Yosemite (Part 4): My journey to El Capitan
It’s taken me to the final post of this series to get to the most important part – the climbing! Friends of the blog have seen my passion for this sport evolve over the three-plus years since Legally Fit first launched. What began as a hobby that I started just three months before my first blog post has become the focus of one of my biggest ambitions yet. My progress in climbing came quickly at first, allowing me to imagine endless possibilities. But I later learned that progress is not linear. At times I thought I should be much further advanced than I was. At others, I was beyond what I expected. The fact that this evolution occurs more often by failing than succeeding is why it’s good to try to fail big in climbing. So, why not try to “fail big wall?”
Yosemite (Part 3): Half Dome — A twist of fate
Of all the activities in Yosemite, the one that gets the most attention online is the hike up Half Dome. A social media favorite, it is often labeled as “One of the most dangerous hikes in the US,” and largely contributed to how it landed on my bucket list. But, as I wrote in Part 1 of this series, it appeared as if hiking Half Dome was not meant to be on my trip to the park this year. You see, the hike requires a permit, and I learned in April that I was not selected for one in the lottery. The only other ways to do it would be via a daily lottery or by taking the chance of hiking up to Sub Dome where permits are checked and hoping to find someone with an extra spot on theirs who will bring you along. But as I approached my Yosemite trip, I spent countless hours with ChatGPT perfecting an itinerary that almost certainly did not leave time to spend a day taking that chance. I had two rest days baked in that I would very likely need among my four climbing days and the nighttime hike up Cloud’s Rest for sunrise. Sure, I still brought the gear I would need for Half Dome – since I bought it before I found out I didn’t land a permit – but that was only in the event fate stepped in.