The Moon is Waxing Crescent (40% of Full)
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It's 5 months in advance, actually.
If you get in line early as you are planning, you stand a chance. We have successfully gotten campsites that way with groups of 8 or 12 - however. The second year we did it, we had someone in line at 4 am, and got nothing but the waiting list. HOWEVER - you come back at 2 pm and check, if you're on the waiting list (or 1, or whenever they tell you to) and yo
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion If "nobody" reported it they just weren't posting here - I've heard of three occasions where backpackers were denied HD permits on the WP.
My annual go-to for this area is the Diving Board. Harder, more rewarding, had it to ourselves.
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion I never bother with Half Dome. Always win that way - get to go all kinds of fantastic places other than Half Dome. The Diving Board is hardly populated. Loads of peaks to walk up. Slept on Alta during the Supermoon.
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion Quotey_p_w
QuoteAlmostThere
I have those. They are good for granite gripping - going up steep slab. I wear hiking shoes (Trekstas or Keens) on the Mist Trail without issues. Good lugs on the sole are all you need - just stay away from street shoes and you'll be fine.
I heard this kind of shoe would be ideal for going up the Half Dome cables. I was wearing Merrell backpacking boots with Vibram
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion I have those. They are good for granite gripping - going up steep slab. I wear hiking shoes (Trekstas or Keens) on the Mist Trail without issues. Good lugs on the sole are all you need - just stay away from street shoes and you'll be fine.
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion In other words - to get a reservation, you need to have gotten online well before March 19 - months ago, in fact. Folks will start showing up to check in March 19th on those reservations they made much earlier.
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion I go by what I am told - not what's on the website.
The signage in Tuolumne backpacker camp also disagrees with that "non food item in bear boxes" prohibition.
Personally, i use the empty pack under my feet out of sight of the bears, or keep it on my back.
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AlmostThere
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Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra The tower on Hoffman is for high band - for YOSAR and park ranger use only. If you are caught using their channels - that's a big if, I have a high band SAR radio that would need reprogramming to do it - you'd get in huge trouble.
Even high band does not work all the time. It's easy to lose the tower. Sometimes they have to use planes to bounce signals back to base. The Motorola radios you bu
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AlmostThere
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Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra QuoteKen M
Wow! You'd expect with spending of 58 million, there'd be a big effort to try to reduce the need. Don't know what you could do about suicides, but hiking????
Boating is easy. Lifejackets fix almost all drownings. Swimming? Above waterfalls? Hmmmm.
But hiking? ten essentials, anyone?
Boating ain't easy at all. Substance abuse happens - goes with boating and hunting like b
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AlmostThere
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General Discussion There is also an active mountain lion den upslope toward Grizzly Peak. That was in a trip report by some climbers I read a couple years back. The cat is probably still there... it's a great place to get away from tourists.
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AlmostThere
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Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra The backpacker parking is six spaces across from the front porch of the lodge restaurant. There is no parking at the backpacker campground. The YARTS stops right in front of the restaurant.
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AlmostThere
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Backpacking and Hiking Yosemite and the Sierra Quotechicagocwright
QuoteAlmostThere
Quotechicagocwright
Yes someone is eventually probably going to perish attempting Half Dome with the Cables down.
But someone is also likely to perish climbing El Capitan, walking at Glacier Point, riding a bike on the bike path, swimming in the pool at Curry, and maybe even eating pizza. But let's not close it down and make it less accessible. Please?
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion Quotechicagocwright
Yes someone is eventually probably going to perish attempting Half Dome with the Cables down.
But someone is also likely to perish climbing El Capitan, walking at Glacier Point, riding a bike on the bike path, swimming in the pool at Curry, and maybe even eating pizza. But let's not close it down and make it less accessible. Please?
How do you know no one has perished g
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion There's a growing response to the permitting - people are starting to go up before the cables go up. Met a number of people on the trail who flew in from out of state to do just that. "I tried for a permit last year and couldn't get one, so I came back this year to do it before the cables go up."
It's going to be interesting to see if the trend continues, and what the park's respons
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion Quotechick-on
Tioga is open. It can wait til next April. It'll still be there. Just like the big ol rock.
I'll be on to other big ol rocks... plenty left to sit on that don't have a solid line of climbers going up one side, and tourists going up the other...
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion Went back yesterday to look for the camera, and to take more pictures if I didn't find it. Turned out to be a better day for pictures than the last. Didn't find the camera (but didn't much expect to).
That is a truly difficult hike. While searching for the camera on the way down, we got off track and nearly pitched off the slabs to the south of the route. Fortunately we were just 50-60 feet to
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion Quoteryanmj
Quoteparklover
One bothersome thing is that in his profile he is listed as an advanced hiker and a climber so he should know better.
know better? they bother you and don't bother me, that's all there is to it. The most unsightly thing in the park is the flocks of tourists.
You don't have to be a conservationist to hate 'em. People put them up where they don't belong in the backco
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion Quotechick-on
Good for you
OK. Same as Volunteer Firefighters. Unpaid. Non-professional.
The Yosemite SAR team are real professionals. World Class.
Not quite. A lot of the volunteers train for rock and water too, at their own expense. We have lots of folks who do the leg work, a few who do the ice and rock work, and fewer still who will tackle water rescue/recovery... but we got 'em.
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion Yep, shoe of masochists!
I gave it up after about 50 miles on granite - not sure what kind of insole my buddy is wearing, but he's a lot younger and still impervious to foot pain, evidently.
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion Yesterday, coming down the Mist Trail, I had to tell three people they were on the Mist Trail, and one person that he was not on the JMT YET but would be at the top of Nevada Falls. And then he asked where Nevada Falls was - I turned my head 90 degrees to the right and stared at it.
Last year, at dusk, at the top of Vernal Falls, I ran into a fellow who had been hiking ahead of me as fast as
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion I'm standing on the Mirror Lake loop trail holding an umbrella. It's raining. A guy with a full backpack, sleeping pad strapped on the back, three beers in each side pocket (bottles) and an open one in hand, wearing shorts and tank top, walks up to me. It's about 50F and falling.
"Is this the way to Half Dome?"
Thinking about the possibility of lightning, storms, etc. and trying
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion Quotehotrod4x5
If you don't know what you are doing , stay on the trail!
And how do you know that you don't know what you are doing?
Serious question - you know exactly what you are doing out there, no matter what, because your ego says so. Doesn't matter how much experience you really have, since you can easily make the same mistake (such as getting separated from the group) many times wit
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AlmostThere
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Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. News & Discussion