August 10, 2010

Half Dome

Ever since getting married, I have had people tell me about how lucky I am to have Tom Kinnier as my father-in-law.  I typically agree with them.  However, on this particular morning, I was feeling quite grumpy towards him when I was awakened at 4:30 by a bright light illuminating his far too chipper face.
I had been pondering throughout this backpacking trip if you could actually consider what we were doing a vacation.  On this morning, I came to my conclusion.  This was not a vacation.
 However, I did come to realize that what we were about to do was worth every second of lost sleep, and my admiration for my father-in-law was restored.
(I'm still debating the whole backpacking is a vacation thing though.)

Half Dome was 
UNBELIEVABLE!
I had no concept of how steep the climb up half dome was until I saw it in person.
We took these pictures here before we found the "diving board" at the top of Half Dome.  Once we found it, we had to take a whole bunch more pictures.
I know that my arabesque is not quite as beautiful in this picture as the first one.  This spot was just SLIGHTLY more dangerous than that first spot, so I was feeling a little more timid about how high I placed my leg.  And I was pretty much yelling at Nick to get off the ledge the entire time I was taking pictures of him there.
Climbing Half Dome was probably one of the most exhilarating things I have ever done.  And I am so glad we did it as early as we did, because it got absurdly hot and crowded as the day went on.


4 comments:

  1. number one: my palms are sweating looking at those pictures of you on the edge... i'm deathly afraid of heights.

    number two: you sure look chic hiking in your bedazzled hat

    number three: I love your father-in-law's chipper face. too too funny.

    what an awesome trip.

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  2. WOW. I'm a bit jealous (but glad to have two feet on the ground). The blue sky is so intense!

    We're off to Vermont with Derek's family next week-four generations. We won't have adventures like you though.

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  3. Tom Kinnier responding here--the "chipper" one. I thought there was some unusually frigid gusts coming from your side of the camp that morning. I didn't realize they were intended to be personal. The whole family should be glad I didn't wake them up when I woke up like I said I was going to--11:32 . . . 12:32 . . 1:32 . . . 2:32 . . . 3:32. I was rearin' to go each time but knew I might face mutiny. Night time trip next time?

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  4. Mindy, those pictures are insane!
    This makes me want to go to Yosemite so bad and climb half dome. Ahhhh...a must right?

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