I’ve pretty much decided that I have to climb Half Dome on my thru-hike this summer, but I’ve just been looking at some pictures of the view from Cloud’s Rest and I have to say that even through pictures my breath is nearly taken away. My question is, if you only had time to climb one which would it be? Half Dome or Cloud’s Rest?
zacariah
they are both great hikes, and if you are in thru-hiker condition you can do them both in a day easily. have fun!
smack
i too would do them both in one day. you could plan a short 1st day and camp on the half dome trail. then get up early do half dome before crowds on the cables. then go over clouds rest and take the trail the other side of clouds rest that goes to sunrise high sierra camp and back to the JMT.
jerm
Thank you all for the advice. By taking the Cloud’s Rest trail to the sunrise high sierra camp would I be missing out on much or is the cloud’s rest trail even more scenic than that section of the JMT? The more I think about it the more I want to do both peaks but I’d like to try to avoid backtracking on the cloud’s rest trail if I can.
zacariah
let me go get my maps, i’ll be right back…
…alright, i’m back. i don’t think you would miss anything by skipping the JMT b/w the split for clouds rest and sunrise high sierra camp. by getting back on the trail at sunrise you will NOT miss any of the well known mtns like: columbia finger, echo, cathedral, or matthes. all the great mtns to see are after the high sierra camp. i don’t recall anything to write home about after passing the split for half dome until after sunrise. granted it was in the rain, cold, and up hill!
jerm
Agreeing with jerm, not that the JMT isn’t pretty, but you won’t miss anything you’d regret if you did Cloud’s Rest instead of the JMT. Sunrise camp and the area north of there is great though.
Note that if you’re not in great backpacking condition, doing Half Dome and Cloud’s Rest in one day and making it to Sunrise camp is a tough, long day. It’s worth it though.
markv
Starting from Happy Isles Trailhead and hiking to the top of Half Dome, going back down the spur trail, then hiking up to Clouds Rest and then hiking to Sunrise Camp, is about 22.2 miles, with a 5,900 ft elevation gain. That is one pretty tough day. My advice is if you want to climb both, start at Happy Isles and hike to the top of Half Dome, and hike just past the spur trail to Clouds Rest on the JMT and camp just north along Sunrise Creek. Then hike up to Clouds Rest and then up Sunrise Camp. However, if you are going the opposite direction, meaning starting at Sunrise Camp and finishing at Happy Isles Trailhead, then doing both in one day is far more possible to do both. But still a tough day. I have day hiked out of Tenya Lake and hiked over both in one day, but you wait for a couple of hours to climb the cables up to Half Dome. Good Luck.
Trihiker
Yeah I really wouldn’t want to attempt both peaks and try to make it to sunrise camp on the first day of the thru-hike. That would be too much. I’m thinking of maybe hiking from Happy Isles to somewhere near the base of Half Dome and then camp there for the night and get up early to hike Half Dome before the crowds show up then continuing on to Clouds Rest and possibly camp at Sunrise Lakes. I know you are supposed to have a permit to camp on the Cloud’s rest trail but does anyone know if you have to have on to camp at Sunrise Lakes? Thanks for all your feedback it’s a big help in planning this.
zacariah
I climbed Half Dome in '06 on day 1, and plan to hike to the summit of Clouds Rest in '08, taking the Clouds Rest Trail to Sunrise Camp. I figure it’ll be nice to see some new scenery.
JH
On our hike, one of our party left early and climbed Half Dome on the first day and camped with us at the Cloud’s Rest junction. The next morning, he climbed Cloud’s Rest and we doubled back and climbed Half Dome. At 7:45 a.m. on a Sunday morning the cables on Half Dome were almost empty. All of us returned to camp about the same time (about three hours later), we then hiked to a creek 1/2 mile before Sunrise Camp (we had heard Sunrise was thick with mosquitoes and wanted to avoid them, which we didn’t).
This leads me to speculate on an alternative plan. On day one hike to the Cloud’s Rest junction (It’s the first reliable water source after Little Yosemite Valley). Leave your gear there and do a round trip ascent of Cloud’s Rest. The next morning, double back to climb Half Dome before the crowds arrive, then hike on to Sunrise Camp.
Snowball
I hiked the JMT last Sept, did half dome and continued. You won’t miss anything great between Half Dome and Sunrise camp on the JMT. I would recommend doing Cloud’s Rest as well. Besides, the scenery keeps getting better as you head south so that small section of the JMT that you’d miss won’t seem important. Have a great hike.
weez
Starting from Camp Curry at 6am, I climbed both summits this past Saturday in ~11h, 26.1 miles round trip, and about 9K+ ft elevation gain. Tiring, but thoroughly satisfying.
Bo Stern