This weekend I went to Yosemite for Paul's bachelor party. The main task for the weekend was the hike to the top of Half Dome. This was my third time making the 17 mile journey (round trip). I never thought of a hike as being extreme until I did the Half Dome hike. The first time I did it, I swore never to do it again for many reasons. The first reason because it was a difficult climb and it was really hard on my legs. The second because of the precarious climb on the rock at the end where some parts are at a 60 degree incline on smooth rock and the only thing keeping you from dying is God's grace and your death grip on the cable (no safety features here folks). The third because I've done it before so why do it again? Well, I guess the biggest lure to doing it again is to experience it with people who haven't done it. It's also a great fellowship time, but I think I would like to do that on a different hike now, ha ha.

Anyways, I hadn't done this hike in about 4 or 5 years. What's different between now and then? Well, I've been working out at the gym since then so I've put on about 40 pounds of muscle (somehow I still look skinny, ha ha) and I've aged 4 or 5 years. I have found that these two cancel each other out. It was just as difficult as any other time and I'm just as sore now as I was then. It seems like the extra muscle only helped in carrying my extra weight. I've also learned that strength is useless without endurance which is one thing I haven't worked on since my cross country days in high school. Half Dome is an endurance hike and strength only helps on the last 200 feet of the climb. I did get to the top faster than I ever did before which was about 3 1/2 hours. I could have gotten up quicker had I not stopped for lunch. For those who know I'm a slow eater, that was not so for this lunch.

The cables at the end are by far the most daunting part of the climb because it actually is a climb. If you ask me, if you must use your arms to go further, it is no longer a hike but mountain climbing. I also consider it mountain climbing when you can die if you let go. Anyways, if you do slip and slide to your left or right, you fall about 5000 feet. If you're lucky enough to fall straight back, you may have a chance after tumbling up to 200 feet. If any of that wasn't bad enough, how about 200 people on that cable going up and down on a path that is really only wide enough for one person? This was the most crowded I had ever seen it. It was so ridiculous. It was taking over an hour for people to go 200 feet because most people weren't in the best shape so they had to keep stopping to rest. So some people would just go up on the outside of the ropes which is was even scarier to pass the group. I couldn't help but struggle with the double standard. I thought people were so stupid for crowding themselves on that thing so that they move so slow which probably tires them out even more and yet I wanted to get up there too. I came all this way and even though I made it up there before, I wanted to take some photos with my new digital camera. So we got in line. After about 20 minutes, we ascended a whole 20 feet. Then this girl was coming down on the outside and told us, "You should totally go up on the outside, you'll race up there like Spiderman." Two thoughts came to mind upon hearing this: 1) The difference between me and Spiderman is that my hands and feet don't stick to vertical surfaces and 2) I'm wearing Vans, not climbing shoes, and they are worn pretty smooth as it is. Then I noticed that she was wearing Birkenstock sandals, and then I thought, "well, if she can do it, I can". And I did race up there like Spiderman. I passed some of the most terrified people. They must have been hanging there for an hour at least. When it got really steep, I cut back in. It was soon after the bottleneck anyways, so it pretty much only took 20 minutes from when the girl gave us her advice. It was still totally nuts. You may think it was really stupid to do that, but I honestly think it was safer to spend as little time on there as possible.

That was the experience of Half Dome the third time around. I remember the first time I thought that this would be a great place to propose to your girlfriend, but then I thought it would really stink if she died during the climb, so scratch that idea. I can't remember what I thought the second time. I think I was too exhausted. The third time I thought, "People should definitely do this, but I'm not going with them anymore." Anyways, despite that I'm in pretty good shape, my legs are really sore and I'm basically walking with two limps. You would think that two limps would cancel each other out, but no, it just makes it look alot more painful, ha ha.

I'll have pictures online later this week.