Mt. San Jacinto Outdoor Recreation

Its rescue season
http://www.nps.gov/yose/blogs/Half-Dome ... ne-Day.htm

That story sounds like a classic case of "HWS" (hiking while stupid)

So the guy with "no cartilage in his knees" decided to hike Half Dome. Yep sounds like a good plan to me.

Having done that hike I can say you won't be needing knees on that one.

I just did the Mist Trail/Panorama/Four Mile trail a couple of days ago, and each time I do it I run into tons of good people who never suspected the stairs would be anywhere near that hard. They remind me of the stairs of Cirith Ungol. I can see how a guy would expect to make Half Dome and then find the stairs shattering his joints every step AFTER he has climbed and descended Half Dome! Poor fella, he made a good run of it. God bless YOSAR.

z

Good morning all! Zippitydude, you ALWAYS have a positive outlook on every situation, and give the poor guy in question the benefit of the doubt! I will take this attitude with me today and hopefully when someone (including myself) does something dumb I will cut them some slack!

Hi Sally! Thank you for your kind words. The truth is, I am so fallible that I have a hard time finding anyone with more faults than me. : ) And I was being serious about those stairs. While we've all done enough crazy stuff to more or less take them in stride, picture for a newbie hiker who is in great shape or an experienced hiker who has never seen such madness...it's a shock. I met a lady from Britain who was coming back down. "The way up is hard, but coming back down is terrifying!" was her description. Having gone both up and down the stairs, I think anyone would say that sticking to the up direction and coming out by way of Tuolumne or 4 mile trail is a better choice. Wild adventure to be had at every turn - that's what makes the wilderness so unpredictable and fun!

z