Standard descent of half dome when cables are down?

Ice sheets/mini ice avalanches could take out the poles if left up.

Descending the cables when down is doable, but as mentioned above not much fun and a bit sketch. I don't remember being too terrified but we did it in the dark so I probably just didn't know how scary it really was. :)

Max R                 ·         13 hours ago        · Well i mean... their intention is to keep dumb tourist hikers from wandering up it to their death. Which i think takes priority.

Never thought about it like that,  make sense thanks for the insight Max...…..   then I guess climbers lives don't matter    ........ hum sounds like a new tee shirt......LOL  god knows we cant all be responsible for our own actions. I do think you are correct you have solved an old mystery for me.  

Lon Harter wrote: Never thought about it like that,  make sense thanks for the insight Max...…..   then I guess climbers lives don't matter    ........ hum sounds like a new tee shirt......LOL  god knows we cant all be responsible for our own actions. I do think you are correct you have solved an old mystery for me.  

If one is capable of getting UP a mountain without a ladder it seems to reason that one should be able to get down it without a ladder. Climbers use the cables as a convenience, because they're there, but if the NPS removed the entire cable setup tomorrow it's not like climbers would stop doing Half-dome. 

Marcelo wrote: Snake HIKE is a completely over hyped climb.  

Not at all.  It's a classic in every sense.  Think of it as a peak, not a crag.  I'd say March is iffy, but the season may cooperate and you might get lucky.  I won't travel there just in the hopes of doing that, but if you have a plan B you can get there and assess accordingly.  

Pictures from 2/9.  Super dry year, almost no snow in Little Yosemite valley, the mist trail was open despite saying it was closed on the website.

Winds were howling 40+ MPH that day, so I called it before reaching the actual cables.