First time Half Dome..

[kingofthemountains]

Sounds like a great 60th bday to me! I hope I am still in good enough shape / my body is still functioning well enough that I can climb half dome at 60!

[Wandering Daisy]

Being afraid on the cables can be a problem to the safety of others. When there is a crowd on the cables, and IF you were to freeze with fear, others (who I agree would be stupid to do this) may want to get by you and divert to the outside of the cables, which is unsafe for all on the cables. The clip-in would be mostly a psychological thing -and if that helps,OK. Given your concern, and potential to "freeze", it would be a LOT better if you were to do it early AM on an overnight trip. That way you would not feel pushed to go faster than you feel comfortable and you avoid holding up others. And do not grip the cables so hard that your arms literally give out before you get up or down. Going down actually is more scarey than going up. Everyone should be a little scared when they first look at the cables. Good fear keeps you alive. Extremely serious fear of heights is another matter. We took some friends of ours up years back. One person opted out and stayed at the saddle. Nothing wrong with that. Do not ever feel forced to do something you really do not want to do.

Honestly, if I were afraid of the exposure, I would not go up the cables, simply because I do not find being scared very fun. That is too masochistic for my taste. I have done alpine and technical rock climbing for more then 40 years, and there have been times when it just did not feel right, and I insisted to retreat, to my partner's dismay. I never regret these times. A great deal of rock climbing is mental - some days you just are not up for it. The rock is not going anywhere. It will be there for another day.

[AlmostThere]

Don' t fall prey to peak fever. too many injuries and deaths occur because someone MUST do something. you do not have to do things you are afraid of. there are other wonderful things to do.

[Tollermom]

It may be more of a riding the roller coaster kinda fear, screaming and laughing at the same time!