OT: Yosemite Half Dome Permit Lottery

[AngryScientist]

Anyone have recent experience entering the daily lottery for a permit to hike half dome?

What are my realistic odds of securing a permit on super short notice?

[vqdriver]

hit and miss
i've tried the lottery a few times and the closest we got was 1 for a group of 5. that was years ago so maybe it's more straightforward now, but back then it was all phone calls between permit stations with little groups geared up and huddled outside.
not sure how the mechanics of the lottery works, but my impression was that they just take the reserved but unclaimed permits and distribute those based on trailhead.

in the summer, i've learned to reserve my itinerary quite early (up to 6 mo). even then, there's no assurance to get the preferred route

[pdmtong]

Nick, it really is a lottery.

there are two lotteries. the one in march/april for a date you pick during the season.

the other is the daily lottery two days before the date of the permit.
all you can do is put in the application and cross your fingers.

we went up the tuesday after labor day last year through the daily. this year we did not get permits via the march/april.

if you get the permit give me call and I can answer any questions. You really want to be walking from your car at the happy isles parking lot to the trail head 6:00-6:30am. Bring long finger cycling gloves for the cables (I use my summer mtb gloves). Bring a rain shell in case of thunderstorms. you might also carry a bike headlamp to use as a flashlight in case you are coming back later.

it's not possible for us to consider the daily lottery unless we are already in the area or better yet in the park for an extended time. from the big oak flat entrance its about 45 minutes to the trail head parking lot. and from groveland to big oak flat its about 30 min. so that means a 4am wake up and lodging the night prior. Ideally lodging the evening of the hike too since I dont want to be driving home 4-5 hours AFTER a 10-12 hour hike.

there is a ranger stationed at the last intersection trail point heading to the sub-dome who checks for permits. so dont try going without one.

[FlashUNC]

Total crap shoot, but to pdmtong's point, better come equipped to do it just in case.

We were just there and had much more sedate goals. One alternative I've seen recommended quite a bit is North Dome because of the views of the valley, and that it's not a permitted trail like Half Dome.

[pdmtong]

HD is certainly a bucket list hike and the lottery has in fact made the experience markedly better.

In the past decade or so the traffic jam on the cables has become "bumper to bumper" and frankly it's just not safe when crowded.

Way back, while you still needed a permit, they were easier to come by. The only end around now is to score a wilderness permit which then lets you also climb the dome. I forgot the details of that path BUT it also is a wait in line very early days before crap shoot.

I have to say this past year the hike felt harder than the times I have done it prior. Those times we did full packs and stayed over night on top. you could do that back then. This year I attribute it (sadly) to aging.

The threat of thunderstorms is real and not to be taken lightly.

while we were on the cables this past September lightning started going off across the valley to the far east. as you can imagine, holding a thick braided cable on a tall exposed granite surface isn't a preferred position. we were about 3/4 way up and some guy starts screaming " we are all going to die, we need to get down now". now my daughter is starting to get worried, and my wife is looking at me. My first though is well, its present but distant. Second thought I am going to throw that idiot off the rock if he doesn't shut the eff up. Third thought is well, If we hustle up, I bet we can make it to the top, look around, and then go back down in the same amount of time it takes if we had started down when the thunder intensified (there were plenty of folks below us). FYI as for the cable, yes you must hold on. there is no way to safely go up the without holding the cable.

this actually was a real life lesson to illustrate something I have been talking to my daughter about for quite awhile. the idea of some stressful dangerous situation in which you have to make up your own mind and take an action while evaluating what others are saying. that guy on the cable was clearly freaking out and had zero established credibility but he did initiate a herd mentality and others followed

as it turned out the Lightning never came closer but it did rain sometimes hard on the hike back down. I may die but I am not dying standing still holding a cable.

