Background⌗

Had the opportunity to hike half dome via the (John Muir Trail) JMT on July 10th, 2024. It was a fantastic hike and I wanted to record the experience and a few ways to approach the hike.

Half Dome Hike

  • Red = Mist trail
  • Green = John Muir Trail
  • Yellow Line = Ascent from Nevada Falls to Half Dome
  • Blue line = Panorama Trail (Not hiked/referenced below)

We put in for the permit lottery when it opened up. Three of us submitted with dates spanning May – August, and only one of us landed a permit for four people to hike half dome on July 10th, 2024.

I booked a place in Groveland which is about an hour and twenty minute drive from the base of the trail (given no traffic). I’ve stayed in this town before, its pretty nice and has everything you’d need. It’ll depend on the person, but you could certainly stay closer to Yosemite… this will likely require planning far ahead.

We flew into San Jose on the 8th and drove 3 hours to Groveland. We made a pit-stop at REI on the way so that one of the guys hiking could buy hiking shoes lol. On the 9th, we hiked Sentinel dome. It’s a short trail and provides great views of the whole valley, you can also see half dome and pretty much chart out the entire trail leading to the top. We did this on a Tuesday and things were busy but not realllllly busy. It was definitely a good amount of driving from Groveland which, compounded with the previous travel day, meant a lot of sitting. Going to the dome in the afternoon was a good reminder of how hot it can get, especially in the sun, even at higher elevations.

Sentinel Dome

After driving to sentinel dome, we headed back to Groveland to cook dinner and get prepared for the hike the next day.

The plan was to wake up at 3:30 AM the next morning, hit the road by 4:00, park by 5:20 and start hiking by 5:30. There were three of us hiking, I took 3.5 liters of water while the other two took 3 liters and 4 liters of water. I choose to wear trail running shoes (Saucony Peregrine 13), I’ve been using this shoe for a few years, and I like it. I usually pick up last years model on Amazon in some weird color-way for half the price of the new shoe. I had bought new hiking boots a month before this hike, but on a practice hike I got some blisters and ended up going with the trail runners instead as I’d never had issues with them.

  • I packed roughly 2500 calories of food
  • I did not bring hiking poles
  • I wore some breathable hiking pants with long socks
  • I wore a light/breathable t-shirt
  • I brought a bag of Kleenex, a portable charger, a head lamp, a water filtration kit
  • I brought some cheap glovesfor the cables!

I used a 2.5 liter bladder which I filled to the brim. I then used two 500 ml bottles which I stuffed into the sides of my pack. The 2.5 liter bladder was nothing but water; however, in the bottles I added ~1200mg of sodium via sodium citrate, 120 calories worth of white table sugar, and a Nuun tablet for a bit of flavor. I am not a hydration expert and I probably was not perfect with my hydration on this hike, but I subscribe to what Dr. Alex Harrison has said on the topic (a quick google search and you’ll get all the info you need).

Total pack weight was ~11-12lbs, I felt confidant with this set up. I’ll speak about it later. Overall, I was happy with it.

For training, I spent a week hiking and biking at > 8000ft elevation in Greer, AZ directly before the hike. In the months leading up to the hike I averaged 15-25 miles hiking per week, 3-4 hours biking per week, 5-10 miles running, basic full body gym routine 2x per week, and ~12,000 steps per day on average. The longest hike I did before half dome was 10 miles with 1500 feet of elevation gain at high elevation (~9000 feet). In general, I was just keeping a decent level of fitness.

Strava

I had been continuously battling a strained hamstring, which I initially strained in March 2024 while doing a dumbbell stiff leg deadlift. I was unable to walk without pain for a several weeks and couldn’t work out legs in the gym. The strain got better, and I was nearly back to normal when I reinjured it again in early May. It felt great the weeks leading in to the hike. I was fairly confidant but was still a little nervous given the several weeks of inactivity and reinjury leading up to the hike.

We watched the first half of the Eiger Sanction (great Clint Eastwood movie), before getting to bed around 9:30 PM. I was a little nervous for the cables and for my hamstring, but overall I felt prepared and figured worst case I can always just turn around.

Hiking⌗

We woke up at 3:30 AM the next morning. My lower back was entirely frozen, it hurt to sit down and I couldn’t really bend over. I remember noticing there were some ants that had wondered into our AirBnB’s kitchen, when I bent down to look at them I immediately seized up. I think it was due to all the sitting and travelling I had done over the previous few days as well as sleeping in a new bed. There was certainly some bad luck thrown into the mix as well. The good thing was that I had no issue when I was standing up, it was only sitting down. I took an Advil and figured if I felt bad on the trail I’d just turn around.

We hit the road by 4:15 AM. There was no traffic that early, and we parked about a half mile from the trail head at 5:30. After getting our packs on, walking to the trail head, and taking a photo we began hiking at 6:00 AM.

Begin Dome

The first ~ 5 miles of the JMT to Nevada falls took us about 2.5 hours, it’s a steady climb with many switch backs all the way up. I was able to eat a few hundred calories and steadily kept sipping water. We only stopped for a few minutes at the falls to put on sunscreen before continuing. I took another Advil at this time and a caffeine pill. It was about here where I knew I would be fine, I just couldn’t sit down hahaha, so I’d need to pretty much be standing or walking for the next nine hours.

