I just wrote up a blog post about my recent Half Dome hike and included a postscript about the death this last weekend.
You can read it and see the pictures here: "Half Dome, The Magnificent and the Brutal"
In discussing the permit issue elsewhere, and calls for further NPS restrictions on people's choices and actions, I suggested that education is more important than restriction. My idea was that as part of the permit process, they include some kind of simple DMV-like Drivers license test online, but in this case it's a Half Dome Hikers test, and you'd need to complete the test before the permit is officially issued. It could be as simple as reading the Half Dome Cables Info Page on the NPS Site, and then answering a few multiple choice questions to show you've actually read the information, i.e., it is recommended that each person should carry (a) no water, (b) 1 qt. of water, (c) 1 gallon of water, (d) five gallons of water on the hike? If there is rain and lightning occurring as you approach Half Dome, you should (a) NOT go up the cables, (b) NOT go up the cables, (c) NOT go up the cables, (d) NOT go up the cables?
Gary Crabbe
Enlightened Images
"Nearness to Nature keeps the Spirit sensitive to impressions not commonly felt, and in touch with unseen powers." - Oyihesa; Santee Dakota indian, from his book, Soul of the Indian (1911)