[vqdriver]

angry, you're from the east coast so take advantage if you can. there are other spots to take in the valley view, but really half dome should be hiked if you can make it happen.
plan a day hike and wait for your half dome permit. if you get it, great. if not, fall back on your other route and try again the next day.

my favorite tho is clouds rest. as amazing as half dome feels, it's mind boggling to look down on half dome from 1000ft higher. the real effect comes after you've been on half dome first tho.

definitely bring your own gloves. there was a pile of leather gloves at the base of the cables last time i did it, but they were all worn thru.
cheapo leather work gloves work great for this.

[AngryScientist]

thanks guys.

i actually have done HD before, years ago, when there was a lottery, but i dont remember it being that competitive.

yes, i'm planning on just entering the 2-day ahead lottery and seeing what happens. as you guys know, if i dont get one, no big deal, there are so many other great ways to spend hours and days in yosemite.

clouds rest is my fallback plan!

[pdmtong]

thanks guys.

i actually have done HD before, years ago, when there was a lottery, but i dont remember it being that competitive.

yes, i'm planning on just entering the 2-day ahead lottery and seeing what happens. as you guys know, if i dont get one, no big deal, there are so many other great ways to spend hours and days in yosemite.

clouds rest is my fallback plan!

Taft Point (but no selfies..you could die)

[tkbike]

Another option is in the fall after the cable supports are taken down. I’ve done half dome once in the tourist season via lottery, never again, too many people.

I’ve hiked it three times in October when the supports are down(cables are still there and can be used in a different manner) and it is a much more enjoyable experience.

[kgbianchi]

A few years ago my family was able to secure a permit by getting a backcountry permit and getting a Half Dome permit that is reserved for backcountry permit holders. It was our best chance to increase the odds of getting the Half Dome Permit. That said, it is not easy to get a backcountry permit unless you get away from the valley. We ended up hiking to Little Yosemite Valley from the Tuolumne meadows entry point. My daughter is on the right in the image from the top of Half Dome

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[EDS]

thanks guys.

i actually have done HD before, years ago, when there was a lottery, but i dont remember it being that competitive.

yes, i'm planning on just entering the 2-day ahead lottery and seeing what happens. as you guys know, if i dont get one, no big deal, there are so many other great ways to spend hours and days in yosemite.

clouds rest is my fallback plan!

I got engaged on the top of Clouds Rest! Nice hike and a very "refreshing" Tenaya Lake dip at the end makes for a nice day. Was supposed to go back and do that hike again last year but the park was closed due to the fires.

[AngryScientist]

Well,

Didnt get the half dome permit either day I could have done it, so hiked to clouds rest via the valley (Tioga road was still close until the last day i was there!) - which is essentially the same hike as half dome but turning off for CR before summiting the dome. The CR section between the HD turnoff is the most strenuous part of the hike i think, so it was a great day and a big effort for me.

did a bunch of other great shorter hikes over a few days. Yosemite is arguably my favorite place on earth.

https://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/4704f014083619130b8f0493f06f7186/5DC4CB50/t51.2885-15/e35/62381167_2385843038144140_5195148632591497686_n.jp g?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com

[pbarry]

Well done, Nick!! You made the most of your time there for sure. :beer:

[gasman]

Nice job there ! Clouds rest is very cool also.

[weisan]

Angry pal, you look taller in that picture.

[Neves]

me and my family went last year and tried to get a permit for HD with not luck. our plan b was clouds rest. it was a great hike and
well worth it. i'd love to do it again, but be in better shape and not lug a crap ton of camera gear with me.

[AngryScientist]

i'd love to do it again, but be in better shape and not lug a crap ton of camera gear with me.

agree. to me, the day hikes are best done on good fitness and minimal weight. while good photos are always nice, for me - someone has always taken a better picture than i could ever produce, so i prefer to just be there, take in the sights with my eyes and snap an iPhone momento photo or three. i leave those brilliant pics of the vistas to the pros.