After the falls, the trail flattens out for a few miles, it gets a little sandy but we chugged through it, everyone still chatting and having a good time. As we began to wrap around the back side of Half dome the final two miles begins to get steep again, luckily it was still cool and shaded. The time at elevation really began to pay dividends here and for the rest of the hike, I had no issues. We stopped a few times to rest at this section before finally getting up to the base of the sub dome.

base of Sub Dome

From the base of the sub-dome to the top of half dome couldn’t be more than a ¾ of a mile, but you gain ~1000 feet of elevation all the way up to 8800 feet. Ascending the sub dome is essentially just a bunch of stairs with a bit of steep scramble to get all the way to the top. Once you crest the sub dome all that’s left is the cables. Below is a photo of the scrambling section of the sub dome.

Up to Sub Dome

There were gloves at the base of the cables but I was happy to have brought my own. They gripped the cables well, which was quite important as the rock of half dome is actually quite slick. When I got the top of the sub dome, I really didn’t want to even think and wait, I mainly just wanted to get it done. I shot up the cables quickly, we were going up at 10:00 AM on a Wednesday so it really wasn’t very busy. With both hands on the cables its quite easy to pull yourself up while finding a solid place to put your shoes and step up. There are wooden boards and areas where the rock juts out a bit for resting. There are a few very steep sections, but if you just focus on holding on and resting when needed its not that bad. I did the full cable section in what I think was < 10 minutes, but I didn’t time it nor was I really paying any attention to that.

Cables

Once we had all made it up, we walked around to both sides of the dome, took some photos and had a bite to eat. I was still a little nervous about going down, so I didn’t have much of a stomach to eat very much. After 4 hours of hiking to get to the top, I had probably only eaten 600 calories and drank about 2 liters of water. I had a good bit of adrenaline at this point and wasn’t really hungry at all. This was also the point where one of the guys I was hiking with turned to us and said he had no water left… this was bad because we were about 4 miles away from water I could filter and 7 miles away from a true source of drinking water. It was also probably going to take ~4 hours to descend so we’d be hiking down from 11:00 AM to 03:00 PM when it would be hot. This revelation made me even more nervous about getting down so after we took our last photos I started down the cables.

Cables

I was nervous for the descent but, again, it wasn’t bad. Two hands on the cables at all times, face the dome, don’t look out if you’re afraid of heights and rest on the boards if you need to. If someone needs to pass or you need to pass someone, coordinate so one person has a good place to rest comfortably and then grip one side of the cables with both hands and go around. Everyone was very nice and courteous, and most people were fine… a few were quite nervous. The biggest thing I could take away from this would be to avoid the crowds on the cables at all costs, it would have sucked if it was just straight lines of people all the way up with slow/nervous people causing problems. I also would never even think about going up if there was any inkling that it would rain or had just rained. The rock is extremely slick from so many people climbing it, if you have good upper body strength it’d probably not be a problem but it’d be a serious additional risk.

With three of us off the cables and on the sub-dome by ~11:30 AM, it became very apparent that it was going to be really hot, and we needed to get back to water before we all ran out with three people sharing the water of two people.

We pretty much had no reason to stop on the way down, about one mile out from Nevada falls the other guy I was with ran out of water and at that point I only had about a half a liter. When we got to Nevada Falls around 1:30 PM, we used my water filter to get a bit of water. It was quite slow and we filtered enough water for everyone to have a few drinks with the understanding we were just going to smash it down to water fountain that was approximately an hour away.

After sharing my water, I eventually ran out about 20 minutes away from drinking water. At this point we were booking it down the switchbacks of the John Muir Trail (We never used the mist trail, we took the JMT both ways). We got to drinking water and filled up our bottles with about 30 minutes of the hike remaining. At this time of day there are MANY poorly equipped day hikers on the lower parts of the trail.

Large groups, people arguing, people hiking in flip flops, people hiking with no water.
They have no concept of hiking etiquette, its hot, and we had to weave through this
unruly crowd with 16 miles in our legs.

We finished the hike around 3:00 PM; my girlfriend picked us up and had cold water and ice cream in the car for us, which was exactly what we needed. Total distance hiked was 19 miles, 5500 feet of elevation gain, a total hike time of 7 hours and 30 minutes, and a total time out on the trail of 9 hours.

Takeaways⌗

  1. I’d make sure to do this hike with people of adequate preparedness and fitness.

  2. I would probably bring 4 to 4.5 liters of water, I probably would have been fine with three, but in reality I really should have been drinking more than I did.

  3. I would try to eat a bit more and take in more sodium. I only ate ~1500 calories and was sweating profusely for the last 3 hours of the hike.

  4. My calves were a bit sore the next day, but otherwise I was fine. Seemed as though the training a did was plenty, as I felt good during the hike as well.

  5. I would consider doing the hike over-night and watching the sunrise on Half Dome, also breaking the hike up and camping (given the proper planning) would be a good idea. I don’t mind the way we did it, but I would like to take every opportunity to limit my exposure to heat and large crowds.

  6. I would bring a water filter again just in case… some people were drinking the water directly from Merced River. I think this is highly stupid and a good way to give yourself the runs. The filter is light weight and will save you from butt pee.

  7. I would freeze some water and keep it in your car or a cooler to have on the way back, something cold was nice.

  8. I might take the mist trail on the way up and then the JMT on the way down. The mist trail offers a nice little mist from the falls, is more direct, and would still be a bit shaded in the morning despite not having a ton of tree cover. The JMT would be easier on the way down especially with tired legs and would offer more shade.

  9. Trail running shoes or hiking boots would both have been fine.

  10. Cables were not a big deal as long as its not busy. If you’re afraid of heights, just face the rock in front of you.

  11. It is CRITICAL to take in salt, sugar, and a lot of water… also, probably try and eat ~200 calories an hour.

It was an excellent trip that I’d definitely do again.