shirt, which happened to be my work shirt that said “Expand your comfort zone”.  One of them looked me in the eyes, and said “Don’t stress mate…..every time you worry just think about what your shirt says”.  

I swear on my life that this actually happened.  It immediately put me at ease and off we went (you can see me in my Proactive Athlete shirt here right before going up the cables).

At this point we had finally hit the cables.

(those little things that look like ants in a line are a few people on the cables)

Now I would describe myself as not being particularly scared of heights……but definitely being scared of death.

 

Jaclyn and I made the decision before hand to wear harnesses and carabiner’s to clip in if we felt uneasy.

 

We likely passed somewhere between 75 and 100 people on the way up the hike.  When we got to the cables we were very happy we did.  Only about 4 or 5 folks were on the cables when we got there.  It only took us about 15-20 minutes to haul ass up the half dome.  We didn’t end up using the carabiners on the way up as we had the luxury of going at our own pace and holding onto both sides.

 

Every 10 feet or so there is a piece of wood that spans two poles that sit loosely in the granite.  Despite the face that you can pull the poles out, you can kind of lean into the planks to pause and catch your breath.  Because it was the end of the season some of these pieces of wood were missing, so at times you had to pull yourself up about 30-40 feet at a time.  Our strategy was to just keep our eyes on the next set of poles/wood, take breaks when needed, and not look to either side to reduce anxiety.

 

Once at the top we breathed a big sigh of relief, and just took in the magnitude of where we were.

(this was a pic from the very top after finishing the cables)

We made friends with a couple of young Aussies and took some of the classic iconic photos people take on the Half Dome.

(If you zoom in really closely on that second picture, that’s Jaclyn and I standing on the edge!)

 

My wife has no idea how amazing a person she is.  She is the proverbial rock in every relationship.  In our marriage, with our kids, at work, with her family and friends.

 

Sometimes with people that you are just used to depending on, we forget to thank them and let them know just how important they are.

 

I ended up getting Jaclyn’s four best friends to write her letters outlining just what she means to each of them and made her read them on the Half Dome.  We met people from Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Asia, and even Burlington Ontario at Yosemite, but Jaclyn was the only one on top of the Half Dome with her shoes off eating a peanut better and banana sandwich nearly choking trying to fend off tears.  What a memory.

 

The next problem was getting down.  When we got to the top of Half Dome there were around 15 or 20 people up there.  By the time we left that had swelled to over 50.  When we started the descent along the cables there were at least 50 to 75 people on them.

 

This is where things get dangerous.  You cannot pass people going up the cables as it’s too dangerous so unfortunately you are stuck going at the pace of the slowest person.  But when there is two way traffic (some going up, others going down) things can get hairy.  It is safest when you have one hand on either cable at all times.  When someone is passing on the way down, you both have to hug just one cable.  When it’s really busy, some crazy people go down on the OUTSIDE of the cables because they don’t like the slow pace and the traffic.

 

The people that were starting as we descended would have been on the cables over an hour to get to the top which would have been exhausting and can be dangerous.  We took our time on the way down (you go down backwards for the most part).  Jaclyn clipped in with her harness.  I found it too annoying and problematic to constantly unclip and clip in around every pole each 10 foot section so while I wore the harness I didn’t end up using it.  At the end of the day it’s about your comfort level.  Most people don’t even wear a harness but we wanted the option in case we felt anxious.

 

Once back down the cables, we were elated, took some more pictures and then realized we had 16km more to hike……downhill this time.

Intuitively you would think the descent down the mountain would be way easier.  You would be wrong.

 

We both found this part tougher on our legs (and particularly our knees) then the ascent.

 

We took a slightly longer route down at the end because it was a trail we hadn’t been on.

 

I’d say we made the right choice with these views.

 

We stayed at a famous architecturally protected hotel that night called the Ahwahnee.  I had to book the room in April for a stay in October to give you an idea of how popular it is and that was after checking every day for 3 weeks.

 

Not a horrible view from our room.

 

I had booked the formal dining room that night for dinner.  You will notice a few things from this picture:

• We earned our dessert that night.
• I am extremely sunburned
• I can barely keep my eyes open.

And that was that.  29km of hiking.  We both felt an extreme sense of accomplishment at what we had done. People have ascended Half Dome from age 12 through age 71!  Seeing some of the folks along the hike that were doing it was really inspiring.

 

We met people from all over the world.  Everyone was extremely friendly and communal about sharing one common goal together.

 

You would think we slept in and ordered room service the next morning, but again you don’t know my wife.

 

This time, we took it easy and set our alarm much later…..5AM.  We wanted to hit the 800 year old Sequoia trees in Meriposa Valley on our way out of the park.

 

Yes it was worth it.

 

A couple of interesting items people have asked me about:

 

We took over 47,000 steps that day, and climbed the equivalent of nearly 300 flights of stairs.

 

Those of you that know me know I have a bit of a caffeine addiction.  These little beauties were life saving.  Each bar is the equivalent in caffeine of one coffee.

 

For food you want light items that are calorie dense.  We packed the perfect amount.  We had items like organic turkey pepperettes, RX protein bars, Larabars, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, and high caloric trail mix.  The only poor choice were sliced apples which spoiled due to the heat in my backpack by the time we summitted.

 

The 9L of water was enough.  We drank what we needed on the way up and just slightly rationed on the way down but were never thirsty.  We also brought a fancy water purifying pump which is recommended as you can get water from a stream called the Mercer river about halfway up.  We didn’t end up needing to use it.

 

Yosemite valley was the most beautiful place either of us have ever been.  I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.  There is so much to do you can have any sort of adventure.  There were people there from infants, up to their 90’s.  On the 4 mile trail we even met a guy in his sixties that had both of his knees replaced.  He was hauling ass!  He mentioned he was there to try and do all 7 of the hardest hikes there.  What a beast and it shows you our human potential!

 

Did our kids survive?  Only my little guy had a rough go, but it was his first time away from us completely.  He had just turned 4 and is very attached to his mommy as he didn’t go to as much daycare as our other two due to COVID.

 

My parents moved into our house and stayed with the kids.  I think they likely slept for a full week when they got home.  Here’s a pic of me and my boys watching the Jays game the day after we got back.  My little guy essentially had to touch Jaclyn or I the entire day.

 

Ok, just a few more pics that I liked.

This first one is right when you enter the valley.  It is called “TUNNEL VIEW” and is iconic because during the American civil war when the pioneers from Yosemite tried to protect/conserve it as a national park, they sent a huge package to Abraham Lincoln with drawings, paintings, biological deposits and everything they could think of.  The front cover was this photo (without Jaclyn of course) of Tunnel View to which Abraham Lincoln immediately signed it into conservation stating that something that beautiful must never be ruined.

For climbing fans, Yosemite Valley is considered the ‘mecca’.  If you watched the movie Free Solo of Alex Honnold climbing El Capitan with no equipment or the Dawn Wall, here is a picture of what that mountain actually looks like.  There are numerous climbers on here at the time this was taken, and they are SO SMALL that you can’t even see them.  It is difficult to comprehend the fact that he did this.

Finally, we got a real kick out of this bus.  I think it may just be a permanent feature at Yosemite.  I’m also assuming it has been there since the 1970’s.