How To Hike Half Dome – The Complete Guide

hey guys this is the hike to half dome now uh in this video i'm going to talk a little bit about permits about gear and then i'm going to give you turn by turn directions this video is meant to accompany a article on hikingguy.com so please go there for all of the most up-to-date uh information i can't update the video all the time but i can update the article there but otherwise let's just dive into it so you can't just show up for half dome and hike it you need to get a permit first and there's a few ways you can get a permit now you can hike all the way up to the base of the subdome without a permit but once you pass the subdome which is here you're going to need a permit and there's a few things you can do there's the preseason lottery there's a daily lottery there's permit jumping and there's a wilderness permit i'll talk about all these in detail on hikingguy.com including statistics and tips and all that fun stuff but let me just show you real quick how the preseason and the daily lottery work for the preseason lottery it's generally open in march and you have to go to recreation.gov to book a permit once you go to the site you pick your days that you want to hike and this is for when the cables are up when the cables are down you can hike anytime but it is extremely dangerous so i don't recommend it especially as your first time but you can pick right now up to seven days and you can add multiple people in your party and put that information into your lottery application now you're only allowed to apply once but you are allowed those seven chances and um you know the chances are generally better on weekdays so tuesday through thursday are your best chances away from july 4th is also pretty good but you do have a decent chance somewhere between uh 25 and 35 percent you have a chance of winning this preseason lottery and the way it works is if you win it then you pay for the permit you print the permit out and you bring the permit up with you now i have a guide on how to use the permit on hiking guide as well i'm not going to do that because this video would be 18 billion hours long but you can see here it's all pretty easy and you do have to do it on the website so don't just show up at the visitor center and try to get a permit because you have to do it here the other thing is the daily lottery and if you don't get your pre-season lottery like i did it here you can try the daily lottery and it's the same website you can see here and the way it works is you go there two days before you want to hike so if you want to hike on wednesday you show up on monday morning you do an application for wednesday application period closes usually around lunchtime and they will let you know whether you got it or not in the afternoon and this is a regular permit to hike up there they reserve a certain amount of permits for the daily lottery and they reserve a certain amount for the other methods as well so this is where you go generally the chances of the daily lottery are are pretty decent i've anecdotally been more lucky on the daily lottery than i have on the pre-season lottery now you can also do something called permit jumping and get a add-on to your wilderness permit i'll talk about that on the website i don't want to talk about permits too much so let's keep moving all right let's briefly talk gear now i'm not going to go over everything here if you want to know what kind of gear i wear what i recommend in totality for half dome please go to the article on hiking guy i'm not going to go through a list of gear here but there's uh one thing that you're going to definitely want and that's really good hiking shoes with a good grip i'm using these la sportiva's now they grip really well when you're going up the granite um you're going to want something that grips and doesn't slip so that's a must-have you can bring trekking poles just know that everything uh that you bring with you you have to bring up the cables you can't leave your pack at the bottom because there's squirrels that will rifle through it and steal your stuff so you have to carry everything so be conscious of that when you're hiking and when you're packing for the trip one of the things you might want to consider if you have some anxiety about the cables is this this is a climbing harness with two shock cords and a carabiner here this is called a via ferrata kit uh it was first developed i think in the dolomites in italy but basically you strap yourself in this and then as you go up the cables you clip yourself in and out now it does take longer to ascend the cables with this um and it is a little clunky but it does give you some peace of mind if you're uh worried about falling or freaking out or whatever else you might be scared of up there but uh those are things that you might want to consider also go to the website where i talk about like satellite communicators and the clothes and how much water and food and all that fun stuff but that's gear for half dome i almost forgot the most important thing the cheapest thing the best thing these cheapy gloves now you don't need special mountaineering gloves or anything but if you have gloves on the cables it will help you tremendously in these cheapy ones i'll put a link to this on the guide but they have this grippy part there and they're real lightweight and they work really well so definitely bring gloves um it is a must-have i don't know how i forgot that in the beginning but i did i am at 8 000 feet right now i'm probably not the best state of mind but bring your gloves don't forget those i want to quickly mention the cables because it is such a big part of this hike and people do have a healthy fear of ascending the cables i have a very detailed guide to the cables on the accompanying article so i recommend going there i'm not going to talk about this for a half an hour or something but in general if you just want the top line tips it's wear gloves wear grippy shoes and if it is wet or threatening to rain at all you do not want to go up on the cables but again check out the guide i'll talk all about the cables and give you some tips on going up going down and dealing with any of the fears that you might have so for a lot of folks doing a hike this long is a pretty big deal just getting up to the base of the cables can be an effort in itself so what i wanted to show