[pdmtong]

way to go nick...!

can you share the total hike time and if you have it, the time when you split off the half dome trail to CR and then back to where you rejoin the HD trail. Ultimately i am trying to figure out how much longer or shorter the CR trip is versus the HD trip if starting from happy isles.

of course the HD trip has more stall time on the cables up and down plus more hanging out once on top.

A long time ago I was up on CR and would like to do that again - your trip great reminder of that hike if a HD permit falls through.

My brother and I did a 4 day trip from tuolumne meadows essentially following the high sierra camp route to the valley floor. very weird to see people in clean clothes popping out of tent cabins while we are just dirty and smelly. so we are on CR, then on top of HD then down mist trail to valley floor.

nothing too epic but its really nice being out there.

[nublar]

I was able to get a permit for 6 in September. I'm trying to get a Wilderness permit as I would prefer to squeeze in Clouds Rest but it doesn't seem possible at this point.

[Drmojo]

2 buddies and I climbed HD in 1979
No lottery
No crowds
No problem

[Black Dog]

Well,

Didnt get the half dome permit either day I could have done it, so hiked to clouds rest via the valley (Tioga road was still close until the last day i was there!) - which is essentially the same hike as half dome but turning off for CR before summiting the dome. The CR section between the HD turnoff is the most strenuous part of the hike i think, so it was a great day and a big effort for me.

did a bunch of other great shorter hikes over a few days. Yosemite is arguably my favorite place on earth.

https://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/4704f014083619130b8f0493f06f7186/5DC4CB50/t51.2885-15/e35/62381167_2385843038144140_5195148632591497686_n.jp g?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com

Top of the world. So nice.

[pdmtong]

Resurrecting this with an update.

Was able to get a HD permit for Saturday Sept 14 via the daily lottery. I submitted the recreation.gov lottery request Thursday morning and was notified successful at 2pm that afternoon (PST). I am pretty sure getting the daily lottery two years in a row is remarkable as there are only 75 daily permits available (the other 225 got to pre-season and wilderness).

We left the Happy Isles parking at 6:00am and got back 7:30pm. I must have been in better shape last year since this year it took longer. I attribute it to 1) an hour spent on top (versus 5 min last year due to weather), 2) returning via Mist Trail (precarious steps) instead of via JMT (smooth), 3) no dedicated training (walking, weights, cycling). My base fitness aerobically was fine, but not my power since I was a slug the month prior 4) heat fatigue (high-80's), 5) wait time going up and going down the cables ,and finally 6) sadly I must be getting older. I think the only way to mitigate a very late return is to start earlier, get in better shape or break it into two hikes, not an all up then all down marathon from the valley floor. If we started 5:15-5:30 that would be early enough to use lights on the "paved" trail to the bridge and the first steps on the Mist Trail, then sunrise would have enough light to do the steps without lights. Then again, not sure I would rather wake up 3:30am to get back 6:30 or sleep an hour more and walk the last smoother part in the dark.

The ranger checking permits was stationed at the base of the sub dome steps, not at the HD/CR interjection. Since someone slipped on the cables, fell and died two weeks before, everyone got a short talk from the ranger about cable safety. She also said the chances of using someone else's permit (if their group had a no show) is decent but one needs to get to the sub dome base early to wait as the folks roll into the check point. That would mean a 4:30am-ish start.

If you don't know, you have to hold onto the cable else you will fall a long way and die. Period. The people with harnesses clipping and un-clipping their carabiners around each pole are a hazard and congest the ascent/descent. Hazard in the sense that these people for the most part are putting more trust in their harness over assessing what they need to be doing to be safe in the first place. This time we passed three people who were freaking out halfway up, and one person quad cramping so hard they were sitting down.

It's not enough to be responsible for your own self. you have to be aware of whats going on with the folks around you. plenty of time I had descenders walk down with their 34liter packs right into me while I waited to let them pass. people - know your spatial position! and, did you know the poles are not attached into the hole they sit in? if you yank hard straight up, the pole comes out.

