AlTiN Mule Goes To Clouds Rest

[paulr]

lsdiodes.com has some 3mm orange leds: http://www.lsdiodes.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2

You can probably get a Peak Matterhorn (similar to Arc AAA) set up with an orange or red led, if you want something small that's a bit more robust than a Photon.

 

[MSaxatilus]

Awesome writeup and great pictures! Thanks for sharing.

MSax

 

[Data]

Thank you for the pictures, that must have been a great trip. I love that place too.

 

[Manzerick]

wow!!

Great write up!!!

 

[Stillphoto]

Being a photographer and all, I wish I had the time and ability to get up those rocks to get some shots. Oh well, one of these years. What camera did you use? I know I could look at the exif info on the file but I'm too lazy.

Great shots, great lights, and a wonderful writeup.

 

[cqbdude]

This is an awesome story and pictorical...

Im heading for Yosemite tomorrow morning to try and get up to half dome...

This is definitely a very nice motivation and inspiration....

Im going to do the whole trek in one day...so Im probably going to be needing my lights on the way back. hopefully...LOL

Thanks for the Awesome post...

 

[souptree]

paulr, awesome! thanks a lot! I will definitely be looking into those orange 3mm. :thumbsup:

Stillphoto, the camera is a Canon Powershot G7, mostly using the wide lens attachment. It's an amazing amount of camera for the size and weight, I must say! My camera budget pretty much put me at the high end of point and shoot or the low end of SLR, and I am pleased with the choice I made.

cqbdude must be on the trail right now if he's on schedule. That is so great. Doing Half Dome round trip in one day from Happy Isles is a heroic effort, and I really admire anyone who can pull that off. I wish I was there too! Definitely looking forward to hearing how it went, cqbdude! (and what lights you brought!)

Thanks again for the kind replies to the thread, everyone. It's gratifying to know you guys enjoyed it, and fantastic to have some good people to share with.

 

[drew2001]

Hi Soup, Thank you, very happy to read such a great story as I had certainly enjoyed your Half dome episode. Great write up. Glad you guys made it safely to the Rest!

-drew

 

[cqbdude]

Well I made it back alive.....barely....Also I didnt make it quite to the top of Half Dome. For the safety of myself and others on the trail. I made a decision to stop about half way up the side of quarter dome. All I can say is I packed way to much again and that altitude really sucks...I was really affected by the altitude. So here is my story and I'm sticking to it..

I got to Yosemite a little later than I planned..
Instead of staying in Yosemite Valley the day before to get acclimated , I woke up at 3am Saturday morning and was on the road by 4:30am.
Got to Yosemite just before 8:30am, and was dropped off by the shuttle to Happy Isles just before 9am..

The trail started easy enough ...8.2 miles to half dome..sounds easy enough...yeah right...:sick2:

Then the trail started getting higher..

And the view started getting better as well.

I decided to take the Mist Trail this time, although it wasnt misty at all this time ..Thank goodness...

Who needs a stairmaster when you have yosemite....

More stairs....

Vernal Falls.....

Looking down the Mist Trail

Last set of stairs before the top of Vernal Falls..

Looking down the Mist Trail from the top of Vernal Falls...

So here is my pack.....had way too much stuff in there..I will have to take pictures of the contents later..But here are the lights that I brought..

1 McGizmo HD-45 Seoul
1 Ti PD-S
1 Al PD-S
1 Ti S27 Head
1 Aleph A1
1 Princeton Headlight

Way too many CR123 and Rcr123 .

Now on to the next falls...Nevada Falls..

And again more stairs.....

Way too many damn stairs...

Look up and you are greated by this awesome site..

I was so happy to find out that my cell had signal at almost every part of the trail. :thumbsup:

Still had 4.5 miles to go...and the last real potty station...

Finally some flat trails....whew!!:sick2:

Thats Half Dome on the left and Quarter Dome on the right..

