I was the one whose chip (but never the camera itself) Steve C ended up finding at the bottom of the south face of Half Dome six weeks after I had dropped the camera off the top of Half Dome. Like you, it was at the end of a two-week vacation that had a couple of first-time summits (Whitney, Cloud's Rest) on it, after having dreamed of summitting Whitney for many years. One suggestion that was mentioned to me in the aftermath of that loss prior to Steve locating the chip was the idea of attaching your contact info into your camera pouch (assuming you have one). So you may want to consider this for next time. I hope you are able to find your chip/camera.
CaT