It was a long hard hike but the look of joy on my daughter's face when she came down off the cable was priceless. She more than conquered her angst/fear from last years weather experience.

Here she is on the ledge and there's my wife and I some 25 years ago. We did not pitch the tent on top like my brother and I did due to weather. I get too queasy going out on ledges like that now although when you stand on that part of the rock there is really nothing that indicates there is 4,800' of air below you. It is all mental.
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[hokoman]

Resurrecting this with an update.

If you don't know, you have to hold onto the cable else you will fall a long way and die. period. The people with harnesses clipping and un-clipping their carabiners around each pole are a hazard and congest the ascent/descent. Hazard in the sense that these people for the most part are putting more trust in their harness over assessing what they need to be doing to be safe in the first place. This time we passed three people who were freaking out halfway up, and one person quad cramping so hard they were sitting down.

It's not enough to be responsible for your own self. you have to be aware of whats going on with the folks around you. plenty of time I had descenders walk down with their 34liter packs right into me while I waited to let them pass. people - know your spatial position! and, did you know the pole are not attached into the hole they sit in? if you yank hard straight up, the pole comes out.


I was lucky enough to do HD about 9 years ago - randomly went up there for a day hike, and we ended up at the base and they had just finished putting up the cables. There were only like 5 of us around, so we went up. It is pretty slick and I can see why people would freak out. I don't think I would feel comfortable with a ton of people around me going up that thing. The caribiners - mixed feelings. I think it is good safety net, but would slow down the hike.

My friend did it years ago, and she had a hard time coming down, maybe because it was so empty and you could see all the way down. We went up and down with a German tourist on holiday - and he took a pic of us on the ledge. It is an amazing place, but not sure I would recommend it to just anyone to do. The hike up and back down was tough.

[weaponsgrade]

Great pics! I was in Yosemite this past summer with my kids. We did short bike ride/hike to Mirror Lake and floated down the Merced River in a raft. We didn't stay in the Valley, but for anyone going in the summer season and looking to park at Curry Village - get there before 9am! I think we got there around 8:45am and it looked like the parking lot was 98% full. Kids are still too young to tackle something like HD. Hopefully I'll still have the energy when they get older. I did HD many, many years ago and would love to go up again w/ my kids someday. Even back then I remember the cable section being really sketchy with some people almost paralyzed with fear and others swinging around big packs. My friend and I used the outside of the cable ladder to avoid the traffic.

[FlashUNC]

Great photos. Love Yosemite but no desire to head up on Half Dome, which is fine becuase there's plenty else to do in the park.

[NHAero]

Yosemite IMO is the most beautiful place on the planet, at least that I've been to, which includes five continents.

I hiked up HD many years ago, on a beautiful day without many people. This was on the last day of several days in the back country there, during which I saw zero people except for the first morning, and the last day hiking HD. I wonder if the rest of the place is still as empty as it was then!

[FlashUNC]

Yosemite IMO is the most beautiful place on the planet, at least that I've been to, which includes five continents.

I hiked up HD many years ago, on a beautiful day without many people. This was on the last day of several days in the back country there, during which I saw zero people except for the first morning, and the last day hiking HD. I wonder if the rest of the place is still as empty as it was then!

Even a couple miles away from the parking lots on the valley trail you stop seeing people, or at least we did this Spring.

Just an incredible place.

[pdmtong]

There were only like 5 of us around, so we went up. It is pretty slick and I can see why people would freak out. I don't think I would feel comfortable with a ton of people around me going up that thing. The caribiners - mixed feelings. I think it is good safety net, but would slow down the hike.

The first time I went up was with a full pack and those massive vasque soled hiking boots. It doesn't seem like 25 subsequent years of people on the slope would noticeably wear down the rock since that's a speck in geologic time but yes, it is really slick. and that makes the 7-8 ledge step ups and step down on the upper third really tricky. the people with carabiners use two: one stays on one side of the pole while they attach the other to the other side. so each section of cable means clip unclip twice. the problem is that the clipping is not the answer if one has poor forearm / grip strength to grasp the cables. Generally speaking everyone I saw with a harness was not as adept as those without.

