climbing the vertical side of half dome?

Question

this is a future dream of mine, and i was wondering if anyone knows what steps i have to take before this happens??? i plan on training in yosemite for a while beforehand, but i was wondering if there is anything special you have to do. (climbing permits/license, special permission, etc...)

Answer 1

Unlike skydiving, you don't need permits or licenses to climb rock. You don't even need wilderness permits for nights spent on the vertical walls of the valley, you just technically need to get back to the valley on the same day you reach the top (you can always say, "but I barely got to the top early this morning!"). Half Dome has sloping sides and one truly vertical face, which is called the Northwest Face. There are several routes up this wall, all of them requiring some aid climbing for at least some portion of the climb. Here's a link of a description of such a climb up the Regular Route, it makes for fun reading, and I'm sure you'll get all pumped up and wanting to go yourself after reading it. However, because some parts of the climb is rated 5.11 (at least 5.10 anyways), you're going to need considerable experience and training before you're ready to go for it, and you'll need experienced partners to take you up there. If you have not ever climbed rock, you have a long ways to go before you're ready to take on the Regular Route. Even if you're young and fit, figure at least a couple of years of hard training on Yosemite rock before you reach this stage. And oddly enough, finding a reliable partner that will spend time climbing with you is a challenge itself! Unless you can find an experienced partner willing to show you the ropes (pun fully intended), figure on taking some rock climbing classes, there are plenty available in Yosemite and almost anywhere in the USA.