you is a little method that i have called chunking where you can break the hike apart into little logical sections not little but logical sections and tackle them one by one it makes it easier to get up to the cables and half dome mentally now this first section i call the mist trail because it's called the miss trail this is where you leave from happy aisles down here and you basically do the miss trail hike and i have a guide for that hiking guy too if you want more detail there but you're going to go up along vernal fall and nevada fall and climb all the way up to here where you're going to start the little yosemite valley and the stretch is about a mile or so maybe a mile or half the mist trail is pretty steep i think you climb over 2000 feet and about three miles so when you get to the little yosemite valley right here it's actually uh pretty flat and about a mile and a half you're going to go through it's also your last chance for a bathroom and then after that there's a section which is this blue one which i call the climb because it's basically a long long climb up sort of back end of of yosemite up towards the sub-dome and you can see it here we'll spin around so you can see it even better we're going to climb up like that we're going to climb up all the way over here to the wall until we get to the white section right here and that's the sub-dome and right here is where you need to show your permit to continue so you can basically hike all the way up to this point uh without a permit and if you're going to do some permit jumping that's the place you do it and you can see here i don't know why the line disappears on google earth there but we're going to hike up this section called the subdome oh that's clever i'm going to hike up the section called the subdome and it's basically a set of zigzagging stairs you can actually see them here as we go up and i'll show you all this in the turn by turn directions which are coming up next but uh there we go look at that zoom out and it is revealed we're going to climb up the sub-dome that's silly until you get to the base of the cables now you climb up the spine this is where the cables are you can see from this angle it is a little narrow it's a little narrower than you think when you look at it head on it looks flat but when you're actually on there it's a little bit narrow and you're going to climb all the way up there up to the summit right here there's a summit this is a section called the visor and that's the hike now i have the gpx file which this is on the website so i do recommend going there you can download it you can bring it into google earth and you can take a look at it just like we did here but it does help to get an idea of the landscape there you can see the summit you'll be able to see down into the yosemite valley there and there's happy isles now when we come back we're going to actually do a detour you don't have to you can go down the mist trail which is here but i'm going to recommend that you do a detour which is going to save your knees a little bit so you don't have to get on the steep steps on the mist trail so we're going to go around here down over nevada fall um down over here there you can see the trail there's the fall right there so we're going to go over that and we're going to go down a section of the john muir trail the jmt and that is going to basically take us out and around along here along the wall and then back down here and then we're going to rejoin the miss trail and you can go right back down to happy aisles so that's how i chunk this hike out it will help you so if you remember miss trail little yosemite valley section i call the climb with this versus blue section subdome and then the cables break into those sections and you should be good mentally to make it up to the top it does help to be in shape and do some training and i have a guide to the training that you should do on the website as well so you can check that out there but let's get on to the turn by turn direction all right so we're going to start at the happy isles shuttle station and there's a parking lot that's about 5-10 minutes walk away from here so if you want to park early the shuttle doesn't run until later but he's going to go past the shuttle and go over the merced river here on this big bridge this is all part of the yosemite valley loop road and then when you get to the end of the bridge you're going to make the right hand turn towards the miss trail you're going to follow the banks of the merced and if you come here during the day this will be packed with people but at five o'clock in the morning it's usually uh pretty empty there's a little turn off to the to the right there that goes up to the uh it goes across the river there's a little area you can see there are signs for half dome permits but we're just going to continue up here and the path is generally paved there's this awesome trail mileage sign that people take their selfies with this is actually the official start of the john muir trail the jmt but we're going to keep going straight and eventually the trail kind of winds up along the cliff here and follows the merced which is down to the right there eventually going to come out to the vernal fall foot bridge which you're going to cross and make a left over once you get to the other side you will see vernal fall up in the distance it's a fall because it's a single fall when it's a cascade it's a falls or falls i'm going to go across here and make the left and start heading up the mist trail now back at the falls too it's your last chance for a flush toilet there's primitive toilets up ahead but that's the last flush one now after a little bit you're going to come to the junction with the jmt which is off to your right now when we come back we're going to come back on the jmt and i'll show you how to do that in the guide on hiking guide so make sure you check that out but you can see there's the classic yosemite mileage sign and now we're going to get into the heart of the mist trail and you can see it's a beautifully constructed trail a lot of granite slabs granite steps and it's called the mist trail which generally means you will get wet if the falls are raging so it's good to put a little shell on at this point now you're going to keep going up you're going to be careful on the steps obviously you're going to get nice views of the falls