Oh wow...only 2 miles left....yeah only...at this point the altitude is really kicking my butt...I having to stop and rest so often just so my heart doesnt leap out of my chest...and pretty much everything in my backpack moved down to the bottom ..I was actually contemplating on going back at this point..But I made a mistake of calling my friend and was motivated to keep going..:shrug:

Finally getting some height..

That would be me.....

Now you can see the cable to the top of Half Dome...and the many many people on their way up..

Now Im on the trail up the side of Quarter dome..

Almost above the tree lines...

Had to make some calls...:naughty: ok..also to rest..

More people coming down...

Well I went up a little bit more, but my pack is so heavy at this point , and going up another 1000 feet in altitude might have made my condition worst , so I decided for the safety sakes that I will just come down. Its about another 45 minutes delay in getting up the cables , its getting really late.
I dont mind hiking in the dark part of the way ,but I didnt want to come down most of the really dangerous part in the dark..

So I just decided to get some more pictures and get a little bit of a break before heading back down..

It took me about 6 hours going up to where I turned around and it only took me about 3.5 hours to get back down to Happy Isles...

Souptree..Thank you again for the inspiration ..

Im coming back next year.....this time all the way to the top...

:thumbsup:

I wanted to add more pictures...

Panorama shot..

 

[souptree]

Great pics, thanks a lot for posting back to the thread. I wind up taking less and less crap every time, and I almost never miss anything. One thing that really has helped me a lot is a technique I read about that is used by real mountain climbers, that climb the highest peaks in the world. Basically, it's a rest step. You step, take a breath or two, take another step. Sometimes I'll take 5 steps per rest step, and sometimes I'll take 5 breaths per step. It really helps! It enables you to rest without letting your muscles cool off, and without taking your pack off and making yourself feel like you're not getting anywhere. I have found I still get the psychological boost of 'keeping moving' even if I am moving very slowly. I read once that the ideal pace is 50 minutes hiking, 10 minutes rest. I think on this last trip we were doing closer to 90 minutes hiking, 20 minutes rest, which is maybe a little less than optimal. Another person advised me once to take an extra break for every thousand feet ascended, for acclimation.

I have found trying to sleep a night or two at or ideally above hiking altitude helps. The first time I tried Half Dome (canceled due to weather), we stayed in a motel in Mammoth the night before.

Believe it or not, your picture marked "finally some flat trails" was the single hardest part of the whole hike for me. It took every bit of willpower I had not to go to sleep right there in the middle of the trail! That hike up to Nevada Falls is brutal!

Great job, and the inspiration goes both ways! :twothumbs

 

[McGizmo]

Thanks to both of you guys!! It is nice to get a feel for the journey itself as well as respect for those who make the journey regardless of where they stop! I know I for one wouldn't have made it far enough to take a first picture! :green: :thumbsup: :bow:

 

[skalomax]

I've been to yosemite national park many times, but not once after I turned into a flashaholic.

Seems like the perfect place to try out some lights and take in mother nature.

 

[souptree]

You could do worse!

 

[cqbdude]

Im surprise we havent had a big Flashaholic bash in Yosemite..
One its a beautiful place with lots of things to do and see.....and second it gets really dark there...

I had a great time playing with my lights when it got dark....

I used my head lamp mostly so the other hikers dont get blinded..:twothumbs
But when they are far enough ahead of me...I used my Ti-Pd S and its soo much brighter and you can see your path so much better...
I didnt get to use the S27 head but I did use my HD-45 Seoul and that thing was such a thrower.....it was awesome..got plenty of spill and with the 2 stage I can vary the brightness...I was able to use 2 x CR123 and 1 x 18650 .

So how about it....Yosemite CPF get together??? Anyone???Bueller????

 

[souptree]

Yosemite might be hard for an actual get together for a number of reasons. You're basically tied to the roads without a.) very limited and popular wilderness permits b.) very strenuous hiking. True, you can "day hike" without a permit, but you can't have a sleeping bag with you, and it's a multi-hour drive back to civilization at the end of what is sure to be a VERY long day. Hotel rooms outside the park can be had, but it's still a long drive on windy roads late at night to them, and they tend towards $200 during the season if you can get one at all (call now!). Are there some amongst us able to commit to such an ordeal? Probably, but maybe not many and for some I can imagine it being more than they thought it would be and wind up borderline dangerous on the return haul.

