Half Dome and Free Soloing

Out of the several National Parks that I have visited in the US, Yosemite is the closest one to my heart. You have to visit it more than once to relate to my feeling about this majestic place. I have visited the park several times, and have explored most of it. But I can go back here in a heart beat, and I always find Yosemite very inviting.

During my first visit in Spring 2000, I went with a bunch of college friends. I knew nothing about Yosemite back then. The trip was entirely planned by seniors, and I just tagged along. We hiked Vernal and Nevada Falls along the Mist Trail, and stayed in tents at Curry Village. I remember soaking my legs in the hot bath tub water for 3 days upon returning from the hike. But, I fell in love with the place, and could not wait to return.

The next time, I visited with a bunch of guys, and we decided to camp out in tents in the brutal cold Thanksgiving weather. We used up all the wood we had on the first night itself to keep us from freezing to death, and were hardly able to sleep all night, so we abandoned our plans to camp a second night, and headed back home. We did not hike much during this trip, but got a taste of camping.

During one trip with the hubby, we decided to visit Glacier Point at sunset, and realized that it was a no-moon day, and a stargazing night was planned at Glacier Point. We decided to be a part of it, and I cannot describe in words how amazing our experience was. The ranger led us through a series of steps towards conditioning our eyes before we started viewing the stars. There were dozens of amateur astronomers out there with expensive telescopes and had set them up for viewing the Milky Way. I saw Jupiter, our beautiful moon, the planet Saturn as well as its rings and hundreds of other stars. It was all free. Even without the telescope, if you looked up into the sky, it felt like watching a spectacular fireworks display. With Half Dome staring at you naked in your face, miles away from the nearest city lights, a pitch dark night sky never looked so beautiful and wonderful to me. We only left because we could not bear the cold anymore. It was a memorable experience.

Speaking of Half Dome, 8842 feet - one of my most memorable, challenging, and longest hikes was hiking to the top of Half Dome. It was an ~18 miles round trip hike (including the distance we hiked from the parking lot to the trail-head to/fro), with an elevation gain of 5000 ft. My friend H and I started driving from home at 2am to Yosemite. We reached around 6am, and after having breakfast, we started our hike close to 7am. After a long and tiring hike, passing through Vernal and Nevada Falls and then the long winding stretch of wilderness in between, we reached the base of the dome. My friend H had hiked once before to the top, and did not feel like doing it again. But I really really wanted to climb the cables to the top. Somehow I convinced him to accompany me. H had knots in his legs while climbing the cables, and had to have a climber below him massage his legs before we could move on. But, WE DID IT!

In the above picture, I am taking rest just before reaching to the base. You can see the steady stream of climbers (who look like ants) climbing the cables to the top of Half Dome.

And in the picture below, I am at the TOP. It was an amazing feeling and an extraordinary view from up there. All the aches and pains melted away with the view. I felt alive from within.

We soaked in the view, rested a bit, had a snack, and then started our descent. We had a long way back, and we wanted to complete our hike before sunset. I forgot to mention earlier, that I was not in any great physical condition before attempting this hike. I had just returned from a month long trip to India, where I had pigged out on my mommy's food to my hearts content, and had hardly exercised. I felt the pain of this during our descent, and would have been in much better shape coming back if I was fitter. A few minutes after hiking back from the base of the rock, we lost our way and ended up on a horse trail. We had company (hikers who decided to follow us blindly), and after much panic, we found our way back to the main hiking trail. With help from strangers (a couple from Europe who offered to walk with us with their head lights) and God's grace, we successfully finished our hike and returned back home that night with no broken bones or bruises - and just the kind of aches that feel like sweet pain after accomplishing such a feat.

Here is a short video of my descent....I am almost at the bottom of the rock near the base. 

I am truly a traveler at heart. Adventures (and adventurers) fascinate me, they inspire me. There are many modern day adventurers who I admire and whose journey I follow - Roz Savage (who I have met and blogged about here), Jordan Romero (who, at 15 years of age, just set a world record for climbing all the 7 summits of the world), Neal Petersen (who I have met as well), and many many others.

Today, I chanced upon Alex Honnold, and the art of Free Soloing. I watched this video....it is 24 minutes long, but well worth the time.....

He climbed the Northwest Face of Half Dome SOLO - no ropes, no harness, no protective gear, no FEAR - just sheer determination and focus and skill (and maybe a little bit of luck). He has done several other free solo climbs. He is a local lad, hailing from Sacramento, and went to the same high school that several of my friends' kids have attended.

Needless to say, my half dome hike which took me 12+ hours seems petty in front of this guy's accomplishments.

It's so inspiring to see humans accomplish such feats, which were once thought impossible. It shows us that there are no limits to what you can achieve. You can always push yourself to do better. You should dream big. You should always believe in yourself and trust your instincts to guide you.

Don't just waste this precious time and life that has been given to you as a gift....do something meaningful with it. Travel to new places. Experience different cuisines and cultures. Read new books. Take up new hobbies. Make new friends.  Give time as a volunteer to those who need it desperately. And do it NOW. Don't wait - you never know if there will be a tomorrow.

And then see how you feel from within - I bet amazing!

I will end this post by quoting Les Brown, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars :)"!

And Mark Twain: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." 

And this from anonymous: "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming - "WOW - What a Ride!"

And this last quote from the book on Steve Jobs that I am currently reading: "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out the inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."