Planning Halfdome

We started planning about two months in advance. After we found out that one of us won the lottery "this year". I had personally been wanting to do this for about 4 years and if you are an avid hiker.. this hike WILL be on your bucket list.

This includes where we would sleep, transportation, research on the hike itself (mileage, avg finish time, parking) and the cable climb, food and water, gear research to climb the cables (if you choose to make a harness or not and what gloves to bring), Yosemite also recently added a day reservation since covid (although not required with Halfdome permit). While a harness and gloves are not required, we found a harness unnecessary and rubber gloves to be extremely helpful. By all means, if you choose to make a harness then you are more than welcome to do so. We found rubber gloves were very helpful and everyone was not worried for not having a harness.

Lottery & Gloves

Information can be found here at Recreation.gov "Cables on Halfdome". In order to even begin your journey to do this hike, you must win a lottery raffle for day use permit.

WARNING: Permits are required 24 hours a day, seven days per week to ascend the subdome or Half Dome cables. Ascending the subdome or Half Dome cables without a permit is a violation of 36 CFR 1.6 (engaging in a permitted activity without a permit) and is punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and/or six months in jail. -Per Recreation.gov

$10.00 Fee to initiate your lottery ticket. $10.00 Fee per person thereafter, if you win a lottery day use permit. (Totaling at $60.00 as 6 person max, per permit + $10 initial fee = $70.00)

Lottery Season
March 1, 2021 - March 31, 2021 - Preseason lottery

April 12, 2021 - Notification of results of preseason lottery

April 27, 2021 - Preseason lottery acceptance date (awarded preseason lottery permits must be confirmed and purchased by 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on this date)

May 17, 2021 - October 10, 2021 - Daily lotteries (apply two days in advance of desired hiking date – dates may be adjusted annually based on conditions)

May 19, 2021 - October 12, 2021 - Half Dome Cables up (dates may be adjusted annually based on conditions)

October 13, 2021 - Half Dome Cables down for the season (date may be adjusted annually based on conditions

Gloves: I bought these for everyone. $6 for 3 pairs, only needed to buy two.. I thought gardening gloves have a rubber coating and everyone talking about gloves has no idea what gloves actually work. We were told by other finishers, rubber coated worked very well. Videos about Halfdome also recommend rubber coated gloves, they were all some kind of investment though.. The ones I found at Harbor Freight are very inexpensive. Linh from our group was the only one who brought her own gloves to try on the cables. She had leather palm with open fingers, said it worked well. I didn't get to see what leather exactly she was using, so I can't compare it to the leather someone else said was very slippery. You'll have to test it out which leather is actually good on the cables. I recommend the rubber ones I linked, we had no issues with our climb of the cables at all. You can also give them away to other hikers without gloves, since they are inexpensive. I actually gave my gloves away and borrowed some from a man sitting at the base of the cables. I later met him down on the trail and was able to give them back, haha.

Trailhead Parking - Start Time - Weather

Yosemite Valley Trailhead Parking is the closest place to park for this hike.
0500 arrival and started roughly at 0526, reaching the cables around 1100.
Due to weather, your Goal is to reach the cables before 1200 noon. Weather is said to easily change around noon and you may run into slight rainfall or some wet conditions. You are increasing risk factor by using the cables in wet conditions (Especially without a harness + wet conditions = more risk of fall)
However, weather was perfect for us and not a cloud in the sky. On our hike day of 7/21/2021, we even stayed on Halfdome for nearly an hour because the weather was so good. We only began to come down as to begin the return journey before nightfall. 

Your weather may vary, use safe judgement and watch the weather forecasts near your hike day.

Elevation Gain

Recorded - 5,346 ft  (Strava Recording App) (Almost identical to Alltrails listing)
Posted - 5,318 ft (Alltrails Listing)

Mileage + Finish Times

16.3 'ish Miles round-trip (Taking the same trail, going back down Mist Trail.. and all the steps on the side of Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls) | 8 to 12 Hours

16.9 Miles round-trip (Taking the John Muir Trail that leads above and over the bridge of Nevada Falls, which skips going back down all the steps) | 8 to 13 Hours

18.4 Miles is our actual finish time with the longer route, using the John Muir Trail return. | Moving Time: 7H 52M - Total Time: 13H 11M (stopped recording when we pulled out of parking lot, could have been right at 13H mark if I had stopped recording upon reaching the car haha) This means we had taken hours of breaks in between and especially at the top of Halfdome. I'm sure it would be much faster, if you did not want to enjoy the views like we did. We definitely went at a good pace and got plenty of videos and photos with our breaks. I also ran up and down the last section between Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls on John Muir Trail.. Many people were out of water and I had a lot of extra. Got to give away all my extra water.

