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Home » Adventure Blog » Yosemite Adventures » Page 2

June 24, 2016 By YExplore 4 Comments

Nobody Beats the Wizz

A Can O Peaches with CW, Kenny, & Wizz

By John P. DeGrazio

Nobody Beats the Wizz
Brotherly Love by John P. DeGrazio

Nobody Beats the Wizz

I stood with an outreached hand, “Great to meet you this morning. My name is John”.  The response was an extra firm handshake, a smile that lit the parking lot in the predawn hour of 5 am, and one word, “Wizz”. I finished making my introductions with Ken and Christian, then came back to the stocky former champion wrestler with the already magnetic personality. “I have ‘Richard’ on my sheet” I explained. Again, he flashed his pearly whites and said “Just call me Wizz”. Wizz it was. Of course, I immediately thought of the Seinfeld episode and whispered to myself “Nobody Beats the Wizz”.

For the next five plus hours, Wizz struggled his way up the 7.5 mile stretch of the Half Dome path. He lost his breath on the Mist Trail to Vernal Fall, bowed his head more than once on the Nevada Fall track, and then amazingly caught his second wind on the Beach. The Beach is a one mile stretch of flat sandy trail from the top of Nevada Fall to Little Yosemite Valley campground. Then, as if he was directed by sheer will and adrenaline, he powered his way through the next 3 miles which seemed to have taken its toll on his previously injured foot. Yet, every time I turned around, the smile was still there feeding energy and encouragement to the entire group.

Our team spent those hours sharing stories about, among other things, how the name Wizz was born. One of his early jobs was in the mail room at the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco. He had a Muir-like talent for maximizing efficiency and made several suggestions that were immediately adopted and developed into procedures for operation. Hence, the name Wiz kid was earned. Later it was just shortened to Wizz.

When we reached the base of the Sub Dome, I looked in Wizz’s eyes and asked him what he wanted to do. He shot me a look of dejection and decided it was best for the team if he stayed and rested while his brother Christian and their friend Kenny went for the summit. I sometimes try to add a little motivation but read him clearly at that point. We all knew what he said was true; however, I told him there’s no failure for making it up 4,000 feet and sitting at the base of a mountain less than 1% of all Yosemite visitors would ever dream of approaching. The smile reappeared, and we were on our way.

CW (that was Christian’s nickname) and Kenny were motivated to make the summit and were champions of the cables. CW was actually short for CW on Fire, and he brought fire and enthusiasm all day. Kenny was more reserved but no less determined to achieve this goal. The friends proudly posed for photos on the peak, and we all enjoyed our peaches and dark chocolate which was a gift from CW. Nearly an hour was spent on top, but our success was only a footnote to this story.

Yosemite-HalfDome-WCWKS-YExplore-DeGrazio-JUN2016-17We returned to the base of Sub Dome to see the ranger chatting with hikers. Wizz suddenly reappeared to give his little brother a BIG bear hug. His smile was infectious as always. Christian shared some of the harrowing details of our descent and seemed to momentarily collapse on the shoulder of his older brother during a period of healthy laughter. It was a cathartic release that I was able to magically capture before taking a photo for their dad with a “Happy Fathers Day” sign. It was obvious from the moment we met that Christian adored his older brother and relied on him as a source of positive energy and strength. This series of images was the realest portrayal of brotherhood I have ever witnessed.

Yosemite-HalfDome-WCWKS-YExplore-DeGrazio-JUN2016-18In that brief instant I thought of my own brothers and our missed opportunities in an uneven childhood. Witnessing these two men sharing that genuine moment of love and joy was my can o peaches and reaffirmed my earlier assertion that “Nobody Beats the Wizz!”

Also check out our hiker’s guide to half dome or our overview page over the half dome hike we offer.

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Filed Under: Adventure Blog, Yosemite Adventures

May 31, 2016 By YExplore Leave a Comment

Rock Climbing Yosemite Valley Guide Book

Rock Climbing Yosemite Valley Guide Book

Rock Climbing Yosemite Valley Guide Book

Erik Sloan is a very popular climber in Yosemite National Park. He is also a good friend and has led Yosemite hiking tours and Backpacking trips for YExplore. Erik has collaborated with other Yosemite expert climbers to author one of the most comprehensive Yosemite rock climbing guide books titled ” Rock Climbing Yosemite Valley 750 Best Free Routes.” Visit Rockclimbyosemite.com to order your copy now and receive a 25% discount. This is a premium guidebook with 432 full color pages complete with maps and photos from some of the best photographers in Yosemite today including Jimmy Chin and Corey Rich. This is sure to be the best selling rock climbing Yosemite Valley guide book on the market.

