California Odyssey

September 28 - October 9, 2004

Last year Marisa and I went to climb Longs Peak in Colorado. Marisa succumbed to altitude sickness and fatigue just a few hundred feet from the summit (14,255’) on that trip and I raced up and tagged the summit. This year we planned to acclimate better by gradually stepping up the altitude over more days.

Our ultimate destination was to climb Mount Whitney via the more difficult Mountaineers Route (MR). Located in California, Mount Whitney is the tallest mountain in the continental United States 14,494’ (not much taller than Longs Peak). It can be climbed using non-technical gear via two predominant routes, the Main Whitney Trail which is basically a long walk up a well maintained path, or directly up a combination of chutes and gullies known as the Mountaineers Route. I figured that we would be game for the MR based on all the information I collected prior to the hike.

Our plan (well..MY plan) was to fly to San Francisco and spend one night there. The next morning drive to Yosemite to stay at a bed & breakfast for a couple of days at 5,000’ to start our altitude acclimatization process while hiking around the park. After two nights at Yosemite we would drive further east through Yosemite to Rock Creek Lodge near Mammoth Lakes, CA. There we would stay in a cabin for two more nights at 9000’ of elevation before heading to Mount Whitney for a three day climb.

*All the pictures were taken with an Olympus C-5050Z (5MP) camera. Panoramas were stitched together using photo-software. All pictures were re-sized down to 1024 x 768 or less and reduced in quality to improve loading times.*

After arriving in San Francisco we drove around the coast and beautiful inland areas south of the city. Here is a panoramic shot at Half Moon Bay with the ever present fog over the city:

I’ve only seen the Pacific Ocean in California a few times, but each time I’ve very impressed. The Pacific is so beautiful with the green/blue waves which are much bigger than our muddy brown east coast waves. The water is so cold though, it made me shiver just looking at it.

After knocking about the airport area for a night we loaded up on Day 2 to head for Yosemite. It was around a 4 hour drive or so through the very beautiful California country-side. We saw wine vineyards and orchards in the low-lands before coming up on the foothills to the Sierras. Soon we were approaching the western entrance to Yosemite. I’ve never been to Yosemite, so I wasn’t really prepared for how incredible it was. As we started rounding the corners cut into the side of the mountains we would catch glimpses until eventually the whole of Yosemite Valley came into view. It was breath-taking.

We only skirted the south end of the park to get to the bed & breakfast we were staying at, the Yosemite Peregrine. The home of a retired judge and his wife, the Peregrine was the perfect “base camp” for our Yosemite hiking.

Don and Kay of the Yosemite Peregrine (he looks mean but he’s hilarious and eccentric!):

On our first afternoon at Yosemite we went to the southern end of the park and did a little warm-up hike of 7 miles or so among the “Big Trees”, the Mariposa Grove of Sequoias that are incredibly huge. Some of them are renowned for having tunnels carved out of their bases that are big enough for cars to drive though! Look how this tree dwarfs Marisa:

We grabbed a sandwich that evening and returned to the Peregrine to get to bed early since we had a big hike the next morning. Day 3 of our trip started in the wee hours of the morning. This day we would attempt a long hike from Glacier Point in Yosemite to the top of the notorious Half Dome. Our route was a bit longer than the normal route since we weren’t starting at the valley floor. All total we were looking at approximately 21 miles round-trip. As such, we started before the sun came up using our head-lamps to lead the way.

As we walked along the aptly named Panorama Trail we were treated to gradual illumination of the park as the sun peaked over the rim of the valley. Soon the top of Half Dome was bathed in sunlight and it was tough to comprehend both how far it was and how we were going to get to the top of it!

