As part of my slight freaking out about halfdome, I’ve been doing the stairmaster at the gym this week. On monday, I did it for 45 imnutes straight and it told me I climbed 1900 feet. Today I did it for 30 min and said I climed about 1200 feet. I think the total elevation gain is about 4800 feet, so I think I can probably handle that with interspersed rest times.
The only other part is the distance.. which is roughly 16-17 miles round trip. I know I’ve probably walked about 100 new york city blocks in a day before.. So at 6blocks per mile, that should be just about right. Now combining the two… who knows. And then there’s the relatively thinner air up there. I guess it would have helped to go on a 10 mile hike or so, just so that I know what to expect.
Anyways, worst case scenario is I don’t make it to the top, and just turn back early. I guess that would suck somewhat, but it should still be pretty fun. Luckily, there won’t be too much second guessing myself trying to decide if and when to turn back.. the guideline will be pretty much: where am I at 1pm? If I’m not at the top, then there’s probably no way I’ll make it to the top and then make it back down to the bottom in time for the sun going down. So it’ll be more of, just make it as far as I can by 1pm.