1972
     I was living in barracks 1296 at Combat Systems Technical Schools Command, Mare Island California in the summer of 1972. It being over 30 years ago I wouldn’t swear to it but I believe my roommate Tom Flor and my  future sky diving partner David Wilkinson and I decided to climb Half Dome. I believe Willkinson had an old Studabaker at the time but the people and method of getting there may have been something else. I’m pretty sure it was my first visit ever to Yosemite National Park.
     I remember we parked near Curry Village and started off by going through the forest near the tents on wooden platforms between there and Happy Isles. (Hooverville was a name I latter adopted for the area and that was from a latter friend Barry, whose mother had grown up in the Great Depression). We wandered through the trees until we came upon the Merced River and then worked our way up the west side by clamoring over the boulders in the river bed. We didn’t have a clue that there was a trail on the other side of the river until we reached the bridge crossing the river below Vernal Falls.
     We followed the trail until we crossed the bridge above Vernal Falls and then somehow managed to lose it. I was carrying my Navy Pea Coat and after a while I decided to stash it and pick it up on the way down. I was hung over and near the base of Nevada Falls I decided to take a short nap on a huge flat boulder. My comrades continued upward and I met up with them above Nevada Falls probably an hour or so latter. Again our trail following failed us and we ended up working our way up very steep terrain through small trees we used to help pull ourselves upwards. At that point we left our small packs to be retrieved on our way back. We eventually came up against the granite backside of Half Dome and had to make our way along it until we finally found the trail which took us up to the cables and the summit.
     That’s about all the recollection I have of my first Half Dome climb. I remember we spent more time off of trails than on them, at least on the way up. I don’t even remember if we did it as a day hike or spent the night in Little Yosemite Valley before or after making the summit. I find it hard to believe we did it as a day hike although some people do. I suppose we rented equipment from Special Services on base. I had no camera and if anybody took pictures I don’t have any.

1983
     I had done a two year shore billet at Mare Island after completing my two years of computer and electronics schools. During that time I lived in Vallejo at 714 York Street, initially with other sailors but eventually all my roommates were civilians. I had been back from Japan, out of the Navy, and living in Vallejo for half a dozen years when I decide it was time to climb Half Dome again. Barry one of my ex civilian roommates from York Street agreed to go with me. I had an early 80’s era portable VCR and camera that Barry helped carry to the summit.
     What I remember about that trip, besides the fact that we managed to stay on the trails, was the weather. At one point we didn’t think the conditions were going to allow us to make the summit. The first day when we hiked up into Little Yosemite Valley and set up camp was fine but by the next morning the weather had turned to overcast and threatening. A few times we hid out under trees because of light rain showers and when caught in exposed areas had to resort to trash bag rain protection. Nearing the switchbacks leading to the base of the cables we were delayed for a considerable amount of time by thundershowers. But eventually we got a break in the weather and went for it.
     I remember after reaching the summit Barry wandered off towards the backside of the dome, while I was dying for water. He had some left I didn’t. I don’t remember how may people we on top the first time but this time there were only a couple other people besides us. One of them was wearing a Dodgers hat and since both Barry and I are Giants fans we were joking about throwing him off. We were on the summit for less than an hour when the weather closed in again. Lightning accompanied the renewed rain but wasn’t striking the top of Half Dome. We bailed. I didn’t have any gloves and my hands were cold and wet but I took my time going down the cables. I didn’t want to rush and lose my grip on the cables but I also didn’t want lightning to strike anywhere nearby. Steel cables make darn good conductors.
     By the time we got back to take down our camp in Little Yosemite Valley it was pretty much a constant rain. I remember feeling sorry for a Boy Scout Troop that was setting up camp. They were going to half to deal with more rain than we had. I had gotten some decent video from the summit and added some more from the top of Nevada Falls. Looking down the falls it appears as billowing clouds of water as the water strikes off the wall on the way down. By Vernal Falls it was getting to be dusk and my VCR battery was dead.

1993
     At that time I was under the impression I was climbing Half Dome every ten years. I had lost track of the first climb and thought it was in 1973. I used to joke Mr. Spock had to go back to Vulcan every six years or die and I had to climb Half Dome every ten. This time it was Barry, his brother Kevin’s and Barry’s friend Darryl whom accompanied me. The first two times I had started down in the Valley but this time we couldn’t get a campsite in Little Yosemite Valley. We got a site on Illilouette Creek and started from the road to Glacier Point above the Badger Pass ski area. We weren’t any closer distance wise but we got to start from a higher elevation. There wasn’t, as much up as when you have to climb above Vernal and Nevada Falls.
     Kevin is an ex Marine but is more cerebral than Barry, but his status as a former Marine was verified when at camp near the Illilouette, he broke a cast iron skillet out of his pack. More brawn than brains. The second day we followed down along the creek to the ridge overlooking Vernal Falls and eventually dropped down to the bridge above Nevada Falls. From the falls the route leads through Little Yosemite Valley Campground and up the trail to the cables. They had a pile of gloves at the base of the cables and I availed myself of the use of a set. The summit was fairly crowded with a hundred or more people on top while we were there. Unfortunately my Cannon AE-1 malfunctioned and I was unable to get any pictures while on the summit.
     After coming back down the cables and switchbacks I decided to try a short cut. Instead of continuing back down the trail we dropped off the backside of Half Dome through the forest. I was kind of trying to figure out the route I had taken up the first time. I don’t know why anybody follows me on my short cuts anymore, they never seem to be faster then the non short cut. The route only had one small cliff we had to negotiate but before getting back to the trail below the campground we had to deal with a lot of dense deadfall. When we hit the trail near the Little Yosemite campground we got there the same time some people we had left above reached it by way of the trail. This time my shortcut was actually a tie. By the time we got to Vernal Falls it was starting to get late and we sent Daryl on ahead to make sure he could buy some beer before the store possibly closed.
     The mist trail below Venal falls is fun on a warm sunny day but a little cold and wet in the glomming evening. I once found the end of the rainbow on the mist trail. I could put my hand a little in front of my eye and the rainbow ended in the corner of my eye. When we reached Curry Village the store was still open but Daryl had already bought beer. We took the vehicle we had placed at the village and drove back up Glacier Point Road to our original starting point where we camped for the night.

