I met Tim in North Van on Tuesday and we started a long long road trip from Vancouver to Yosemite. About 1000miles and 20hrs of driving! We stopped overnight in Redding, California having driven down through Washington and Oregon already in shifts.
We arrived in Upper Pines campground in Yosemite at around 3pm Wednesday to meet a pack of Stothers and Lidsters. It was so wonderful to see everyone again and I was soom yabbering away with Katy, Jake and Rory- hearing all their stories of the big move from UK to US.
At about 6:30pm we ate some snacks and laid down to bivvy in the campsite for a snooze. Well it was way too loud to snooze as a bear was seen and shot on the campsie with many screams from campers around us. At 9:45pm we rose and donned headlamps and packs stuffed with snacks and warm clothes and started the hike up Half Dome via the mist trail and John Muir trail.
We set quite a pace and had to slow down or else we were going to summit before sunrise and get cold standing around. It was eery walking through the woods in the dark with bears and deer around. At one point I went for a pee and saw two lights shining back from my headlamp- 2 eyes! Thankfully it was a deer staring me out about 10 feet away!
We met chatty Cathy and her poor 13 year old son who never got a word in edgeways and a couple of young adults from Oz who were inspired to cacth our 50 year old leader up and to summit with us (but they turned back at the cables).
Climbing the steep steps at 3am was pretty scary as you could not see how big the droip off the side was, plus we were all tired and wobbly. This brought Sandi to crawl on all fours but she made it up. Even Tim had a couple of wobbly moments.
We got to the base of the cables around 3:30am too early to climb so we chose some gloves from the huge pile that Ken just had to fall into and then huddled under space blankets and shivered on the cold granite rock in the bright moonlight. Not much sleep was had as we had a blanket rustling relay started by Katy and Abby!
As dawn was upon us and the light growing we headed over to the base of the cables. I did not think they looked too steep but was keen to start moving up and before we could say "Let's do it" Vanessa was off and 6 steps up with Mike in chase. So I decided to follow on ASAP leaving Ken standing with Katy and Abby who followed me up. I never looked back as on the 6th step or so it was pretty steep and my worn 5-10 bike shoes were slipping on the granite making me grip for dear life to the cables. At one point I had a brief freeze but decided I could not face going down nor would I have beena good example for the girls- so I carried on up. It was steep and scary!
I was the 3rd to summit Half Dome (8842ft) before sunrise and after Mike and Vanessa who thought that we 3 were it as no-one followed me for a while but then Abby's face popped over the summit with a big beam- she'd done it! Then a way later Alex appeared and then even later came Ken. 6 summiters- yeehaa! We donned our "Half Century on half dome T-shirts" and had a photo call.
Ken and I headed out for photos on the diving board that hangs over a 4000ft vertical drop! We got a bit wobbly but made it back safely while Mike could not even look. Then Alex and Abby went out venturing even closer to the edge!
Soon the sun peaked up over the mountains and we were bathed in warmth again but it was time to descend. Well the thought alone scared me! But there was no other way down so down the cables we went- me at the back slipping on my non-grippy shoes and clinging to thecables with a death grip that hurt my wrists! Ken was trying to talk to me about how scary it was but I told him "Keep moving and don't talk about it!" I just wanted to be down where I could see everyone else had reached.
Elation at the bottom as we regrouped and had our first photos in the sun before starting the long long 8mile hike back down via Vernal falls. On the way down tired as we were our spirits were lifted by the awe we gained from each group of climbing hikers incredulous that we had hiked overnight and were already on our way down and inspired by the fact that we were celebrating Vanessa's 50th birthday- we became quite famous around town for the next few days. (Even people in the coffee queue were talking about it)
After 13hrs of hiking we arrived back at the campsite- exhausted physically and mentally and me with 5 blisters on my toes - ow!
The rest of the day was sheer collapse and recovery and an early night in our tent cabin where we slept very soundly indeed.
What an awesome experience- one that I will never forget.
(Maybe one day I'll be back- perhaps for Vanessa's 60th and my 50th).
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