The authors of this book are Lucas Barth, Cary Bedinghaus, Marek Jakubowski, and Erik Sloan. Photography credits go to Jimmy Chin, Corey Rich, Adam Freund, Drew Smith, Samuel Crossley, Chris Edmands, Pep Soldevila, Dave N. Campbell, Gabriel Mann, and Austin Siadek.

Erik Sloan is also the co-author of “Yosemite Big Walls The Complete Guide”. He co-wrote that climbing guide book with Roger Putnam.

Follow us here to our article “out there” or take a look at our official gear guide.

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Filed Under: Yosemite Adventures

April 29, 2016 By YExplore Leave a Comment

A Hiker’s Guide to Half Dome in Yosemite National Park

Low Impact Tips for Hiking Half Dome

By John P. DeGrazio

Yosemite Half Dome Cook's Meadow
A Hiker’s Guide to Half Dome by John P. DeGrazio

Half Dome is the most popular hike in Yosemite National Park and one of the most sought after adventures on the planet. The demand for this hike is so great that the National Park Service began implementing a permit lottery system in 2011 to reduce extreme overcrowding of the trail. A large portion of the Half Dome trail is in Yosemite Wilderness. Having successfully led over 100 summit attempts of this epic journey, I would like to share a Hiker’s Guide to Half Dome in Yosemite National Park with some basic minimum impact guidelines to enjoying the wilderness from our partners at the Leave no Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics.

A Hiker’s Guide to Half Dome in Yosemite National Park

Hiking Half Dome requires a great deal of determination and stamina. If you are one of the lucky ones who have received a permit in the preseason lottery, you have probably begun your training. I highly recommend developing a routine of at least three days per week of cardio as well as some arm strengthening exercises if you have not already. To reach the summit of Half Dome, you will need to hike 16 miles roundtrip while gaining just about 5,000 feet of elevation. In case that wasn’t enough, you will be required to pull yourself up 600 feet of steel cables at the very end. That’s why the arm strengthening will be important. <Insider’s Tip> Do not rely solely on your arms while ascending the cables. Instead, drive off your legs. Sure, they will be tired at this point; but the taxing that your arms will receive will be far greater if you do not rely on your legs. There are more tips for a successful Half Dome summit on the YExplore Hike Half Dome page complete with a gear guide and safety video.

The cable route on Half Dome is expected to be open by May 16 this year. However, there is a possibility of delays since we have received a fair amount of snow at that elevation while storms continue to hit the Sierra Nevada throughout spring. Check the National Park Service website for updated Half Dome information. If you already have your permits, you are good to go. If you were unsuccessful, you may also acquire them through a secondary 48 hour lottery once the season begins.

Hikers Guide to Half Dome in collaboration with Leave no Trace

Leave No Trace is an organization that teaches outdoor ethics for minimal impact uses of our natural lands. It is an important concept to understand. Everyone wants to enjoy nature, but we all can use some education on how to enjoy these beautiful parks and wild lands more responsibly. I have established a much stronger connection to Yosemite since I have been practicing these Leave no Trace ethics and truly enjoy sharing them with visitors from around the world. This summer I will be speaking at several venues on a topic I titled “Fostering Yosemite Stewardship in the Digital Age”, I will be making an appearance at the Sierra Ecosummit on June 11 in Groveland, CA and will speak at REI stores in the Bay Area in September.

Leave No Trace has seven simple common sense ethics to follow. Each is listed below followed by suggested applications to your Half Dome hike.

Know Before you go This is the first rule of any outdoor activity. It’s such a wide ranging topic, but I will share some highlights. First, do your homework. Research the hike, nutrition guidelines, and fitness routines. Make sure you let a friend or family member know your plans and also be certain to check in with a ranger when you arrive in Yosemite. Finally, be sure to pack the right gear. Most importantly, hydrate before the hike and stay hydrated all day, Summer months are hot and dry in the Sierra. Dehydration is one of the last things you want to deal with on this hike.

Choose the right path Yosemite Trail crews spend a lot of time constructing and repairing trails. Please show respect to them and other hikers by staying on trails. Please do not shortcut trails. It causes erosion and also kills the wildflowers and other plant life that struggles to grow in the higher elevation of the Half Dome trail.

Trash your trash Please make sure to pack out any items you pack in. This includes any biodegradable items such as orange peels and apple cores. Although they will eventually decompose, it will take much longer in higher elevations. Also, by leaving this fruit behind, you are introducing a non-natural food source to the wildlife. Other items to consider disposing properly are fruit stickers, corners of wrappers, tissues, and band-aids. I recommend carrying a small bag to trash every item as you consume your calories for the day. Finally, one of the biggest trash problems on Half Dome is the pile of gloves left behind for other hikers. This unwanted trash pile grows almost as high as Sub Dome by the end of summer, and many of them wind up in the stomachs of marmots and squirrels. At last year’s Yosemite Facelift, we removed several full bags of gloves from the cables that weighed hundreds of pounds. Please take them back down the mountain with you.

