Last month Yosemite National Park announced a new permit system for weekend climbs of Half Dome. Today they opened up the reservation site for preview (it is not active yet – the reservation window opens on March 1). Check it out here.
There is also a screenshot-heavy instructional pdf available here, for those who need lots of hand holding (hey, I’ve been there).
So, who is taking bets about how quickly the system crashes on March 1?
When registration for the second annual Levi Leipheimer Gran Fondo bike ride opened, the server crashed in under two minutes. It took them quite a while to get it up and running again.
Isn’t this the same website that handles campground reservations for the summer months? My vote is on smooth sailing server-wise, and I think the big disappointments will be for the people from Kentucky who planned their whole August vacation around hiking Half Dome on a Saturday, and didn’t hear they needed a permit.
I spoke to a ranger a couple weeks ago. He said backpackers will need Half Dome permits but will not fall under the quota system and may pick up Half Dome permits when they get their wilderness permits. We’re coming through from Yolo in August and he said we’d be considered through-hikers and wouldn’t fall under the quota system either but didn’t yet know how or where we would get our Half Dome permits. He said I was the first caller with that question. Has anybody heard how this situation will be handled?