Wilderness Permit Question

Eeek - You might know this

I have a cousin who wants to climb Half Dome with his son this summer - He doesn't have a permit and is thinking of coming a day early, securing a permit out of Happy Isles and leisurely climbing Half Dome over three days - staying 2 nights in LYV

When reserving a wilderness permit, they now ask the following question requesting a yes or no response

I would like to walk to the top of Half Dome while on this
overnight wilderness trip, please reserve Half Dome Permits
for an additional $8 per person payable when I pick up my
wilderness permit.

The permit then asks the following Half Dome related questions

If Half Dome permits are NOT available for my trip (Check):

Please do NOT process this reservation.

Make this wilderness permit reservation without Half Dome
permits. I understand that there are no refunds for wilderness permit reservations.

From these questions on the Wilderness permit, it appears that we may be able to secure a Wilderness permit for Happy Isles but not have permission to climb Half Dome - Otherwise, why would they include these questions.

OK - Fast Forward to my cousin - When he secures a permit by arriving at Yosemite the day before (early), is it possible that even if he is early enough to secure a wilderness permit that he will not be given permission to climb Half Dome with his son - because there may not be any spots available

My reason for asking is he would want to know if there was a risk involved if he traveled all the way from Southern California - got his permit but discovered that he would not be able to climb Half Dome with his son which would be his whole reason for making this trip

.......or, is this a more likely than not situation - In other words, there is a chance he may not get to hike Half Dome but probably will get permission since certain spots are made available for permits issued the day before for walk ins.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2013 08:15PM by SoCalCPA.

In years past if you got the Wilderness permit you were pretty much guaranteed a HD permit.
I looks like they've messed things up and reduced the daily count for wilderness permits from 100? to 25.

Wilderness Permits
Half Dome Permits for Backpackers

I'll find out this summer when I show up trying to get my FCFS permits how much of a problem this change might be. I don't bother with reservations.
When you're just showing up without any reservations, and try to get any of the FCFS permits, wilderness or HD, you have to have enough flexibility to float your plans a few days, and have a backup plan.

So YES, you might not get your permit, show up the day before you want to start backpacking, show up EARLY so you're first in line, show up at the permit office closest to the trailhead, be flexible, have a backup plan.

( btw, take lots of pictures and post them with a trip report here! )

From the nps website:

"The quota for Half Dome permits for backpackers is now 75 permits per day (50 available by reservation and 25 available one day in advance on a first-come, first-served basis at wilderness centers)"
& "
The process for receiving a first-come, first-served wilderness permit, beginning at 11 am one day prior to your backpacking trip's start date, is unchanged. When requesting a wilderness permit using this method, be sure to request Half Dome permits, and you will receive them if they are available and Half Dome is reasonably part of your itinerary."
from: http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/hdwildpermits.htm

So, yes, there is a possibility of getting to Yosemite and getting a permit for LYV and not getting Half Dome permits. However, in order to realistically get a permit for LYV on a first-come, first-served basis you pretty much have to be in the front of the line, or very near it, so he would likely get Half Dome permits than too. So it seems like this is your 'more likely than not' situation, provided that he is at the permit station sufficiently early.

I can imagine what happened here - everyone went after backpacking permits because there were no limitation on them, and the surrounding area became heavily impacted by people trying to backpack it and go to Half Dome. So now there is a quota/limitation to keep people from totally trashing the region.

I agree with this new limitation.