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| At the top of the world! (or just half dome) |
it was gorgeous with plenty of beautiful scenery on the way up and down. the main problem was my fitness level (or lack thereof), lack of preparedness for the burning of around 4000 calories on the trip, lack of good shoes, and lack of awareness of the need for electrolytes replenishment (i.e. gatorade drinks that will replenish my salt from all the sweat...). with a good pair of hiking shoes, trekking poles i'm pretty sure the effort needed for the hike would be quartered or even halved. sigh.
also, i didn't train at all for this, and maybe i should have - at least climbing something like 100 flights of stairs everyday would have helped. i did absolutely 0 preparation for this, except hike mission peak the weekend before (which did help in strengthening my climbing muscles, but not enough, soo not enough...)
the one good thing was the weather was perfect for the hike - cool when we started because it was dark, and not too hot when we reached half dome as it was still morning around 9+
i must brag - i climbed up the cable section in around 25 minutes (9.05am to 9.30am), when others may have taken 40 min or more! hohoho...
perhaps because of my overenthusiasm and misguided belief in my strength i thought i could make my way down with no problem, now that the difficult part is done! unfortunately, here's where my body started to protest way too hard...my muscles started to strain really hard and it got painful to walk, especially uphill or downhill. it definitely felt like walking in a viscous liquid (not just water, more like gel), and with lead weights on my calves.
i think what i should have done was be prepared for the descent, not just the ascent. should have taken a lot more breaks on the way down, drank more electrolyte water, ate more food etc. especially after the super strenuous hike up, my muscles were dead tired and being over-stressed. every step felt worse than the last, and after a while 0.3 miles felt no different from 3 miles or 30 miles to me...it was that long when i'm suffering every step of the way. interesting how your perspective changes when you suffer, time grows longer and everything becomes harder.
now i know better what suffering means, and what being stone tired really means - it means your muscles have turned to stone and you literally can't move faster than a snail's crawl.
honestly - really really proud of myself for doing this - 4800 feet in elevation rise (an equivalent of 450 storeys climb!!), at 8800 feet of elevation above sea (which also makes it difficult at high elevation) and around 16 mile hike roundtrip! i was so certain i can't do it, i won't do it, won't suffer and won't put myself in the situation where i'm constantly being embarrassed by my lack of fitness, but i still chose to do it.
till today i still wonder why, but i think it's due to the enthusiasm of all my coworkers and other people i've spoken to - they made it seem easy and so i took the chance.
half dome was never on my bucket list, but doing something crazy once in a while isn't too bad. i guess i do have that adventurous streak despite my risk averseness and dislike of suffering =P
also many thanks to my wonderfully strong boyfriend, who carried most of my load and eventually all of my load (and my love), and waited for me patiently and tried to encourage me with his constant "go go"s (btw, those aren't encouraging at all, those are just scathing to me when i AM going, just going really slowly because i can't go faster). maybe more breaks and going faster in between would work better than going slowly at a snail's pace?
look at this link! it says it's America's 10 most dangerous hikes! if i had read this i probably wouldn't have done it lol, i didn't even think twice about the danger, only worried about my fitness level haha http://www.backpacker.com/trips/california/yosemite-national-park/america-s-10-most-dangerous-hikes-mist-trail-half-dome-ca/
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on a side note: figured out 3 important elements to helping a friend/bf/gf who is suffering and making a slow and pained hike back down:
1. Distract - sing songs, make conversation, point out happy and nice things, take things slow. This distracts them from their pain and makes the experience positive instead of constant negativity from the pain
2. Follow them, don't lead - Following behind will help as it doesn't make them feel like they need to hurry up to catch up to you, but don't follow too closely either. Let them set the pace and you go along behind while doing number 1 and 3.
3. Encourage - give positive encouragements, e.g. You're doing great! You've done so well to come this far, I'm really impressed with how much effort you're putting into this, I can see that you are trying hard, good job! The effort and the trying is what matters, turn it into a positive experience. Even white lies could help - you have done better than most other people i know, i'm so proud of you!
Number 3 is kind of over kill, number 2 is nice to have but not necessary - number 1 is the easiest and best one of all. By doing those things, you're not only distracting them from the pain, you're distracting them from their looming sense of failure. No one is concentrating on them being so slow and failing, we are all concentrating on the joy of the moment. That's the most important part to hiking - the process, not the speed or strength or how fast or slow.
