For my second post, I’m again going to pull from the archives.

I hiked Half Dome over July 4th weekend in 2013; for those of you who don’t know, Half Dome is a rigorous 16-mile hike (8 up, 8 down) in Yosemite National Park with an ~8,000 ft climb. At the end of the hike is the famous/infamous (depending on who you ask) Half Dome rock. Think a sphere… now sliced it in half (i.e. there is a sheer side and a rounded edge side. Literally a Half. Dome. HA. Badum-tssss.) The objective is once you reach this rock, you use cables (you’ll see pictures) to physically hoist yourself up the rounded rock face. Goodness gracious, just reminiscing on the experience makes my palms sweat.

But yes, since my teammates at work are also huge outdoorsy people (my previous manager goes on backpacking trips multiple times a year), I decided to post this on our Cisco collaboration site.

Here ya go! (From July 8, 2013):

“Let me start out with a simple rhetorical question: What good is a “Lessons Learned” post [see: Disney World Half Marathon post] if I never actually learned my lesson?

Sad… so very sad. Why yes, I did just hike an 8-mile-up-8-mile-down trail having trained (again, much like my first half marathon at Disney World) a grand total of zero days. I think it’s about time I learned that I cannot just rely on my youthful bones/muscles and REALLY ought to get into this whole “training before doing” routine, lest it bite me in the butt in the future. I think the two charlie horses I got climbing the cables were a pretty good warning sign, don’t you?

That said, this trip was absolutely one of the craziest experiences of my life. Borderline insane, given how many times my life flashed before my eyes and I was saying my mental goodbyes (kidding, but not really kidding).

But of course, such statements cannot be validated without photographic evidence. After all, if you know me, you’ll know I’m a true proponent of the saying “pics or it didn’t happen”.

1:45AM Wake-up call, 2-hr drive from Merced into Yosemite

4:50AM … AND SO THE TREK BEGINS (headlamps and all). Below is a pic of our 5-man group, while we still enjoyed each other’s company 😉

 I must say, that ascent alongside Vernal Falls was like STAIRMASTER GONE WILD. My glutes/thighs were burrrrrnin’. But here I am next to the falls.