You know how if, like, your arm hurts, and you start looking on the Internet for all the reasons your arm could hurt, then you end up determining that you're going to die in an instant and you probably have the flesh-eating bacteria or cancer? The Internet is scary like that. I'm experiencing a similar thing the more I read about the Half Dome hike, now less than three weeks away. I have yet to find a blogger writing about the experience who doesn't mention that training in the gym won't prepare you, and that going down is not easier on your body than going up, and that this will be a 12-hour ordeal so if we don't manage to start right at daybreak, well, then, we're basically screwed. All scary points, but manageable.
But here's the detail that got way under my skin this weekend: the matter of the last quarter mile, the bit where you climb at a 45-degree grade using the Yosemite-provided cables, which will shred your hands as you hold on for dear life, so you better bring gloves. The upper-body-strength requirement doesn't scare me so much here (although I'm sure it should) but it's the fear-inspiring height that I hadn't spent much time thinking about before this weekend. Apparently, according to bloggers who have done the hike, many hikers panic when faced with the cables and don't make the ascent. It could only be a very daunting thing that could make a hiker turn back just shy of the summit, after he has already made it 4,000 vertical feet over eight miles and six hours or so.
Anyway, note to self. If you know you suffer from insomnia, don't read a blog that includes this comment right before you try to go to bed:
The cables are intimidating because: If you slip, you will fall to your death, no doubt about it.
Update: Did it on June 2, 2007! Read my story here.
7 comments:
no doubt a scary thing.
of course i'm also trying to not think about the risk of death part.
riding the bus to work or just strolling to the corner store could also put you in harm's way as these situations contain forces out of your control - the bus driver and every other person who may or may not be having a good day and who may or may have decided this morning to be reckless. if i thought about that every morning i would surely never leave the house.
let's think about the facts:
1: you are a heathly and even somewhat athletic person who can handle physical stress.
2: you posess enough common sense to know when enough is enough and dutifully exercise you free will to chose when to stop, rest, or go on.
3: you will not be alone in your fear on this hike and surrounded by friends walking and talking eachother to the top.
4: unilke most vacations, you and your friends will not be drunk and therefore making the most clear-minded choices regarding every step of this hike from sunscreen application to fueling the body to picture taking angles.
it will be fun and i am totally excited (and hecka scared) about making it to the top!
omg! mem called you "somewhat athletic!" mark this day down in Dubin history!!!!
also, please stop exposing your family to the truth. we will freak out on your behalf! what if uncle alan reads it and tells moms abotu the cables??? Aiyee.
and finally, in all earnestness, I think that if you make it, you will feel a sense of accomplishment unlike most others you've ever felt, and it will be a good thing! if you fail, either by turning back early or falling to your death, that will suck. but of the two options for failure, the retreat one is not really that bad and you will have to reset your goal for the trip to be "all but the cable part." and then you will feel accomplished anyway! in fact, the only real bad outcome would be the falling to one's death or injury part. so don't do that, kay?
xoxo
note to big dubin: please refrain from using the term "fall to your death" until the trip is over.
i promise we won't but it's just one of those things i'd rather not focus on directly.
okay, i can say two things about hiking half dome:
1 ) up until that point, i'd never cried so hard as i did when i finished that hike. it was one of those weird survivor moments. as i was stumbling back into camp, sunburnt (take sunscreen!), dehydrated (drink water and take TP!), and exhausted (take crack!) i suddenly started realizing the limits of my body and how fallible we all are and how we're all just clutching onto this giant whirling rock and how we are all going to die. this all led me to fall into a quiet weeping stupor... that led to me not wanting to sit by the campfire, and i went, laid in my bed, and didn't get up again until the next day at lunch when i my friends brought me a veggie burger and aloe for my burn.
2) i wrote my college essay about it. it was possibly the lamest essay any administrator ever read.
oy. OY! what's all this about a giant whirling rock?! you're killing me. btw, if you think that is the lamest essay a college entrance administrator ever read, then you sorely, sorely underestimate your budding journalism skills and also vastly overestimate the average 17-year-old applicant.
PS: this had nothing to do with half dome really, well, maybe sort of, but more with the layout of your blog for this current entry.
the picture of you in your profile picture shows your oh-so-dubin [animated with excitment] face almost laughing at this cable climb. i know it's the emotion furthest from the truth with you but i think it's the one you should adopt.
"HA HA HA Cables! we're going to party!!!!"
that's what it looks like you're saying.
clarification: the whirling rock thing referred to the earth moreso than the rock that is half-dome. You know how it was to be a teenager; death is something Kurt Cobain and River Phoenix did.
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