NO DOGS — Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California
Score: 60/100 — Use Caution
27°F at the dome this morning. Feels like 18°F. Wind at 6mph with gusts to 6 — quiet on paper, but standing on a granite slab at 8,842 feet at sub-freezing temperatures has its own kind of weight. AQI is 35, Good. No fires within 50km — nearest is far enough out to not factor.
The score is 60 today and the algorithm is correct. Half Dome is in its pre-cable shoulder window, and that 60 is generous to anyone considering attempting it. But the forecast gets interesting fast: 70 tomorrow, 88 Wednesday, 100 by Thursday and holding through the weekend. If you are training for a cable-route summit attempt this season, the next ten days are when you start your conditioning hikes on the approach.
Kipper is not coming. Yosemite National Park does not allow dogs on trails — it's a hard line, no exceptions. I do not write Half Dome with my dog at home and no other angle. I write it as a photographer and as someone who has run the lottery four times in seven years. Today is the day to talk about planning, not summiting.
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The Calendar Reality
Cables go up around May 24, 2026 (Memorial Day weekend, give or take a few days based on snowpack and rope crew availability). They come down around mid-October. Outside of that window, Half Dome is technically still climbable but you are doing it as a Class 5 free-climb on the cable bolts without the cables themselves, which is a completely different sport that requires actual climbing experience and gear.
So today, April 28, you are 26 days from the cables going up. If you have a permit for May 24-31, you are in the most aggressive window — early-season cable conditions, often with residual snow patches in the upper sub-dome and on the cable route itself, and the highest probability of weather windows being narrow.
If you got a lottery permit for June or July, congratulations — those are the meat of the season and the conditions are usually optimal. Permit results came back mid-April. You either know already or you should check your application status today.
If you did not get a permit, you have two real options: the daily lottery (more on that below) or June/July cancellations on Recreation.gov, which appear sporadically as people who got permits realize they cannot make the trip.
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Why the Score Is 60 and What That Actually Means Today
The score reflects current trail conditions, not the cable status. The trail to Sub Dome is technically open year-round and people do hike it without summit ambitions. Today's 60 is driven by:
- Temperature. 27°F at trail elevation, which means significantly colder at the summit. Hands and faces in 6mph wind at sub-freezing temps is a real exposure factor even on a clear day.
- Snow patches. Mist Trail at the lower section is below the snow line, but anything above Nevada Fall (5,989 ft) likely still has shaded snow patches that haven't melted out yet. Vernal and Nevada Falls themselves are at peak flow right now from snowmelt and the granite around them is wet, which on a 27°F morning means ice.
- Sub Dome. The 400-foot granite dome before the cable route is steep and exposed. Without cables, even the rangers don't recommend casual hikers attempt the section at this time of year unless they have route experience.
The score climbs to 100 by Thursday because the forecast brings highs into the mid-50s and overnight lows hold above freezing for the first time in a week. That's the threshold where the snow patches stop being ice in the morning and the route becomes safer for non-cable hikers going to Sub Dome and turning around.
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The Forecast Window
| Date | High / Low | Rain % | Score |
|------|-----------|--------|-------|
| Tue 4/28 (today) | 38°F / 26°F | 18% | 60 — Use caution |
| Wed 4/29 | 42°F / 32°F | 12% | 70 — Good |
| Thu 4/30 | 52°F / 31°F | 4% | 88 — Great |
| Fri 5/1 | 57°F / 33°F | 2% | 100 — Great |
| Sat 5/2 | 55°F / 37°F | 8% | 100 — Great |
Thursday through Saturday is the first real spring window of the season at Half Dome. If you are planning training hikes on the approach — Mist Trail to Nevada Fall is the classic 6-mile conditioning loop — Thursday or Friday are the days. Saturday is the photography day.
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What "Doing Half Dome" Actually Means in Pre-Season
There are three legitimate Half Dome trips you can do in late April / early May without a cables permit:
1. Mist Trail to Nevada Fall (6 miles, 1,900 ft gain) — The training-hike standard. You hit Vernal Fall at 0.8 miles and Nevada Fall at 3 miles. Both falls are at peak meltwater volume in late April, which is the spectacle. Granite-and-water photography from the Nevada Fall overlook is at its best in the next three weeks. Trail is wet, sometimes drenched on the Mist Trail section — wear shoes you don't mind being soaked.
2. John Muir Trail to Nevada Fall (7.4 miles round trip) — Less spray, more elevation switchbacks, drier feet. The smarter cold-weather choice if you are going early on a 27°F morning. Combine with Mist Trail down for the loop variant.
