Yosemite Loop Expedition 2023
In 2018, I went to Yosemite National Park to scale Half Dome. It was a tedious journey that required me to sleep on a sidewalk for 14 hours in order to get permits, and then hike up to the peak the next day. Although it was an incredible trip, I felt it was too easy with the handrails in place and the large crowd of people doing the same thing. In 2022, I learned that you do not need permits to climb Half Dome. If you wait until the off season, they take the handrails down and anyone may climb. So I began replanning the journey, added a few days and a second peak and in the month of October 2023 Niagara Adventure Club took 11 individuals to complete a 5 day journey in the backcountry of Yosemite. Not only did we once again climb Half Dome, this time without handrails and utilizing Harnesses and climbing techniques, but we also hiked deeper into the park, spent a night camped at 9000' above sea level and summited the 10000' peak of Cloud's Rest. It was an amazing and astonishing trip that left everyone feeling highly accomplished.
PRE HIKE - OCTOBER 14, 2023
On this day the entire team met at Toronto's International Airport and boarded our flight to San Francisco, California. After a short 5 hour flight, we loaded all our gear into a large Ford van and proceeded to head across the state to Yosemite National Park. We made a stop or two for fuel and food and arrived in the park 6 hours later. We made our way to the Backpackers camp where we settled in for the night before our journey into the backcountry of Yosemite.
DAY ONE - OCTOBER 15, 2023
We rose early, broke camp and had a quick camp breakfast. We headed to the van to get our gear prepared and by 11am we were off. We climbed 2500 feet to make our way to Little Yosemite Village camp area which would be our home for the next 2 days. It was a challenging day for many of the team, lumbering all our gear up thousands of feet to camp. But we did make a few stops and enjoyed the incredible beauty of waterfalls and mountain peaks along the way.
DAY TWO - OCTOBER 16, 2023
Today was the day everyone signed on for. After a good breakfast, we packed our backpacking gear away, left the tents behind and took only what we needed to scale Half Dome. In our daypacks we packed snacks and a lunch, climbing harnesses, Via Ferrata rigs, and prusik cords and began our journey to the base of Half Dome. After a long uphill hike to the base of Half Dome at 7400 feet above sea level, we took a well deserved rest and had lunch. After which, we put on our harnesses and double checked all the equipment before attaching ourselves to the cables to climb the last 1600 feet to the summit. It was no easy task, but everyone did an amazing job and we were able to spend some time up on the summit to enjoy the breathtaking views. After a few hours, we again attached to the cables for the down climb and then hiked our way back to Little Yosemite Camp for dinner and a good nights sleep.
DAY THREE - OCTOBER 17, 2023
On this day we would need to take all our gear on a long journey and up 3000 feet to our next over night camp. But as we would be returning to Little Yosemite Camp, we were able to leave some food behind and shave a little weight. We packed our bear barrels with the food we didn't need for the next two days and stored them away in the forest next to camp. We then packed up everything else and began our 16km uphill journey. For the first few hours, we hiked through what was left of a burnt out forest. Without the trees to offer us shade, we were burning up in the sun. Luckily, we made our way into a thick forest eventually where we could finish the rest of our hike in the shade. We finished the day at High Sierra Camp at 9000 feet above sea level, set up camp, built a fire and had a wonderful dinner before heading to bed. We needed a good rest, as the next day would be our longest.
DAY FOUR - OCTOBER 18, 2023
This would be our longest day, and so we had a good breakfast before packing camp and heading off to the summit of Clouds Rest. We began our journey with a long slow upward climb for the first 4 hours until we reached the summit of Cloud's Rest and the incredible views it offered. In the distance, we could clearly see Half Dome below us, the peak we had climbed just a day before. After enjoying some time on the summit, we started our journey down the mountain and back to Little Yosemite Camp. We arrived late in the evening using our headlamps to complete the journey. After retrieving the bear barrels that we had stashed days earlier, we set up camp and made a late dinner. No one had any problems falling asleep this night.
DAY FIVE - OCTOBER 19, 2023
I was able to let everyone sleep in and enjoy our last morning in Yosemite's backcountry. We took our time having breakfast and breaking camp. And after filtering enough water for the day, we began our short hike down out of the mountains and back to the civilization of Yosemite Village in the Valley. Once down, we stored our packs in the van, and headed to the showers. Everyone truly enjoyed a long hot shower after 5 days in the backcountry. We then proceeded to have dinner, and finally set up camp in the Backpackers camp for one last night in the park.
POST HIKE - OCTOBER 20 & 21, 2023
The next morning, we spent the day in the park doing the touristy things. We visited the legendary base of El Cap and watched the climbers scale their way up the world's biggest climb, we visited the tourist shops and had dinner in the park. After lunch, we packed up the vehicle and made our way to Mariposa, a small town just outside of the park where we checked into the Days Inn and walked along the main strip to check out the local shopping and had a great dinner. After our day as tourists, we had a good nights sleep at the Inn, and in the morning packed the van up to make our way back to San Francisco to check out some of the sites and eventually made our way to the Airport and our flight home.