2001
    My good climbing buddy Mike had never done Half Dome so I sat down and refigured my first climb to be 1972 instead of 1973, threw out the every ten year thing and went for, in my 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. Seven more years and I’ll go for my 60s. Barry and Kevin agreed to join us and met us in Yosemite. They live in the San Francisco Bay Area and Mike and I in the Mojave Desert. At least in the summer when we do Half Dome Tioga Pass is open and we can come up the east side of the Sierra which is an extremely scenic route.
     We usually meet in the valley for President’s Day weekend in February and have to drive over to Bakersfield and up the busier and more boring west side of the Sierra. I wouldn’t recommend that anybody go to Yosemite that weekend. (Ruse). In February there is only a couple loops open in Upper Pines Campground compared to the hundreds or thousands of campsites open in summer. Unfortunately that time of year there is snow in the higher elevations and sometimes even a couple of feet in the valley. They also lay the cables down in the winter. The cables are usually on top of poles 3 or 4 feet high that are in hole that have been bored in the granite. Before winter sets in they pull the poles out of the holes and lay them on the rock. They try and get them back in by Memorial Day, which is, also the time they try to have Tioga Pass open by.
     We managed to get a campsite in little Yosemite Valley but I had never been to Glacier Point so we decided to start from there instead of Happy Isles. Glacier Point provides a breathtaking view of Half Dome and the two falls on the Merced. The route brings you by Illilouette Falls and down to the bridge on top of Nevada Falls. We don’t hold hands while we are hiking and everyone goes at their own pace. I was surprised at how many of Mike’s pictures were almost exactly the same as mine although we weren’t in sight of each other when they were taken. Sometimes the scenery just jumps out and grabs you and you have no choice but to take a picture. Yosemite is one of those places where you can close your eyes, point a camera in any direction and get an extremely impressive picture.
     We gathered at the crossing of Illilouette Creek, three of us were pretty much within a few minutes of each other while Barry lagged far behind. Most the trip Mike and Kevin were ahead of me while Barry was far behind. By the time we set up camp in Little Yosemite Valley Barry had dropped back an hour or two. That night some idiots had put food out on a log because they wanted pictures of a bear. There is as tremendous bear/people problem in Yosemite and these types of morons don’t help. Twenty or more years ago the campground had steel cables between trees to hang food on but since then there have been bear boxes.
     We started for the summit the next day and it didn’t take long to leave Barry in the dust. He had quit smoking cigarettes before I had and at that time I had six or seven years under my belt. When we got to the base of the cables I was horrified to see them packed as bad as a Tokyo train car. ( In Japan there are people paid to push people into the trains so the doors can close) There had to be well over a hundred people on the cables. Everyone once in a while the throng would be knotted up where someone was freaking with vertigo and had basically stopped the flow of traffic. At those points people had to hang off the outsides of the cable to pass them. There are two cables comfortable arms distance apart and on a good day you can use them both at the same time. There is also an occasional 2x4 between the poles, which affords you a place to rest, but not on this day. Besides the bunched up traffic going up there was also the traffic coming down.
     Mike was on top first and somewhere on the switchbacks I had passed Kevin, but we were basically there within five or ten minutes of each other. The population on top was larger than the hundred or two whom had shared the space with me eight years before. I swear that a thousand or more people summited Half Dome that day. There were teenagers, a man over 60 and even a small child in a back carrier. I didn’t see what held the kid in and would have been afraid they could fall out on the cables. Mike and I wandered down the backside a while but I turned back before he did. Although it’s not vertical like the face it gets steep enough to where you can fall off.
     We were on top so long that we got bored and started down, at which time Barry made it up to us on the cables. I turned around and went back up to the top where I took some pictures of Barry and then left him there. When I got back to camp I went swimming in the Merced River. About half way across I passed a snake swimming the other way. I went back to camp and fetched Mike and Kevin and the three of us went swimming. We were back at camp lying around when Barry made it back from Half Dome. We spent the night in the campground and left the next morning.
     When we got back to the valley floor at Curry Village Mike and Kevin took my Jeep back up to get Barry’s truck at Glacier Point while I waited on Barry. As I am writing this account I am getting ready to leave for five days in Yosemite this evening. It’s Presidents Day weekend again and I have 4 nights reserved in Upper Pines Campground. Mike’s going skiing at Mammoth for his 50^th Birthday and I found out why Barry has been so slow lately. He had a double bypass a few days back. (He’s only about 50). I’m planning on spending a day or two above Yosemite Falls. Solo has never bothered me.