A very interesting article on ArsTechnica. But even more, a great comment by user Cadallin:
Also, and this is really a personal judgment call, if it turns out that we cause our own extinction through an honest effort to learn more about the Universe, well I’d count that as a whole lot better than any of the other competing methods for Humanity’s suicide.
That is just brilliant.
For geeks only… check this link.
June 13, 2009, around noon. 2700 meters, 1400 up from Yosemite Valley and a 13 km hike.
Yosemite National park, June 12 and 13, 2009. Both Friday and Saturday it was cloudy, but that didn’t bother me too much, as I’d get a bad sunburn otherwise. Friday I took it without hurry as I was tired from the conference, so I saw the Lower Falls, then left the village for Glacier point around 11:30 and reached the top a couple of hours later. A lot of nice spots along the way, so I took a good amount of pictures.
I wasn’t too tired there, so I decided to go up to Sentinel dome, another 40 minutes or so. The view over there is 360 degrees and is really great. I didn’t want to get too tired in view of the following day, so I spent another hour back at Glacier Point and got down in the late afternoon.
Saturday: Half Dome. I left the hotel at 5:30am as suggested by the Rangers, and by 6:40am I was on my way to Vernal Falls. That alone is worth the visit… I arrived at the sub dome, the last rocky part before the scary climb, at 11:20am and stopped a lot of times to take pictures. The sub dome is a great spot, and the cables to the top were crowded, so I stayed about 20 minutes. I should probably have waited more to get used to less oxygen…
It was cloudy but not raining, so I got on the cables with the intention to never look down, and realized in a few minutes that it’s really steep (no, really). The climb is 45 degrees, and it took me almost 45 minutes to get to the top, and I was panting almost all the way up as I probably was lacking oxygen. The last 10 minutes my finger felt so cold that some of them lost sensitivity. It’s tough, but doable if you are trained and well equipped (boots and a rope with carabiners, just in case… I had running shoes).
Anyway, I was on top (proof above…) at 12:30 and spent there half an hour (probably more but I was a little mesmerized and tired…). I took only a few pictures as it was cloudy, then decided to go down.
All went smooth for 10 minutes, then there was (fine) hail for 20 minutes and people slowed down in front of me. The second half was worse. Some light rain made the granite a little slippery, and I was gripping the cables trying not to panic… I was almost at the end when I felt my hands weary and had to stop to make them rest for a couple of minutes, then slowly got down. It started raining and I had no coat, so I quickly went down to the Valley and was in the car around 5pm, tired and happy. Here are the pictures.