High Sierra Topix

Vidalia wrote:First, I wanted to thank everyone that took the time to post on this thread. Your advice, suggestions and answers have been invaluable to me in planning this trip. I am only a few weeks from heading out and I had one more (although probably not the last!) question.

Since we are planning on climbing Half Dome at the end of our traverse from Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley I understand the need (or desire) for leather gloves to handle the cables. I have read varying reports of there being gloves left behind at the bottom for others to use and that these shouldn't be counted on as most will be worn out in the palm area.

Any suggestions or advice on this?

Thanks,
Vidalia

I don't know about the gloves (they were fine when we went up several years ago) , but now you have to have a special permit to climb HD on the weekends. I think you're ok, permit wise, on weekdays.

I've taken a pair of those cotton gloves with either little grippy dots or "leather" palms in the past for the Half Dome cables. What you find on the ground will be hit or miss. My friend found a nice pair last Friday, but I've been there when there were none.

A Half Dome permit is required on Fri, Sat, Sun & holidays. That has pushed the crowds to Mondays & Thursdays so it'll be interesting to see what the NPS does next year. As a backpacker, you'll probably want to get an early or late start and avoid the dayhikers. For now you just need to ask for a Half Dome permit when you pick up your wilderness permit. No additional reservation needed. For day hikes the permits needed to be reserved in advance, and now are all taken, other than a tiny number that people turn because they won't be using them.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/hdpermits.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When we were in Yosemite a few weeks ago a ranger told us they are already planning to extend the days that require permits for the dome. He said that it just in the planning stages for next year.

I wouldn't count on the pile of gloves at the base of the Half Dome cables. I saw a ranger up there picking up as much as he could into his backpack to hike out. They consider the gloves as trash, which after a moment's thought makes sense. I wouldn't leave anything behind elsewhere in the wilderness, so why a pair of gloves at the cables? Also, from what I saw there were slim pickings for quality gloves and who knows what nasty hand could have been in those gloves.

Thanks, I had pretty much figured it would be pretty stupid to travel all that way to find out I was remiss about bringing my own gloves. I have a very serviceable pair that are light and will bring them along.
We will be picking up the HD permit when we pick up our backcountry permit so that is taken care of.
Now it's just getting the final details worked out for the hike. We have a start and end and a general idea of how we want to slice the apple but once there we'll probably just follow what's best that particular day and explore as much as we can in the 7 days we will be in the high country.

There are 4 of us this trip and we got together to go over plans and trip details the other night and a question of appropriateness arose. Music?

In the past there have been times when one of the group who is a very fine acoustic guitar player brought his guitar along to enjoy under the stars. He asked the rest of us if we cared if he brought it this time and I had some reservations. It's bad enough the natural sounds of the mountains are sometimes disrupted by people on cell phones, playing with games on their devices or (God forbid) playing music through speaker from a playback device. I tend to relish the solitude and quite of the backcountry. I didn't say anything and thought I would ask what the reader here thought about bringing a guitar into the woods. We would not play it around others but I know how sound can carry in the outdoors and I do not want to adversly impact anyone's enjoyment of their own experience. Thoughts?

Vidalia

No guitars. The Yosemite backcountry is wilderness, not a living room.

I kind of think an acoustic guitar would be cool. I've been in the backcountry 3 times with markskor and have been disappointed he has never brought his flute! I think good music in the bc has the potential to enhance ones experience and actually blend in nicely with the sounds of nature.

Mike

OR,

You remember our last outing? and the native drums across the lake from the llama contingent? It was kind of annoying, and i think they even had a guitar as well. At one point (i think you were fishing), i broke out the bear cans to reverse serenade them..

I'd vote to leave the guitar at home.

Agree that someone with a guitar (or any instrument for that matter), who does not know how to play it competently is an abomination to the ears... Just noise in the backcountry.
However, I have been with/ played flute with accomplished musicians who knew how to pick...a different story entirely. Now I do not advocate punk rock, or anything rap (if that is a legitimate musical venue at all), but some slow blues, bouncing off the canyon walls, can be quite enjoyable, especially at the cocktail hour...not bad around a fire either.
There are some small guitars that are backpack-able... Played with fiddle players, harmonica players, banjo pickers, and even a fiddle player or two...good fun. The old campground at LYV (the one on the river) was famous for impromptu concerts.
FYI, nobody ever seemed to complain, in fact we were encouraged...bribed by all sort of things... wouldn't let us stop.

Russ,

Never heard the drums. That's what you get for hanging around camp during the day. As much as it hurts I agree with Mark (an all to common occurence).

m