Yosemite

Today we climbed Half Dome at Yosemite National Park. Half Dome's Peak is 8,842 feet above sea level. We began our Hike on the Yosemite Valley floor and we gained 4,800 feet to the peak. Below is a picture of Half Dome. It is pretty daunting looking up at it.

This was our agenda for the trip:
1) 5:00 pm Friday. Drive for 2 hours to Merced, the half way point to Yosemite. We got caught in traffic due to an accident and it took us 5 hours.
2) 11:00 pm Friday. Sleep as much as we can at the hotel.
3) 3:30 am Saturday. Wake up to drive to Yosemite National Park.
4) 6:30 am Saturday. Start Half Dome Climb from Yosemite Valley.
5) 12:30 pm Saturday. Reach the summit of Half Dome. Rest !
6) 3:30 pm Saturday. Start our descent back to the base.
7) 8:00 pm Saturday. Reach the base. Rest !
8) 9:00 pm Satruday. Start 4 hour drive back to Mountain View. This was dangerous, too tired.
9) 1:00 am Sunday. Back home.

The hike was very tedius, and long. From the base to the peak was 8.2 miles. The park is very beautiful, the snow is melting and there are waterfalls all over the place. Here is one of the biggest falls.

The hike was well worth it but it was physically demanding. I took breaks frequently and I had to tune into my iPod during the most challenging parts to keep my mind off of it. BUT !!!, then came the last 200 feet. The last 200 feet was taken by a steal cable up a near vertical slope. I think that I am affraid of heights because I was getting real nervous. This is what we saw before I went up. You can see the line of hikers up the face.

Here is another picture looking up from the wall. Marcus took this picture and Dan is going up infront of him. I can't believe I did this. If you fall, you are going down,.. All the way down. Crazy !

But I made it, reaching the top was well worth it. The view was spectacular. My lungs hurt a lot because I pushed myself pretty hard and the air pressure was lower. My body felt like after the CN Tower run. Check out the view.

The last time I was up this high was at Whistler. It is great to get back up in the mountains. I missed them. There was still snow at the peak so we could make snowballs. And the clouds slowly swept through us. It was great. We rested up here for a while, I fell asleep for atleast 30 min. Then we started the long trek back. That was not easy at all, But it was faster. We were all really tired, we slowly made it back to the base.

This was a great experience.