Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Yosemite: Fewer People Should Climb Half Dome

Thanks so much, Dale, for coming in to swat the idea down yet again. I can see from your opinion relating the cables to parking lot pavement, that you would just as soon see them removed. ....So to me, your opinion backing the park's tighter quota is more a support of that, and not caring for a second that the opportunity of thousands of people whose only wilderness experience is climbing Half Dome has been eliminated by the gatekeeper attendants.

Your question about how many parking lot attendants it would take implies there would be more than the ranger already stationed there. I doubt that, unless perhaps they needed two rangers to cover the expanded times people would be hiking. (So what is wrong with one extra ranger???)

Looking at the Park Service study, and their six sentences dismissing the idea, I have several comments: Six sentences out of 132 pages shows pretty convincingly that they didn't spend more than 15 minutes thinking about it.

> A late ascent time could pose safety risks for many hikers.
This completely fails to address an early ascent time. People can and do start hiking early.

> Most people plan their hike to Half Dome to take advantage of all daylight hours.
I doubt that. I'd like to see how many hikers are on the trail at first light. The writer seems to forget that people can hike with headlamps. They currently do that on the Half Dome hike.

> Forcing some users to wait to ascend until the late afternoon would result in an increase in the number of hikers.
I sure don't understand that statement. Can someone explain?

> Potential consequences of having to wait for a later ascent time could make their day even longer.
This seems to assume that people with a later access time would start the same time as others, but wait at the gate. I would think people would start later -- I sure would.

> There have been numerous search and rescue incidents caused by completing the return portion of their trip after dark.
...But those rescue incidents will still be there with the proposed system, because some hikers underestimate the hike, don't turn around in time, get worn out, (whatever the issue), and get into trouble. I would hope that people starting later would not take on the hike without proper equipment, like a light. In fact, if hikers were out later on the trail, they would be there to help the others in trouble, whereas currently, the trail is nearly deserted at dark. (I once hiked HD, returning after dark, and shared our light with others caught without.)

> In addition, delaying people until later in the day means they are at the summit in the afternoon when thunderstorms are more likely.
Forgetting again that there could be earlier time slots. How does the present system keep people off Half Dome "when thunderstorms are more likely"? How many thunderstorms are there on Half Dome during the summer? ...maybe ten? Seems like a weak reason to prevent thousands of people from accessing Half Dome.

Both the late return / rescue issue and the afternoon thunderstorm issue could be addressed by educating hikers. I have seen people here strongly advocating education to help the WAG bag issue on Mt Whitney. It certainly seems like it could be a viable solution to significantly increase hiker safety on Half Dome, and safety seems to be their biggest issue. Also, since there will likely be a ranger gatekeeper stationed on the trail, it seems that person should serve to underscore the danger to people going up in the face of an oncoming storm. Other parks shut down trails if weather threatens (the Zion Narrows hike); why can't Yosemite?

As many have written before, Yosemite appears to have made up their mind almost before the document was started. But it sure makes me mad that they so glibly justify terminating the opportunity for any sort of wilderness experience without exploring as many alternatives as possible before slamming the gates.