which are up ahead there eventually you're going to come out on the top of the falls top nevada falls and i do have a guide for the miss trail on the website too so if you want more details in this section in particular you can go there and check it out but go ahead and check out the fall which is right there now the trail up to yosemite and up to uh nevada fall which is the next fall on this trail is up along the fence here there's a lot of different little use trails from people hanging out but we're going to go straight up along the fence and we're going to go past a section of the merced river called emerald pool now the water is probably the most dangerous thing you can get in here at yosemite and you're probably not going to get in there if you're hiking at this point but just a warning not to get in the water when you come to that sign the trail bears to the right here then you start climbing over granite and we're going to keep climbing up here there's a trail off to the right that goes up to a clark point but we're not going to be going today we'll go past it on the jmt on the way back down we're going to keep going straight that's liberty cap in the distance up by the falls or fall sorry and here when we get to the next bridge we're going to cross back over the merced river there's liberty cap up ahead not half dome but it's a beautiful beautiful hike even just on its own it's also generally i think the steepest part of the uh the whole hike until you get to half dome and the subdome so once you get through this you're going to get a breather for a little bit in the little yosemite valley you're going to continue up the trail goes across the the river and into the forest here and it's steep but doable you should be having decent amount of energy now you can see there's this flat portion here there actually used to be a hotel from 1870 to i think 1900 when it burnt down here and you get some nice views of nevada fall if you want to go through there but the actual trail is a hard left here as we continue back up and you get some better views of uh nevada fall as you go up these granite stairs and again it's steep but you get nice views as you go up we're going up that little notch that you can see in the distance there's a little piece of sky up in the middle that's where our next stop will be and after this section here there's some beautifully constructed switchbacks the very ends and then once you come to the end of the switchbacks you're going to be at an important junction you can see the trail sign here we're going to make the left and generally make all the lefts i think on the half don't like and when we come back on the jmt we're going to go back to the right over there we're not going to go down the mist fall you can go down the miss trail but it's a little bit tough on the knees and it can be slippery so i do recommend coming back on the jmt but for us to get the half dome we're going to keep going straight there's a primitive toilet it's your second to last print of toilet there's a trail sign for half dome and we're going to continue straight and head into the little yosemite valley section of this hike there's a toilet there's actually two stalls in there so have at it but you're going to go up another little uphill section but it's not too steep and eventually you're going to come out into this beautiful valley you have a mile mile half of flat hiking the downside is that it's a little bit sandy but uh it is decent it's a good place to catch your breath it's also the last place to get water which you will need to filter and off to the right there is the immersed river where you're going to want to fill up that's the best place to do it and it's safe here we get to this junction once again make the left and continue down through the little yosemite valley now if you get a wilderness permit you can camp up here there's a campground up ahead and you can turn this into a two-day hike or however long you want there's half dome that's where we're going but yeah if you do want to camp you can do it it's also your last chance to use the pit toilets up in the campgrounds there's also a little ranger station and they're all down to the right over there in the campground so if there's something wrong or whatever you can come down to this ranger station and let them know once you pass that last intersection you're going to come to the end of the valley and you're going to start what i call the climb which some people have a hard time with it's a pretty steady climb it's not overly steep but there are about half a zillion switchbacks here and it just seems to go on forever especially if your fitness level is not there this is going to be tough but it is beautiful some people call it a tree tunnel but i think the trees here are pretty pretty beautiful keep your eyes open you can often see mule deer around here but definitely just enjoy it take your time and know that it's not forever now at this point we're going to come to the junction with the jmt where the jmt splits off we're going to go you can see there's a trail sign it's all well marked with the standard yosemite trail signs jmt is straight up there we're going to make the left again a left to head up on the half dome trail now if you're on the jmt you might see some jmt hikers come here and do a side trip to half dome it's pretty common but again you can see it's well marked and we're going to continue up and eventually at the end of the climb you're going to come up to the ridge line here and get some beautiful beautiful views to the i guess north and east here a lot of people stop and take a break a lot of great viewpoints here but for us we're going to kind of go up along the ridge here bear left hike up again it's uphill and it's not super steep but it is uphill eventually trees kind of thin out as you go up here which will be our next stop will be the sub dome and the permit check straight ahead here this section is nice and mellow it's uphill but it's not too bad and then here's the permit check those guys down there are doing the permacheck with the ranger and the beginning of the sub dome which is here now the subdome um some people think it's scarier than the cables i definitely don't um but it is steep and it is narrow if you see people coming down let them come down or you pass them depending on who stops first but you can see here it's a bunch