At the Half Dome Cables
Don't get frustrated if I pass you just as I won't fret when you pass me. You have your journey and I have mine.
The best way to describe ascending and descending the Half Dome cables is a 45-degree slope two-way bumper-to-bumper traffic jam on a one-lane road. I'm told many hikers avoid climbing Half Dome altogether because of the crowds. Or they wait until off-season to climb when the cable posts are removed. Everything to avoid the dumpster fire of the crowds. I hate crowds but some lessons are learned best in a pressure cooker of humanity. In fact, sometimes the best way to experience God's love is when you're in a crush of people and facing every temptation to resent them.
Our group of five consisted of my good friend, Tim, and his friends from church. We stayed in Groveland and woke up at 3:30 AM to start hiking by 5:45 AM. It was my first time hiking Half Dome. My wife did the climb with her youth group after 8th grade. They did lots of things wrong. They ran out of water halfway through the hike. They started too late and took a nap at the top. That meant hiking in the dark most of the nine miles back to Curry Village. But the beauty of being a 13-year old is you don't know enough to be afraid and though descending the cables was scary, my wife remembers it as an overall positive experience.
I spotted the cables after hiking through picturesque Little Yosemite Valley. The sheer face of Half Dome rises up out of the forest. It's a side profile view since you approach from the side. Before you get to the granite face, you have to climb Sub Dome, which is a very steep climb in its own right. I spotted the two sets of narrow cables rising vertically up the slope. I noticed small staggered shapes all along this ladder. And then it occurred to me:
All of the shapes are standing still. You can stare for a couple minutes and not see a single person move.
Avoiding the Crowd: I don't like waking up at 3:30 AM. I thought it was to avoid the heat of the day or make sure we had enough daylight to get back to Curry Village before dark. That wasn't the reason at all. It was to avoid the crowds at the cables. After Sub Dome, there's a narrow ridge that descends to the side of the cables. This is the rallying point before the cables. This is where the ranger told us to stash our hiking poles and make sure we packed out our gloves after descending. Not carrying hiking poles is important because you function in extreme close proximity when you're ascending and descending and you don't want to inadvertently stab people.
Cable Management: There are two main ways to negotiate the cables. The basic way is to climb untethered with gloves. The more secure method is to wear a climbing harness attached to a lanyard with a carabiner and clip into the cables. This means re-clipping every 50-100 feet or so when the cable lengths terminate. This makes is possible to climb outside the cable lane but you don't need to be clipped in to do so.
The cables don't start out steeply but the grade quickly sharpens to 45-55 degrees. It was my first time doing this so I didn't really know what to expect. I read a couple of blogposts but I didn't want to over-research and psych myself out. Most of the guys in my group had done it before and I trusted their experience. The gloves are important. There was a big group setting up and we aimed to start out before them.
It's a single file line as the cables are set up primarily for one-way travel so that a person travels in between them and can grasp a cable in each hand. However, there is also traffic ascending and descending. There are posts about every 15-25 feet along the route with wooden planks to set your feet. Because the most secure method of travel is grasping both cables, a line of ascending hikers will stop to allow one descending hiker to travel from one post to another. The same goes for ascending. And then there's people who are tired or panicking or both. The result is nobody is moving and most are reluctant to pass since this may threaten the panicked/resting hiker and usually means going outside the cable lane.
We arrived at the cables at 11 AM and there were already about two dozen people staggered along the route. It's a classic hurry up and wait. We started the ascent and a few seconds later, stopped.
The gender ratio on the cables was about 4:1 men to women. My suspicion is that men tend to over-rate their abilities when it comes to the cables whereas women under-rate their ability. Women seem to eliminate themselves due to fear of heights or lack of physical ability.
One guy had a lot of trouble on the ascent. He couldn't seem to get an traction with his feet and relying solely on arm strength to pull himself up. He also seemed to have trouble with his knee. That meant it took him about five minutes to move 15 feet. He kept apologizing profusely. I tried to encourage him to keep going. After about fifteen minutes of glacial pace, I decided to pass him and he was amenable. On the descent, panicked and fatigued hikers would simply lie down and rest at a wooden plank and not move for minutes. In many instances, it was inspiring to witness strangers cooperate, encourage, and support one another up and down the cables.
Being the Stoppage: I learned two lessons from the cables. First, doing this as a group really does help alleviate the fear of heights. You can focus on the person in front of you or focus on leading the group. Either way, you're thinking about the group and how you can do this together. Second, I realized in my journey as church planter and lead pastor, I've often been the stopped one. I'm the one stopping at a wooden post and unable to keep going. I'm the one holding up other people. I'm the one wracked by anxiety. I'm the one watching others pass me by. I'm the one profusely apologizing for my bad knee. I'm the one wondering why what's easy for others is so difficult for me. I'm the one that takes fifteen minutes to move fifteen feet. I'm the stoppage.
I hate being the stopped one. However, in crucial aspects of life that are far more important than navigating the Half Dome cables, that's exactly what I am. That's the reality I've been confronted over the past five years. It's the reality that's been knocking on my door my entire life but in this season, the front door has been rammed through.
It's a beautiful thing to be alive and unconditionally loved by God. The relentless grace of Jesus Christ reaches me - whether it takes me fifteen or fifty minutes to do the cables, whether I'm pushing 50 or just finished eighth grade, whether my knee disqualifies me from hiking at all. The grace of Jesus is present when I'm alone in my bed or when someone is climbing over me on a sheer granite face.
Because of that relentless love, the grace of Jesus also manifests in caring for one another and having a sense of humor to not take ourselves and others too seriously. The summit isn't that important. My favorite moments from my Half Dome trip had little to do with the summit itself but rather moments spent with the group. When I'm basking in the grace of Jesus, it empowers me to exhibit grace towards others. We're all the stoppage in an aspect of our lives and that's where the movement of God matters more than our movement.
The logjam of the Half Dome cables helped me see the beauty and tragedy of the human condition. We're all in this together, our actions affect one another in profound ways, there's tremendous variation in outcomes, and it's all a gorgeous mess. I'm excited to hike Half Dome in the future. I'll be better equipped for the crowd and more eager to help out and cooperate. I'll have more compassion on the slow and stopped ones. But don't get frustrated if I pass you just as I won't fret when you pass me.
You have your journey and I have mine.