So that leaves the Valley and possibly Tuolumne. Both places we'd be disturbing a ton of civilians who had come for darkness and quiet, and given it's actually designated as wilderness (I think the rule is 100 feet from any road is wilderness there), I'm not sure how the Rangers would feel about tens of thousands of lumens being blasted around.

All of that being said, I am totally up for some kind of CA get together in a wilderness-y type environment. I think Nat'l Forests might be a more viable choice than the Nat'l Parks though. Fortunately, we have many of those here! I'm a little scared of people bringing firestarting incans and lasers to a NF though. :sick2:

cqbdude, were you at the Socal CPF Flashapalooza in Griffith Park?

 

[cqbdude]

Im good with any wilderness or parks get together also, but it would be nice if it was Yosemite..It will be a vacation for some people too..

And I didnt make it to the Griffith Park get together....
I wish I did..

 

[TKC]

What a GREAT read!! And those are awesome pix too!! THANNK YOU so much for sharing your wonderful adventure with us!:twothumbs

 

[cqbdude]

I added more pictures....and a panorama view....

 

[Supernam]

I would totally be down for a nat'l park get together. Maybe just a handful of us can go hike and camp. San Jacinto or Joshua Tree would be cool. Soup and cqb, where you guys from? I'm in OC.

 

[PhantomPhoton]

I skimmed thru your first post on Half Dome, but had a bit more time to sit down and read this one.
:kewlpics: I unfortunately only get to spend a couple days a year in Yosemite and always in the summer (in the peak of the tour bus season it seems:thumbsdow.) I've ascended Half Dome twice in the past several years as well as several other smaller hikes.

That would be me on the top of Sentinel Dome with Half Dome in the background.

My half dome story-
I generally do Half Dome from Glacier Point. I had quite a grueling trip once with my family. My mother has a neuromuscular dystrophy with knee trauma, so she's on crutches and specialized knee brace... she could really only carry her bedding and water. My younger brother decided to try and run up a wall and do a back flip a week before our trip and broke both his radius and ulna... he was in a cast, with reduced load bearing ability (and rather grumpy). And then my youngest brother is a type 1 diabetic, as well as being only 10 at the time, I think, so he wasn't much help either. And then there was me loaded up with all the general gear, all my gear plus most of the tent, all the food; on a nice ~26 mile round trip two day hike, in July. :sigh: We unfortunately only had one night to spend in Little Yosemite Valley but we really didn't have any more room on me to carry the food for a longer, more leisurely stay anyway. Had to get the whole family up together before mom got too old. (don't tell her I said that)
I'm sure we looked at the least very odd, and maybe just plain dumb to be attempting such a thing in our apparent conditions. But we had been preparing for months in advance and thus made it to the top. (I don't have the picture of us at the top in this computer, I'll try and find one and post it later.)
Afterwards we were all so sore we couldn't walk for 2 days but that was all part of the experience too I guess.

This thread caught my eye because I haven't yet made the Cloud's Rest hike. I was hoping to make it this year but the logistics of my trip didn't allow it. It looks like a nice day hike for me, but maybe I'll try and drag the crew out for a three day trip.

Heres a nice little knife edge ridge on the Angel's Landing trail in Zion. Not a bad one but enough that the NPS put in some cables. Anyone done this hike? Not a bad one for a quick day hike IMO. Oh I love heights!

But anyway I think the family is plotting a couple=day trip down to Phantom Ranch next summer. (Mom's thinking about taking a mule down while I trudge the trail with most of the gear, again.) At least that youngest brother is 16 and much more useful for carrying things. That should be a fun place to play with whatever lights I can pack down.

America's National Parks are wonderful and it saddens me how little many seem to care about the beauty of our natural environment.