The Access Fund, an organization that helps to protect crag and climbing area access, released a statement regarding the future Merced River Plan, which will affect significant amounts of climbing in Yosemite National Park.


"We need your help to influence the latest Merced River Plan, which could restrict climbing access and camping in Yosemite Valley, depending on how the Park prepares its new revised user capacity program. At issue is access to iconic climbs including those found on The Rostrum, Cookie Cliff, and Middle Cathedral Rock (everything ¼ mile on either side of the river). This plan will also affect all travel through the management area to locations just outside the river corridor, which brings into play all climbing in Yosemite Valley including El Capitan and even Half Dome. Another consequence of this litigation is the increased likelihood that camping will become even more scarce while the number of lodging units remains largely unchanged.

Please write Yosemite National Park by February 4 and support the preservation of climbing access in the Valley! With our easy-to-use letter writing tool, it only takes two minutes to make your voice heard.

Thanks for your support

Your Friends at the Access Fund"


The Merced River and Liberty Bell

Also, the National Park Service has issued a notice requiring permits for weekend Half Dome hikers. This permit system affects hikers mostly as NPS stated, "Rock climbers who reach the top of Half Dome without entering the subdome area can descend on the Half Dome Trail without a permit." Those who top out Snake Dike or the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome will not require a permit.

Read the comments Jesse McGahey, The Yosemite Climbing Ranger and Liason, made regarding the permit system on Supertopo.com.



Half Dome Hiking Permits

Permits to hike to the top of Half Dome are now required on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and federal holidays when the cables are up. This is an interim measure to increase safety along the cables while the park develops a long-term plan to manage use on the Half Dome Trail.

Beginning in 2010, all people using the Half Dome Trail above the subdome must have a permit in possession on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and federal holidays when the cables are up. A maximum of 400 permits will be issued each of these days. (Before the permit system, fewer than 400 people used this trail on weekdays, while about 800 people used this trail on weekends and holidays, on average.)

In 2010, permits are available up to about four months in advance to one week in advance only through the National Recreation Reservation Service. Permits are not available in the park or on a first-come, first-served basis. Demand for permits will be very high; availability may last only a matter of minutes on the first day permits become available.

Note: Backpackers with an appropriate wilderness permit can receive a Half Dome permit when they pick up their wilderness permit with no additional reservation required. Rock climbers who reach the top of Half Dome without entering the subdome area can descend on the Half Dome Trail without a permit.

The Half Dome Cables are usually in place and available for use the third Friday in May, conditions permitting. The last day to use them usually is Columbus Day Monday. We can not guarantee the cables will be available on any given date. If you choose to get a permit for dates in May or October, there is an increased chance the cables will not be in place.

If you are unable to hike Half Dome for any reason (including weather, cables not available, illness, etc.) on the day you have a permit, we will not be able to provide a permit for a different date.

Labels: Access Fund, NPS, Yosemite Access

Cathedral Peak's Southwest Face (5.6) is one of the most popular rock climbers in the Sierras. An ascent requires a long, but beautfiul drive to Tuoulumne Meadows, followed by an hour and a half hike to the base. First climbed by John Muir in 1869, the peak now sees hundreds of ascents every from early spring to late fall. In an attempt to keep the area pristine, the Yosemite Climbing Rangers are enacting a restoration program. Check out the details of the program that Jake Whittaker, one of the new climbing rangers, wrote up.



This fall, NPS has started restoration of the base and approach/descent of Cathedral Peak. Over the last decade, the number of ascents of the peak has increased substantially. This has resulted in nearly infinite trail braiding, loss of vegetation, erosion problems, and a general look of stampeded devastation at the base of the peak.

The project has begun to establish ONE trail for approach and descent of Cathedral Peak from the Budd Creek drainage. We are all going to have to make a point of using this trail for restoration of the area to be possible. It’s possible that the chosen route isn’t the way any one person usually goes, or what any one person thinks is best, or the way any one person thinks is fastest. However, after study by numerous climbers, restoration ecologists, and trail workers, it has been chosen for its minimum impact on vegetation, its durability, and its efficiency.

For all you speed demons chucking fitness laps on Cathedral, we even timed different ways, and the chosen route is as fast as any…and will presumably be even more efficient after a bit of work. Regardless, wilderness is not a venue for competition, and we should all be willing to use the healthiest route for the place.

So…I’ll attempt to describe the route to you all, so everyone has a general idea of the plan until the trail becomes more delineated. Towards the end of the approach, after finally leaving Budd Creek for good, there has been one major fork. Although the right variation seemed to point straight at the peak, left is the better way to go. It avoids several loose talus fields and never gets as steep and difficult…it also brings you directly to the usual start of the Southeast Buttress, whereas the right fork can easily lead you too far right, if not halfway up the descent. We’ve attempted to block off the right fork and begin rehab of that end of the trail…so hopefully the left fork is already more obvious.

When descending from the peak, after scrambling down the slabs, traversing around and along the East Ridge, and popping over the saddle, please stay as close to the base of the peak as possible. Follow the fringe of the peak back to the start of the route, and hike back down the trail you approached on. Please don’t veer left at any point in an attempt to shortcut straight back to your car…this is what has caused most of the damage over the years, since someone has now headed out left at every imaginable point, creating the extremely noticeable stampede devastation effect.

A trail crew has already started working on the project, and will continue working up there for a portion of the next two summers (probably late August through October). They’re going to do the minimum amount of work, by hand, to delineate and stabilize the trail, and restore the damaged areas. They’re not going to cut any branches or damage any vegetation. The trail will not become an officially maintained trail. This is a restoration project, and a restoration and re-vegetation crew will also be working on the project to reestablish vegetation and natural conditions over the next couple summers.



A few carabiner posts will be necessary, at least at first, to keep people headed in the right direction. "Restoration Area" signs will also be necessary to block off the damaged zones. Hopefully most of these can be removed in a few years as the route becomes known and accepted, and the area starts to recover.

Thanks for reading and for helping the amazing Cathedral Peak area!

-Jake Whittaker, Yosemite Climbing Ranger

Labels: Cathedral Peak, Jake Whittaker, NPS

Around noon on Wednesday, a major rock slide came off from the Royal Arches area of Yosemite National Park. The falling rocks, some of which reached microwave oven sizes, tumbled down and neared the Awahnee hotel. There were no injuries but the hotel was evacuated as a precaution and will remain empty until Friday. It is unknown what, if any, climbing routes the rock fall affected.



Dust from the afternoon rockfall obscured the view of Half Dome



The faint red line shows where the rockfall likely came from.


The Modest Bee wrote a brief story on the slide as did The New York Times

Also, Highway 120 into Yosemite Valley is currently closed due to a prescribed fire that escaped. The Big Oak Flat Road is closed from Highway 140 to Crane Flat and the Foresta road into the community of Foresta. There is no estimated time for the road to re-open. Highway 120 from Big Oak Flat entrance station is open to Crane Flat, on to Tuolumne Meadows, and Highway 395. Park firefighters are working hard to contain the blaze which has burned approximately 1,170 acres.

For more information check out NPS webpage regarding the fire.

Labels: NPS, Rockfall, Yosemite Fires