Our Story

Our story takes place over three days total (road trip, hike day, road trip). We had researched everything.. from getting rubber coated gloves, to expect how long the hike will be and what time we are starting. Expected timeframe to finish and watching the weather.. we were very happy to see no clouds or any bad weather in the slightest on our hike day. You know, you can't pick your weather and it could not have been more perfect of a day. We appreciated the weather so very much! haha!

With that being said..

I work fulltime at the hospital, planning this and doing some kind of exercise was quite the work load. I would workout with my sandbag after work and try to research or plan something for the big day. All the while, keeping up with chores and life etc. Fun stuff!

What I Brought

One - 40 pack of water bottles - Hotel drinking water
Six - 1 Gallon Jugs of water - Use for Filling Hydration Bladders (turns out my nagging to bring food and water worked well, nobody needed them but me haha)
Six - Rubber coated Gloves for all of us to use on the Halfdome cables. (Linh brought her own, so I had an extra to hand out if needed)
We were all expected to bring our own food for all 3 days, which we all did nicely.
Nothing else out of the ordinary needed to do this adventure.

What I Packed on Hike Day

- 2 , 1.5 liter canteens of water (Extra for anyone, carried on side pockets of pack)
- 3 Liter Hydration Bladder (inside of pack)
- 6 egg homemade protein pancake (made with turmeric, ginger, Kodiak cakes protein pancake mix, 6 eggs, Pink Salt) I loved how filling this was during the hike. First time bringing this creation on an actual hike.
- External battery and miscellaneous wires for charging.
- Knife with belt clip for shoulder strap
- Belt clip to hold my cellphone on my shoulder strap
- Numerous extra gadgets haha, I'd say to each hikers preference in this category.

Day 1 of 3 - Road trip to Hotel

Everyone in our team is heading out on the road trip to our hotel, Cedar Lodge.. from Los Angeles. Three cars in total, Linh and me.. Diego and Mary.. Cynthia and Veronica. The trip from L.A. to Cedar Lodge is roughly 5 hours. We could not all come together at the same time, planning our own cars and this worked for everyone. I had to stop in Bakersfield for restroom break, sorry Linh. Stopping once more in Fresno at In n out for food, sorry again Linh (Kind of tradition for me to stop there). We arrived first at Cedar Lodge roughly 1700. It was really humid and hot! Linh checked us in and we got a room on the second floor. I have nothing bad to say about the room experience, it served its purpose for 2 clean nights stay. Internet was $10 per 24 hours or $29.99 per 72 hours. It is also limited to 2 devices per transaction. Since there is no reception at the hotel area, we decided to buy it and share the WIFI with our other team. Some of the team wanted a microwave but we made do without one, since the room did not have one. I had nagged everyone to make sure they pack enough food and water, which worked out very nicely. Everyone had food and water for the entire trip. I like to bring extra supplies anyway too, yeah.. I'm the over-packer, I admit it. I can't help but pack extra for others, just in case. In times of need, those who lack something will get it. It happens frequently and I don't mind carrying the extra weight for those times of need. We used much of the water bottles, they had brought their own water so we had plenty of extra too. I think extra is better than running out. Second to arrive was Cynthia and Veronica about 2030, they ate sushi the night before the hike. Diego and Mary arrived roughly 1030 and had already eaten If I remember correctly. Linh and me decided to check out the restaurant at Cedar Lodge. Unfortunately, they only have fried foods. While it was good for fried food, not so good for us before a hike but we ate it anyway. Portion size on the appetizer "fried mushrooms and green beans" was gigantic! Recommend if you really like those. We both ordered the fish and chips, again good portions. Linh is a small eater, so I ate a good portion of it all. We had a lot of leftovers though. Upon getting back to the room, everyone was getting settled in and ready for bed. Linh introduced me to some kind of elastic tape wrap, preventing blisters and chaffing. She put some on her feet. I had put some between my thighs, I often will get chaffing from my thighs rubbing together on longer events. This worked out great! Thanks Linh! I had some CBD ointment, she was able to try that out on her legs. I think she liked it, its like icy-hot.. only it has CBD oil in it. I think it helps anyway. We all tried to get some rest and turned the lights out around 1100.

Day 2 of 3 - Hike Day
Setting the alarm for 0315 to wake up..

Everyone hardly had any sleep, grumpy at me for turning the lights on and waking up everyone. Hehe Ahhhhh!!! (I'm usually the one to wake up everyone, someone's gotta do it!! Haha) We all began getting ready, we get about an hour behind. No big deal, that's why we woke up super early. We head to the trailhead, drive past the Yosemite Gates just before 0500. I guess nobody at the gates until 0500, so we just drove past and ended up not needing to show our permit for entry. As with this silly Covid era, a day reservation is now needed to enter the park, unless you have a wilderness permit or Halfdome day use permit.

Day 3 of 3 - Road Trip Return

Page Last Modified: 

7/25/2021 , 7/30/2021, 8/8/2021, 8/15/2021