Leave what you find If you see a beautiful flower, you will want to take a photo of it instead of wearing it in your hair for all to see as you ascend the cables. It’s also a bad idea to take rocks from Half Dome. It’s important for everyone to have the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this place. The more we remove, the less there is for others to experience. Finally, please do not build rock piles known as cairns on the trails or Half Dome itself. Many people think they are helping by placing them, but even the slightest miscalculation in placement can lead someone down a wrong trail or even off a cliff. I’ve knocked over several misplaced cairns on Sub Dome that pop up all the time and lead hikers dangerously closer to the edge of the rock than they need to be. This has become an issue on the summit as people believe they are “beautifying” nature. Leaving your mark is overrated. Let nature do the work, just enjoy it.

Respect wildlife This is also an easy one to follow. If you stow your trash in a bag in your pack, you are letting wild animals find their own food which is the way nature intended it to be. Please don’t feed squirrels and marmots. Also make sure to zip up your unattended packs and don’t leave them below the cables. I have seen countless backpacks ruined and food stashes lost because they were raided by enterprising squirrels and marmots.

Be careful with fire Please never light a fire on the summit of Half Dome. It is illegal and unsafe.

Be kind to others Unfortunately, this is becoming the most controversial topic of discussion while hiking in nature. When we are in wilderness, we need to realize that what may sound reasonable to you is not reasonable to others. If you like to receive motivation from your music, that does not mean everyone around you would like to as well. Please use your headphones while hiking. Many around you would like to hear the sounds of nature. Bluetooth speakers are not advisable on any hike. There are so many hikers on this trail with diverse taste in music, and what sounds good to you likely will not sound good to others who are trying to share this wilderness experience.

Other ways to be kind to others on the trail is to practice good etiquette like letting the uphill hiker have the right of way and to avoid attempting to pass someone in a narrow or dangerous section of the trail. Practice patience and spend an extra minute to take in the scenery. Finally, my last advice is another <Insider’s Tip> Please use the cables wisely. There are two cables spaced out about four feet apart. It is designed to allow people to ascend and descend at the same time. Unfortunately, these cables become very congested at times, even with the new permit system. Safe passage requires patience from everyone involved. We always recommend getting accustomed to using only one of the cables while ascending. Using the right cable allows the descending hikers an opportunity to safely return to Sub Dome without delay. I have seen many people try to pull themselves up both cables at the same time and can assuredly state this method is not as efficient as using the right cable only. You will not burn out your forearms as quickly and you will attain self sufficiency which means you will not have to rely on waiting for the left cable to become free from others who will be descending. Additionally, it causes extended delays for everyone on the cables. This is no fun when you are stuck in the middle section of the climb which is the steepest. Think about this on a crowded summer day when the cables are full. It should typically take about 15 to 20 minutes to go up or down when everyone is using their own cable. Unfortunately, we have been stuck on the cables for over 45 minutes simply because some hikers do not wish to consider the other hikers. This, of course, is not unreasonable at 8,800 feet above sea level. However, it is something to consider before you begin your hike.

YExplore has produced a safety video on Sub Dome and the Cables that you can watch here:

Half Dome Permits Available From YExplore:

As you may know, YExplore offers guided Half Dome hikes. Below are dates we currently have available and would be happy to help you achieve your goal.

Half Dome day hike permits available: 2017 dates will be announced in mid April.

Half Dome 2 Day/1 Night Backpack Trip permits available: 2017 dates will be announced starting in December.

4 Day/3 Night Backpack Trip with Half Dome Permit: 2017 dates will be announced starting in December.

Thank you and have a safe hike everyone. Always remember to enjoy your Can O Peaches on the summit.

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Filed Under: Fostering Yosemite Stewardship, Safety Tips, Yosemite Adventures, Yosemite Weekly Photo Updates

February 4, 2016 By YExplore 2 Comments

YExplore Celebrates 10 Years in Yosemite National Park

Help Us Celebrate Our 10 Year Anniversary 
By John P. DeGrazio 
YExplore-10-Year-Logo
YExplore celebrates 10 years in Yosemite National park. Photo by John P. DeGrazio

I have always been fond of the number ten. It’s the title of my favorite album by one of my favorite groups of all time, Pearl Jam. 10 was also the number worn by New York Yankees first baseman Chris Chambliss whose 1976 ALCS walkoff home run is still one of my favorite early childhood memories. And most recently, my daughter and I celebrated her 10th birthday on the summit of Half Dome which is the subject of my Yosemite 100 Year Ambassador story on the Yosemite National Park website. Now, the company I founded is also ten years old. As I look back on the last decade, I can recall reaching hundreds of summits while hiking thousands of miles of trails and sharing countless memories. As I look to the future, I think of all the new opportunities for adventure and conservation that await me on this most epic journey.

