The Cables

The Cables are the last obstacle between hikers and the summit of Half Dome: two parallel steel cables bolted into bare granite, strung with wooden cross-boards for footing, covering roughly the final 400 feet of the climb. It's the single most talked-about stretch of trail in Yosemite, and for good reason — the rock here is steep and exposed, with nothing to hold onto except those cables.

Permit required, every day the cables are up

You cannot ascend the subdome steps or the cables themselves without a valid permit, seven days a week, for the entire season. The National Park Service issues them through two lotteries on Recreation.gov: a preseason lottery that runs throughout March (results announced mid-April), and a smaller daily lottery two days before each hiking date for last-minute openings. Applying costs a non-refundable $10, and each awarded permit carries an additional $10 per person.

Season and approach

The cables typically go up the Friday before Memorial Day and come down the day after Columbus Day — roughly late May through mid-October — though exact dates shift each year with snowpack and weather. Reaching them is a full day in itself: the round-trip hike from Yosemite Valley runs 14 to 16 miles with about 4,800 feet of elevation gain, most of it before you even reach the subdome's granite stairs.

Safety on the cables

• Bring gloves — the steel wears rough on bare hands, and most hikers grab a pair from the informal pile left at the base by others.
• The National Park Service notes that most documented accidents on the cables happened when the rock was wet or icy — turn back if there's any chance of rain or a thunderstorm.
• Start early. Afternoon storms build fast over the high country, and there's no quick way down once you're committed to the cables.