Day hikers wait in line to climb the popular cables to the top of Half Dome on a Thursday morning. Photo by Matt Montagne.
So the new quota system has effectively reduced the surge of people attempting to climb Half Dome on the weekend but, as you can see by Matt Montagne’s great photo, only made weekdays more crowded. Matt took this photo Thursday June 24th, a weekday when foot traffic to the top of Half Dome has traditionally been less.
If you’ve recently climbed Half Dome, please tell us your experience in the comments section below.
Comments
5 responses to “New Quota System Makes for Longer Lines on Weekdays to Climb Half Dome”
Was distributing the number of people climbing Half Dome throughout the week one of the goals of the new quota system? I’m also curious to know if the quotas have reduced the total number of people making the trek.
You know now that I think about it enacting trail quotas on weekends only would seem the goal was to get more people to do the hike during the week. I’m more curious how many tourists get to the shoulder and are turned back.
I climbed Half Dome last June before the quotas. It was a Saturday, so the line was long and make the climb up Half Dome scarier and more stressful than if there’d been fewer people. It was still a great hike, nevertheless.
greenbeangal.blogspot.com
I think all the publicity around the hike and the cables is just making it worse. I’ve seen this hike listed on so many “adventure” websites and the new quota system in the news recently. I wish they would have left well enough alone. Tourists should know to avoid popular places on the weekend.
I hiked with a group last Tuesday (June 22) and by the time we reached the top the line for the cables was approx. 2 hours. We figured we didn’t have time to wait and still make it back before dark so we had to skip the cables. People who did do the cables were saying the lines started getting long around 10:30 or 11:00. So start early if you want to beat the crowd at the cables.