The Great Adventure

Well no response from KE yet and whilst I have had some helpful responses from some of the guides I emailed in Jackson, nobody is offering guided treks as such. As far as KE are concerned, I think the ball is firmly in their court - well at least until they send me an invoice expecting payment in full for a holiday they have not confirmed that they are going to run.

Whilst awaiting further news I have started researching their Yosemite and High Sierra trip. The maps have been ordered already from Stanfords .

The picture in my previous post was of Half Dome (8836 ft) in the Yosemite National Park. Reading KE's tour dossier  it talks about the summit slopes of Half Dome being very exposed.

Boy they were not joking when they added that comment.
The view from the top is awesome.  If you look closely in the photograph (click for full image) you can see the valley floor about 5,000ft directly below. However if that is not bad enough the final climb to the summit is positively eye watering.

If  like me you have a tendency to not like heights don't look to closely at the next picture in what KE describe with masterful understatement as "The summit slopes of Half Dome are very exposed, although there are handrails".

Handrails - I think we may need parachutes. My palms are wet and slippery just looking at the pictures.

At first I thought the gradient was just a trick of the camera lens, but having looked around on the web - search on Google under "Half Dome Cables" the slope is apparently at least 45 degrees.

The good news is that nobody has apparently been killed falling off (although a couple of people have allegedly been killed by lightning strikes running down the cables).

The original cables were installed in approximately 1919 and every fall whilst the cables are left in situ, the hand rails and wooden blocks are removed for the winter. I guess, if I end up going on this trip, I am going to have no excuse when a 13 year old girl can successfully pull herself up the cables to the top.

Man it doesn't half look scary though and that's just the climb up!