Thanks again everyone for the responses. PLawrence, Shilo, and Wherever - Very timely warnings as I almost got myself in quite a bit of trouble yesterday. I finally made it up to Fern Ledge, but I came fairly close to not making it back down due to severe dehydration. Here's the rundown on yesterday's hike/climb:
1) Set off at 7:30 AM with 32 ounces of water (oops) and my Nikon D750 with only one lens. I went with less water as I knew I had made it out to Sunnyside Bench the Sunday before with only 16 ounces of water, and I was concerned about weight, especially if I was going to make it up that rope.
2) I took my time on the way up thinking that if there were alternate routes up that I might be able to find them. I tried two alternates and both of them came to a dead end. Beautiful views though.
3) I made it out to Sunnyside Bench by 9:20 AM and was having a great time. Very breezy and cool. No problems.
4) I went looking for the yellow rope, and it was gone! I'm guessing someone had a group, maybe some younger hikers, and they were concerned about getting them over that first small cliff before heading up. I'm guessing they took the rope down when they left. At this point, I thought about giving up again, but I screwed up my courage and with mental images of Alex Honnold going through my head, I headed up the rocks, albeit very slowly.
5) Coming out of the first set of trees and getting a good look at the "trail", I should have faced reality and headed straight back down. Everything from this point onwards was straight up, and no one in my shape should have been trying that with two bottles of Aquafina in his backpack, one of which was already almost gone. Not really having a clear idea of how far up Fern Ledge was from here, I pressed on. (One hiker last Sunday stated that it was "about an hour" from that small cliff).
6) Very distracted by the sirens throughout the morning and afternoon as the rangers worked to keep the staging area next to Sentinel Bridge clear for Obama's Arrival. I didn't have an ETA on the arrival, so I kept hoping I would see Marine I flying up the valley while I was up there. (Obama didn't arrive until almost sunset, and I was long gone by then.)
7) After an hour or so of looking for cairns, climbing through trees and up boulders over terrain that I was far from comfortable with, I could hear the falls getting closer. This was taking WAY longer than I thought it would....but I kept telling myself that I just wanted a decent shot of the falls from up here, and then I would head straight back down. First bottle of Aqufina was almost gone and I still had a lot more climbing to do. First decent view of the falls came at 11:15. Not quite what I wanted, so I pressed on. Two other hikers passed me and told me it wasn't much further.
8) Made it to a nice overlook around 11:30. Should have turned around right there...but I was so close! I had to keep going...even though the first water bottle was empty.
9) As inched my way over the boulders down to the "trail" out to the ledge, I saw my first rattlesnake in Yosemite. He found a nice spot underneath a boulder that I had been planning to walk past, so I had to find another route.
10) Moving quite a bit slower now due to fatigue and lack of water, I finally made it out to the ledge at 12:30. I was already drinking out of that second bottle...but going down is a lot less work...right?
11) On the way back down, I missed a cairn, and now for the first time I began to panic a little. I thought I could make out where I had come up further to the East, but to get over there, I'd have to make my way across exposed granite with a nice drop off below. I was already starting to feel sick and I was forcing myself to conserve the last of the water. I finally made it across the granite and found the trail on the other side.
12) I finally inched my way down and tried to stop and cool off in the shade whenever possible. By 3 PM I really didn't know if I could keep going and it began to occur to me that other than those two hikers, who presumably were back on the valley floor hours ago, I had seen no one all day. Just when I was about ready to give up, I found a small trickle of a creek and spent several minutes dousing myself but didn't drink any of it as I didn't have a filter. I felt much better after this, and an hour later, I was back to my car.
Big lessons from yesterday: If the weight of the water is going to keep you from making it up trail....don't go up that trail. And going solo is rarely a good idea...especially out to a spot like Fern Ledge. And lastly....I think most hikers get into trouble when it's a situation where your goal is "just a bit further" and you keep going without being honest with yourself about your own physical ability and how much water you are going to need to get back. It was way too easy to look at those other two hikers and think "Well if THEY can do it..." Huge mistake.
I'll post some photos soon. I sure wish I had hung around long enough to see the POTUS arrive, but I was long gone by the time he flew in.
Thanks again for the advice and help everyone!
-Bill
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2016 11:29AM by MtSacProf.
IMG_4001 by Mt Sac Choral Program, on Flickr
