Has anyone heard of rapelling down Half Dome after reaching the top with the cables??
Just curious.
A lady friend was telling me that a friend of hers did this recently. My response was, "no way".



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2012 11:19AM by trailblazer.

Any details on what they mean by "rapelling down"?

My first thought was perhaps they meant now with the cables "down" and using the cables to rappel. down. But I'm also not sure what the question means.

One can go down the Snake Dike but going down the face is lunacy for several reasons. Google "rappelling half dome".

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Old Dude



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2012 07:21AM by mrcondron.

I'm pretty sure your friend was talking about "rappeling" down the cables.

No way you would or could do that down the North Face.

Silly question..... those that climb the face of Half Dome; how do they get down? The cables?

Yes.

Climbing up usually is much easier than down.

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Half Dome Hiker


No way you would or could do that down the North Face.

do you know that for sure? Its pretty common to have rappel anchors after each pitch

No, I don't know that for sure. And I'm not a rock climber at all.

However from what I know about it I feel it's very unlikely someone could pull that off. Maybe Alex Honnold and Dean Potter.

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trailblazer
Has anyone heard of rapelling down Half Dome after reaching the top with the cables??
Just curious.
A lady friend was telling me that a friend of hers did this recently. My response was, "no way".

some guys tried this on El Cap last summer, YOSAR was called in.

Instead of rapelling down Half Dome, what the Park Service could implement, especially to reduce any form of crowding on the cables (and overcrowding on the Half Dome trail too) would be to build a zip-line from the top of Half Dome back to Happy Isles trailhead and bus stop. How cool would be that!

And just think of the benefits, they could make the Half Dome cables just one-way (up only) and then everyone would leave Half Dome via the zip-line. It would also speed up the evacuation of Half Dome when thunderstoms and lightning is threatening.

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plawrence
Instead of rapelling down Half Dome, what the Park Service could implement, especially to reduce any form of crowding on the cables (and overcrowding on the Half Dome trail too) would be to build a zip-line from the top of Half Dome back to Happy Isles trailhead and bus stop. How cool would be that!

Of course, you'd probably be going about 200MPH by the time you hit Happy Isles and any kind of impact barrier would probably cause serious injury but it would be a lot easier for SAR to reach you!

It WOULD be a helluva ride though!

Or, they could just rip out the cables altogether and let the climbers do as they will.

That would surely diminish the daily injuries and the too-many hiker fatalities quite a lot.

people rap straight down el cap every year. not sure what kind of gear they use but you can google it. its like thing you can (or could) pay to do. as far as rapping half dome people do portions of it all the time. its like 20 something pitches and i think all belays are bolted. people have rappelled down part or all of snake dike and even the cables too (instead of using the
cables) but the person in the original post probably meant she just used the cables to get down.

as far as rapping one shot straight down the face like they do on el cap, it would leave the person on the 'death slabs.' theyd have
to go down from there or climb the social trail below the face to the subdome
area. could be fun i guess...i think id rather pay someone to drag me up the face rather than pay someone to haul a rope up there, hike up and slide down it.