Doesn't this lead people to take more risks? What if you have a hard to get permit - get to the base, big clouds are rolling in - and you know it's now or maybe never for this year? That might push some people to risk going up when otherwise they might go down, knowing they could try again a week later - or whatever. Am I missing something? Tho I do agree the weekend numbers can be ghastly. And I guess if there is a ranger stationed there to check permits, then she/he can close the cables in nasty weather.
I think this might be one of the
few good reasons for requesting permits. Every time I've been up Half Dome, I've been horrified by the lack of preparation and knowledge of some of the people I'd meet on the trail. "Hikers" carrying a 16 oz. bottle of water, wearing inadequate shoes, and no head lamp/flashlight is all too common; I sometimes wonder how some of the people I pass get back down to the valley! I think there is a certain percent of visitors to Yosemite who see Half Dome - get up one morning and say "hey, let's go climb Half Dome".... becasue they want to go home and say they did it.
I'm assuming now, when picking up permits, these same people will hear the lecture on packing out their trash. Maybe the times I've been up there I've just happened to be following some real pigs, but there sure has been a lot of trash along side the trail. I don't mind picking up trash, because it needs to be picked up, but I draw the line at other people's toilet paper!
.... but it IS really concerning about the few permits being issued, and the no-show policy. Steve, I know you've posted charts on the Whitney permits, showing in one column that all permits were reserved/none available, and in the next column how many were available for walk-in due to no-shows. There are a LOT of no-shows. Obviously, a lot of people do not bother to cancel a permit reservation when they decide to not use it.
It's never going to be a perfect system, but it seems that the "powers that be" haven't thought this all the way thru before issuing a policy. It's surprising that they didn't use the Whitney Permit process as their blueprint.
I guess for now, I'll just plan on going up Half Dome in the middle of the week.
