Yosemite – Half Dome

Finally climbed the Half Dome!

Preseason lottery application is open for a month in March for the whole year, and there is also daily lottery which is available two days prior to the hiking date. See the link for more info.
Attempt #1 in 2018: I found 10 friends that wanted to hike the Half Dome, so we split up the group into two and applied for the preseason lottery. All but one person applied for a set of specific dates and didn’t get it, but the one person who put in any date as her choice got the lottery on a weekday in August. However, there was a fire in end of July in Yosemite, and our permit was cancelled. Half Dome actually re-opened the day after our permit date.
Attempt #2 in 2019: There were 12 of us this time, and we divided the group into three – one group of 5 that only wanted to go on weekends, and the other two groups that could also do weekdays. The reservation system changed this year, allowing us to apply for a range of dates. So our group put in pretty much the whole month in September and some other date ranges too. Only one person out of the whole group of 12 got the permit and I was in his group of 4 that we randomly picked. The permit was on labour day (09/02/19)
We invited some other people to come camp with us on the long weekend, and some applied for the daily lottery. One person actually got the permit from the daily lottery so the 5 of us set out for Half Dome in the dark.

Trip Video

Video of my hike to Half Dome.

I remembered the Mist trail being really difficult, but it was better than I remembered it to be. Could have been because there wasn’t much water dropping on us near the fall, or could be because we did the hike in dark before sun came out.
I found the subdome to be the most difficult. The ascent with the cables wasn’t as bad.
Hiking back to the campground was very difficult though, and it felt like my legs were just getting dragged by my body.
To Half Dome: Mist Trail (to Nevada Fall) – 2.6 miles, 2,000 feet; Nevada Fall to Half Dome – 4.4 miles, 2,800 feet
Half Dome back to the campgrounds – Half Dome to Nevada Fall – 4.4 miles; Muir Trail – 3.7 miles