3. Vernal–Nevada Falls–Little Yosemite Valley loop (about 10 miles) — If you have a permit for Half Dome later in the season, this is the conditioning hike you want to do before your summit attempt. It builds you up to roughly half the mileage and elevation of the Half Dome summit day with similar terrain.
What you cannot do in April: get above Sub Dome safely. The cables are not up. The granite is exposed and often icy in the morning. Rangers and SAR teams have a low tolerance for incidents in this window.
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The Lottery, Without the Hype
Quick logistics for anyone reading this who is new to Half Dome.
The cables route requires a permit issued by Yosemite NP. Permits are limited to about 300 per day total (225 day-use, 75 backpacker). Day-use permits are distributed through:
- Preseason lottery (March 1-31): Apply on Recreation.gov for preferred dates in the upcoming season. Results come back in mid-April. Most people who got a 2026 permit got it through this lottery.
- Daily lottery (year-round during cable season): Apply two days in advance for permits the day after tomorrow. About 50 permits per day are released through this mechanism. Lower demand on weekdays. Some success in shoulder months (May, late September, October).
If you missed the preseason lottery, the daily lottery is your real route. Plan your trip for a Tuesday or Wednesday in early or late season when daily lottery odds improve significantly.
The fee is about $10 for the lottery application plus $10 per person if you win. Inexpensive by NP permit standards.
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Photography Reality at Half Dome
I am writing this section to anyone who got a permit and is now thinking about what to actually photograph during a sixteen-hour summit day, not just whether to go.
Sunrise from the summit is logistically extreme. To shoot sunrise from Half Dome you have to start the hike around 11pm the night before and ascend the cables in the dark. People do this. I would not recommend it for the first attempt unless you have done the route in daylight previously and you are climbing with people who have. Headlamp navigation on the cables is harder than the daylight version.
Sunset from the summit is more achievable but creates a descent problem. If you photograph sunset from the dome, you are descending the cables in fading light and hiking out via Mist Trail or JMT in full dark. That extends total trip time to 16-18 hours and demands a headlamp loadout, a hot meal at the top, and at least one experienced person in the group.
The best Half Dome photographs are not from the summit. They are from Glacier Point, from the Mirror Lake area, from the Tunnel View overlook, and from a handful of spots along the JMT where the dome reveals itself with foreground depth. The summit shot is "I was here." The dome itself, from across the valley, is the photograph.
For anyone with a summit permit, the two photographs to plan for are: looking down the visor (the face of the dome where it drops 4,800 feet to the valley floor), and looking east at the cable route during ascent with people on it for scale.
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What to Pack for a May Cable Attempt
This isn't today, but if you have a permit for May 24-30 you should be assembling your kit now.
Footwear: Trail runners or approach shoes with sticky rubber. Hiking boots with mountaineering soles can actually hurt you on the cables — the rubber doesn't grip Half Dome granite the same way. Most experienced cable hikers wear approach shoes specifically.
Gloves: Thin work gloves with rubber palms. The cables eat your hands without them. Bring an extra pair — there's a famous pile of donated gloves at the base of the cable route, but don't rely on it.
Water: Six liters minimum for a summit day in May. The exposed granite gets hot fast even at altitude. There is no water above Little Yosemite Valley — pump or filter at LYV if you need to refill on the way back.
Layers: Sub-freezing at sunrise, into the 70s at midday on the dome face, back into 40s on descent. Pack for all three.
Headlamp: Whether or not you are starting in the dark, you might be finishing in the dark. The summit day is long.
Sun protection: At 8,842 feet with no shade above Sub Dome, UV is severe. Sunscreen and a brimmed hat are non-negotiable.
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Why I Am Writing This Today and Not in May
Most Half Dome content gets published in the summer when search interest peaks. By that point, anyone who didn't apply for the lottery in March is locked out for the year. The article that's actually useful is the April article — when the permits have just been allocated, the lottery alternates know whether they got off the waitlist, and there is still time to plan logistics, conditioning, and gear before the season.
If you got a permit, the next four weeks are when you bank trail miles, fix your gear, and acclimatize. If you didn't, the next four weeks are when you decide whether to commit to daily lottery attempts during the season, or accept that 2026 isn't the year and start planning for 2027.
The trail is at 60/100 today and the algorithm is correct. The photography is going to be at 100 by Thursday and that is also correct. The cables are 26 days out and that is the schedule.
Be ready when the window opens. There is no shortcut for granite at 8,842 feet.
📍 Live conditions for Half Dome →