Fishmonger's description of those guys walking down without holding on... gives me the willies!
yup - I was pretty much expecting to witness Darwin's laws in action that day, but alas, there was no proof for his theories. It was 1988, so who knows how far those genes have spread by now
I haven't been to Half Dome since 1989, and when I found out a few years ago that overnight camping was not allowed any longer, I pretty much crossed that trail off my maps. Don't think I'll be going up there again. I go to the Sierras to get away from people and crowded places, not to find myself in a traffic jam. Too many people on the planet - you have to go deeper into the wilderness to get your solitude fix.
The thing about walking the slope is not the difficulty, but the fact that you have to do it all on friction, and if you make one mistake, it could very likely be your last one.
We used to wear harnesses and clip into the cable with a carabiner. I still remember how people stared at us, either thinking "why didn't I think of that myself," or "what a bunch of pussies"