After many hours of up and down travel and beautiful sights along the way we finally joined up with the main trail that led to the summit of Half Dome. Interestingly, on the hike from Glacier Point we only saw one person the entire time, but as soon as we joined the main trail the path became much more crowded. Soon we had looped around to the back-side of Half Dome and after more than 10 miles of hiking had our first look at the formidable last bit to reach the summit. First would be a very tiring and arduous approach to the “dome” itself using a trail of rock “steps” that wound up the side of the mountain (if you look hard you can see people on the side of the mountain):

Soon after cresting the approach to the “dome” you start seeing what looks like an impossible climb up the side of the dome. Two cables run from the bottom of the dome to the summit. Between the cables at roughly 15 foot intervals are boards that allow you some purchase, but the majority of the time you are using upper body to pull yourself up the side. It really is incredible and very difficult to describe adequately. Standing at the base of it though, looking at people working their way up the side you can’t help but think that the National Park Service has a much greater faith in humanity than I do! One slip and you are going to fall, there is no question about it. How far depends on who you hit on the way down and if you fall straight down. If you tumbled off the side I think it would be a long time before you hit the bottom.

Here is a panorama that might give somewhat of a sense of how it feels to approach the cables:

Seeing a bit of a gap in the line of ants headed up the side of the mountain Marisa and I grabbed some gloves that lay in a heap at the bottom of the cables and started working our way up to the top. Despite the number of people that accomplish this task every year without incident, I must say that the exposure to a fall here is probably higher than anywhere I’ve ever been. Of my own grip I was very confident, but that doesn’t keep the inertia of Joe-250 pounder above me from breaking his fall on my skull. You can only go as fast as the slowest person above you and many times you are stuck sort of tenuously between boards on very slick rock using just your arms to hold on with. Marisa was a trooper though and she made it up with no problem. I can’t recall how long it took us to get up this segment, but I’d guess it was somewhere around 20 to 30 minutes maybe?

We reached the top and walked triumphantly to the highest point and took in the incredible vistas across all of Yosemite Valley. There were a good many people up on the summit already, with more arriving every minute. Knowing that eventually all these people would want to get DOWN the cables I knew we should keep our summit time to a bare minimum.

Chris on the summit of Half Dome (wish I knew how to BASE jump! It would have been a lot faster getting down!):

Marisa on the summit:

With the obligatory summit photos complete I led Marisa off to another area of the summit and told her I’d like to video-tape both of us on top. Her jaw about hit the valley floor when I got down on one knee, brought out an engagement ring and proposed to her! She started crying immediately and said “YES!” (can you believe it??). Our engagement photo:

It was awesome. Nobody knew I was going to propose. Unfortunately, since I didn’t want to tip my hat, I had to guess on the ring size, which turned out to be a bit too big, so that will have to go back to get re-sized, but it was worth the surprise factor!

Now we had to get down. With people still coming up the cables getting down was a bit interesting as well. Since nobody wanted to let go of even a single side of the cables it was a bit like Twister on a 60 degree slope trying to get by everyone.

Chris at the top of the cables before heading down:

View down the cables from where the slope starts to increase:

I opted mostly for going “outside” the cables since my backpack kept bumping into people on the inside of the cables. I found that staying on the outside I could grip the single cable with both hands and walk myself down rather efficiently.

Marisa getting off the bottom of the cables:

Now we just had to walk the rest of the 11 miles back to Glacier Point! It was a tough, long hike but as the sun started setting as we walked along the Panorama Trail and eventually approached Glacier Point the we were rewarded with beautiful views of the Valley and Half Dome with rainbows nearby:

I can’t believe we were on top of that!

Exhausted, and in the last light of the day, we reached Glacier Point and took this last picture of our Half Dome hike (I kept the shutter open a long time, which is why it looks relatively bright!):

Needless to say, we were really exhausted. We had hiked for about 13 hours and we were starving! We headed down into Yosemite Village in the valley (about a 45 minute drive!) and sat down to an excellent large pepperoni pizza as a treat (I know, not the typical post-engagement meal!).

The next morning we woke up and had an excellent breakfast cooked by Kay, packed up the rental car and headed out to go “over the top” of Yosemite to Mammoth Lakes, California. On the drive out we took this beautiful shot of Yosemite Valley with El Capitan on the left and Half Dome in the distance, the valley floor shrouded in smoke from a controlled burn:

And here is an up-close picture of El Capitan:

After scouring the wall for many minutes we finally picked out a two-man team roped up and ascending the wall. It was incredible! You can see them in this picture, just above and to the left of the top of the fir tree in the foreground:

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