Ken, looking back at my response to dbd, I don't see where I "simply yelled". I thought his use of the Joni Mitchell phrase comparing the Half Dome cables to a parking lot were extreme; that his implying that an extra ranger on the trail is somehow worse than barring access for thousands was extreme; and his "why don't you try to make a complete statement" pretty inflammatory.

I cannot debate with people who feel we should lock down the wilderness. I just plain disagree, and I think it is hopeless to try to convince people with such opinions to change their minds. But I don't see any yelling.

As for the rhetorical questions: Only when addressing the thunderstorm issue did I ask questions, and immediately followed with a bit of discussion.


This is probably an futile exercise in self-flagellation but I'll try to put down what I think should be tried. And of course IF they would try anything similar, the numbers could and should be adjusted to tune the numbers of hikers to spread people across the entire day so as to reduce any clustering and crowding on the cables.

1. Station a ranger / gatekeeper at the bottom of the cables, not the bottom of the sub-dome. The ranger should have absolute say when it comes to allowing people to climb the cables. With an all-day spread of the hikers, it would require someone there controlling the numbers at least 8 hours, perhaps 8 AM to 4 PM. The ranger should not allow people to ascend if thunderstorms are imminent, and could in fact, head off the sub-dome, turning around anyone climbing it if one occurred.

2. Permits: Make permits available by time slot.
50 before 8 AM. 40 before 9 AM. 40 before 10 AM. 40 before 11 AM.
300 anytime permits.
40 after 2 PM. 50 after 3 PM 50 after 4 PM. The higher numbers early and late are allowed since very few of the anytime hikers would use those times.

The ranger would check the permits against the time, making sure people arrived at the proper time.

People with early time-slot permits would need to be aware of the time it takes to climb, and be aware of their own physical abilities. A timeline could be developed to let people know they were on schedule to make their time at various junctions.
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So there... is that a complete enough statement? Now, I am sure absolutely everyone can find something in the above to dislike, so now all can swat the idea down.

All I can say, is if they never try something new, then everyone suffers with the ever-shrinking quotas imposed.