Great photos. Love Yosemite but no desire to head up on Half Dome, which is fine because there's plenty else to do in the park.

I've been on top four times now and it's memorable. That said there are PLENTY of really fun things to do in the park that do not include death march hiking. A beer on the back deck of the Ahwahnee is pretty great. We did the easy walk out to Taft Point and saw a bear along the way which is very cool in some ways and cause for a lot of concern in other ways.

Fun Fact: that tent in the picture is the original NF VE-24. My aunt and grand-mother sewed for NF back when it was all made in USA and got it for me with their discount.

[72gmc]

I really want to go back to Yosemite.

I really don't want to climb HD because a) my wife wouldn't go with me, and b) too many stories about the problems other people cause. I already make a heavy trust investment in other people by riding a bicycle in city traffic.

Great pictures, all of you.

[AngryScientist]

Great pics and stories guys!

Definitely one of my favorite places on earth, Yosemite. I've been to a whole bunch of the big natn'l parks now, and Yosemite is still the gold cup IMO, but they all have their beauty and charm.

with regard to overcrowding, there is still plenty of solitude to be found. as i mentioned earlier in the thread, i did clouds rest from the valley, which is overall practically a 20 mile hike, depending on the route you take and where you actually start from, and for sure, after the turn-off to CR via the half dome trail, i had the trail to myself for the most part, maybe a small handfull of others.

additionally, the few times i've gone to yosemite, i stay just outside in Oakhurst, and the riding out there skirting the park is freaking awesome, and certainly plenty of solitude.

sure, the popular hikes out of the valley are always going to be crowded, but yosemite has SO much to offer, that there are ways to beat the crowds.

[EliteVelo]

In California a few weeks ago, and visited Yosemite and Sequia. While I wasn't there for long, as I had an agenda, half dome is a bucket list for sure. I was lucky enough to get some good pics with some incredible weather.

[Steve in SLO]

Great shots!

[verticaldoug]

https://www.sfchronicle.com/travel/article/Yosemite-rangers-battle-trash-buildup-from-rock-14465970.php

This just makes me sad.

[AngryScientist]

https://www.sfchronicle.com/travel/article/Yosemite-rangers-battle-trash-buildup-from-rock-14465970.php

This just makes me sad.

yea, that's really unfortunate; and amazing that the volume of garbage they clean up is so big. thanks for pointing this out though, i would be interested in volunteering one year for the annual clean-up effort if my schedule aligned.

the plastic water bottle epidemic really aggravates me. buying bottled water is a waste all in itself, but littering a national park with them is really terrible.

[verticaldoug]

yea, that's really unfortunate; and amazing that the volume of garbage they clean up is so big. thanks for pointing this out though, i would be interested in volunteering one year for the annual clean-up effort if my schedule aligned.

the plastic water bottle epidemic really aggravates me. buying bottled water is a waste all in itself, but littering a national park with them is really terrible.

This is not total trash, this is just the trash the climbers are hiding on the crags. In crags, holes, caves... that is what really really makes this so sad.

[AngryScientist]

This is not total trash, this is just the trash the climbers are hiding on the crags. In crags, holes, caves... that is what really really makes this so sad.

i agree, and one could potentially understand how this could happen, if guys were stashing stuff for future use, but plans got crushed. unfortunately, on the scale of people who use the park, a few stashed items times thousands of climbers adds up to a lot of trash to remove. it's also totally irresponsible to have to ditch plans and not go back to get your stashed gear.

it's actually quite surprising, considering many climbers are budget conscious people, and climbing gear is expensive! when i saw the opening picture in this article, my first thought was: "this is not trash, these are treasures!", but when there's a ton of it, i get that it's an eye sore and a pain to move out.

https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/05/70/27/18318817/15/gallery_xlarge.jpg