Africa-Kilimanjaro-Summit-Laizer
Olotumi Laizer leads his group to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro

One of the adventures we are planning is a Mt. Kilimanjaro summit trek and African wildlife safari with some of our friends from Yosemite. Olotumi Laizer will be our lead as Tanzania is his native land, and he has led this summit dozens of times. Also joining us will be Glen Young who leads many of our trips in Yosemite. Glen is also an international climbing guide who has been on top of many peaks on several continents. We will also be joined by Jeff Mitchum, an award winning photographer I met on a Half Dome expedition. Although we didn’t reach the summit that day (we didn’t attempt it), I was honored to be invited to join Jeff on the successful completion of his quest to make his celebrated “Range of Light” image from the the real Diving Board.

This will be an amazing trip of a lifetime, and for a limited time, we are offering a $400 discount to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Anyone who enters the code YEXPLORE10 will receive the discount if they book the trip by February 29, 2016. I hope to see you on our journey. I am really looking forward to this expedition.

Once again, I would just like to take a moment to thank every for helping make this day possible. I believe reaching ten years is an amazing accomplishment, and I look forward to the next decade of adventure!

Check out our YExplore In the News Page for articles featuring our local Yosemite small business. You may also like to read: https://www.yexplore.com/yexplore-on-npr-marketplace-january-2016/.

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Filed Under: Global Adventures, YExplore In the News, Yosemite Adventures

January 28, 2016 By YExplore Leave a Comment

Half Dome #119 Peaches with Mia

My Yosemite Ambassador Story 
By John P. DeGrazio 

2016-NPSCentennial-logo-lg2016 marks the Centennial Anniversary of the National Park Service. When I first learned of the Yosemite Ambassador program to celebrate this anniversary, I was highly impressed with the group of athletes, musicians, and local personalities who were selected. I was profoundly happy for my good friend Les Marsden who is the founder and conductor of the Mariposa Symphony Orchestra. There is no better representative of Yosemite than Les who has masterfully written symphonic poems celebrating the Yosemite Anniversaries that the symphony has been performing at free concerts throughout the Yosemite region.

Shortly after the first group of ambassadors were unveiled, I was approached by Yosemite National Park Superintendent Don Neubacher to join this group and help represent Yosemite during the yearlong celebration. I was chosen as a result of my involvement in a volunteer group called the Yosemite Gateway Partners. My heart jumped, and so did I at the opportunity to foster goodwill in the place I love so deeply. One of my first duties as a Yosemite ambassador was to share a story about my connection to Yosemite. There were so many to choose from, but I decided to recall a recent adventure with my daughter Mia who wanted to hike to the top of Half Dome before her tenth birthday.

Mia spent much of her young life hiking the trails of Yosemite. Most of them were fairly easy. Relatively easy would be more accurate. Every time we would see Half Dome on one of our hikes, which was often, I would ask her if she ever want to hike to the summit with me. “No!”, “never!!”, and “no way!!!” were just some of her responses. But then, one day, there was a transformation in her attitude toward adventure. She was nine, and we were in Zion National Park. I brought her to Angels Landing for a morning challenge up the chains. She was excited but became frightened. I was able to coach her through that experience, and although she was never comfortable on the landing, her desire for adventure grew exponentially that day. On the hike down, she mentioned that she was interested in Half Dome. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing so I feigned excitement.

After a few training hikes that Mia successfully completed, we were ready for our big Half Dome hike together. We packed our gear the night before, and I was certain to include peaches and chocolate in our lunch. Peaches have played a significant role on just about every summit journey I have made ever since a 1997 climb of Mt. Rainier. I met a kind woman at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport who shared a story of her Rainier summit and the reward she chose. When she packed a can of peaches in her backpack, her guide immediately removed it for its weight. She later secretly repacked it and unveiled it on the peak for a shared treat whose sweetness outweighed any of the struggle to carry it to the top. That story has always resonated with me, and I live by her words every day. It’s also why I call this blog the Can O Peaches.

Yosemite-Mia-HalfDome-YExplore-APR2015
John and Mia DeGrazio on the Half Dome Summit.

Mia and I began our journey in the predawn hours under a blood moon. We arrived at the John Muir Trail ready for our ultimate expedition. I have spent many trips standing by the Happy Isles Bridge preparing my groups for the Half Dome hike, but this was a unique opportunity I’ll never forget. She was attentive and ready to go. The photo above is proof of a successful journey, but the rest of this story is shared on my Official Yosemite Ambassador Page of the Yosemite National Park website. Click here to view our overview of the Half Dome Hikes.

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Filed Under: A Hundred Half Domes, Adventure Blog, YExplore In the News, Yosemite Adventures

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