Camping and Backpacking GEAR thread

We do a lot of SAR up there... thankfully 551 (our Helo) can land on the sub dome.
It's usually older folks, those who didn't bring enough water, and medical(broken ankles or sprains)

Forgot to address harnesses... yes it's done. Needed? Eh. I don't think so. But it's mostly for peace of mind. With the quota system there's less traffic jams and having people push past

 

Here's local flooding. (This is the county the Valley is in too)

 

Agreed. If you stay at lyv it's a lot easier. I cramped up at the top of the cables when I started at happy isle. But that's so to waiting for mid way up the cable for people. Suggest getting there early. If you reach cables after 10:30 it can get really crowded.

You can see the crowd starting to develop early. It got worst as I sat and watched. In my opinion, the view is better on the shoulder then on top of half dome. But that's cause I like looking at the dome.

Cheap gloves work fine. When coming down. If you just old on to one cable and lean back it's easier then holding both.

 

Actually, they typically go up the Friday before Memorial Day

 

will this affect entering yosemite valley?

Sunday we are leaving reno when the gf gets off work, around 4ish, and driving as far as we get before getting tired, when we do we'll sleep in the camper shell, because the back way is closed we will be taking i80 over the pass then south along the west side of the sierras, making it about a 6 hour drive. We are doing it yuppy style this time and getting a hotel at fish camp i believe for monday evening, then she has work again tuesday. so our only days there will be part of monday and part of Wednesday.. so we want to have a good amount of day on monday to explore and what not. not a lot of time but we've been itching to go with our busy schedules..

 

Bought these a while back and have good light headlamp for the late night visits to Water the trees

https://www.rei.com/rei-garage/product/897242/black-diamond-voyager-lantern?CAWELAID=120217890002258504&CAGPSPN=pla&CAAGID=16301317480&CATCI=aud-54816614184la-189350677720&lsft=cm_mmcLA_Google_LIA|404_22484|8972420002|none|faf63bca-3cf2-4c95-aecf-59217886a10b|aud-54816614184la-189350677720

https://www.rei.com/product/107916/black-diamond-icon-headlamp

 

We spend our summer weekends all over the Mono, Bridgeport, Mammoth area! As long as Tioga Pass is open...

I suggest:
I-80 to Sac.
99 south to Merced.
140 east into Yose.
Highway miles to just get here faster.
It may be a few miles farther than what some gps's suggest but it's the best.

OR
I80 to Hwy 49 south in Auburn.
49 to 120 into Yose the back way.
More scenic but slower, 2lane twisty roads.

Fish Camp eh? While that's real close to Yose, it's kind of out the way. A lot. That's all the way down Wawona Rd/ Hwy 41 and out the south end of the park. 2 lane twisty road.

If you want other lodging options, I'll give them but you may have set plans ...

 

My runner friend who is a tiny dude and heights-averse did Half Dome when we went in September last year. He actually ran the whole thing aside from part of Sub Dome and the cables. He handled it a lot better than I thought he would, and said it wasn't as bad as it looks (I wasn't with him).

 

Damn! He said hi and was gone again before I knew it!

 

You may need to change your plans. Just got the call, looks like there's severe flooding in valley on the way. Like equal or more than the 1997 flood. As of right now, possibly removing all guests and visitors and non essential personnel Thursday noon.

Hydrology guys are saying 12' over flood stage fri-Sat and near 20' sat-sun.

 

well shoot... I guess i'll check back in in a few days to see if there are changes

 

So, I'm guessing that the drought conditions are over, huh?

 

haha maybe someday, but this ain't enough

plus most trees have so much bug kill now, the forest is getting less and less healthy.. but we'll take all we can get!

 

For about a week. It will take this years rains, heavy snow pack and same for the next three years to get all the reservoirs back to fill pool

 

So glad I found this thread

 

Yeah, we went through that several years ago in Texas. 90% of the state was experiencing drought conditions. We had a number of wildfires around the state that did a lot of damage. Fortunately we've gotten some pretty good rainfall amounts that last 2 or 3 years, so much of the state is in pretty good shape.

We were in Yosemite in March of 2015 and everyone said we were lucky that any of the falls actually had water. I'm guessing that by mid summer they were pretty well dry.

 

They lasted into July that year but not much longer. That's actually normal tho, usually mid August and the falls is just a wet rock.

 

@Seabass I would get professional instruction but you could carry some webbing and tie yourself a "Swiss seat" if you're worried about it. Webbing is very light and doesn't take much room. Then a carabiner to attach to the cables and you would be all set.

 

I'm doing the lottery, too. 2 of us in our group. I still have from Onion Valley NOBO to Agnew, and then Tuolumne NOBO to HI. So, I'm putting in for Onion Valley to HI and just re-doing the Agnew-Tuolumne section again but at least from a different direction. No sense in getting off of the trail for 30 miles just to deal with shuttles and whatnot. I want to spend a night at Garnet or Thousand Island lake again, anyways. My partner hasn't done an inch of the JMT at all yet, so it will all be new to him.

We will be at LYV the night before, so we can get a nice early start on Half Dome. By that point, we will have 15 days of hiking in our legs, so pending no previous injuries, we should be nice and strong for it. My Merrells do fantastic on granite, and I'll have gloves. That pitch will be insane though.