of little granite steps carved into the rock and arranged here now it's um it's tough so just take breaks and enjoy the view turn around and once you get past the steps you're just going to go straight over the smooth granite up to half dome which is up there in the distance you can see it straight ahead now there's a national park service video on half dome and this is a good shot from that so i'm taking the video from there but it gives you a good overview of what the sub dome looks like from a distance that i could not have shot myself you can see the hikers this is probably later in the day i'm guessing it's probably nine or ten o'clock you can see there's some decent crowds going up the subdome here there's another nice view as you ascend but sub dome not a huge deal take it uh take it slow enjoy yourself enjoy the views and then eventually at the top of the sub dome you're going to come to the base of the cables now if you're doing this for the first time this will be awe inspiring you might get a little scared this is the time to decide whether you're going to do the cables or not and i talk all about conquering your fears and when to turn around in the guide on hiking guys so check out the article there but otherwise we're going to go ahead and start the cable section now you're going to do 400 vertical feet it's going to seem more than half as you go up here and you can you can use a harness here i am using a single clip on a via ferrata harness just to give you an idea of what it's like it's definitely slower than just going up with your hands if there's a big crowd here it's not going to matter so you might as well clip in but you can see kind of see what it's like to clip and go up with a harness here now i mentioned before a lot of people have uh a fear here if you do get scared you can always just stop go to the other side and turn around and i talk all about what to do on the cables how to tackle them and uh you know your best strategies for going up here on the website so check that out here you can see i'm going up again get a kind of idea of the steepness here as we go up you can see what a kind of pain it is to clip and unclip normally you have two clips to go there's a lot of points that you have to go around as you go up here 50 60 different poles up there your views are going to be good for some people it's going to be freaky to look around for others it will be fine but go ahead and check it out and again here's a picture of the cable section i included because you can see what the crowds look like if you're coming here and it's busy so it's better to come as early as possible eat all the crowds and have it all to yourself and then when you get up to the summit here beautiful sweeping views yosemite valley everything you can imagine up here on the summit so soak it all in i mentioned earlier if there's uh rain same thing with lightning if there's lightning or it looks like it's going to rain sometimes the clouds puff up in the afternoon you're going to get down as soon as possible now going down the cables uh i find it's a little bit easier maybe just the same as going up but some people have a big problem with going down so i want to show you um some of the video of what it looks like to go down the cables once you're done up here and i have a map of the summit on the website as well that you can check out but here you can see what it's like to go down some people go down forward other people's go other people go down backward it's really up to you i find that going down backward especially the steeper sections of the the cables is a little bit easier for me i think the average gradient here is about 45 degrees on the cables the average gradient of a step like a standard house step is 39 degrees so when you're going up the uh the cable section it's kind of like going up steps in your house but you can see at some points it's it's easier just to go down forward here especially the less steep parts as we go down and here's a here's an example of what it's like to go go down the steeper sections i'm looking down you also see some of the holes those are from older cable runs that were here in the past and there's also some of the anchored cable sections it is a multiple series of cables the cables are 16 millimeters i think 15.96 i'm not sure if they're all the same but that's what they are at the bottom but you can see as you go down the boards what it looks like now the boards aren't secured into the grounds and either are the poles sometimes people pull poles out which is pretty terrifying so just beware don't try to pull up on it don't rest your weight on a pole until you've you know that it's in the ground then eventually you'll come down here enjoy the last views from the cable section and you'll come down to the end of the cables and then from here you're basically going back down the way you came until you get to the uh junction at that pit toilet that i mentioned earlier and from there you're going to take the john muir trail down which adds i think about a mile and a half onto the hike but it's definitely much easier on the knees and you got to think you're going to be tired you're going to want to get something that's not going to be risky in terms of slips and falls after you've done 15 16 miles so that's the hike that's half dome so that's it that's the hike when you're done you just go back the way you came and uh enjoy it now when you come back you don't have to go down the mist trail you can go down the jmt and i'll talk about that in the article on hikingguy.com if you're watching on youtube a link to that article is right under the video and if you found this video helpful if you could do me a favor and click the little thumbs up button that's an easy way to say thank you any questions just ask them in the comments and i'll do my best to get back to you and otherwise uh half dome definitely a bucket list hike and if you want to do other hikes maybe you don't have a permit for half dome there's other hikes that are actually nicer than this um clouds rest north dome there's a ton of other hikes here that don't require permit so make sure you go hiking guy where i have all those listed as well all right guys i'll see you out there

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Id: N4Gw4baD63o

Length: 26min 2sec (1562 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 12 2020