One Best Hike: Yosemite's Half Dome. Rick Deutsch

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      He slid small wooden pegs into the holes and then hammered in the eyelet spikes. They were placed about 5 feet apart. Next, he attached a rope to the eyelet and himself in case of a fall. He had to balance himself and stand on one spike to drill the hole for the next spike above. Each spike only stuck out about 2 inches. Up and up he went, building a crude ladder with about 40 of these eyebolts. Occasionally, some irregularity in the curve of the rock or slight foothold would enable him to free-climb 20 or so feet independently of the rope. He progressed more than 450 feet up the sloping granite, belayed only by the rope he tied to the spikes.

      Once his spikes and pilot rope were in place, he returned to the valley to rig up a more sturdy rope. He modified a 900-foot-long rope by knotting five strands together with a sixth strand and a 3-inch sailor’s knot a foot apart to allow a hand-over-hand traverse. This was a convenient space for future climbers to grasp as they made the ascent. Anderson used his mule to haul the new rope up to his cabin, and he carried it to the top using the spike ladder. He tied one end to the uppermost spike and slowly uncoiled and attached the rope to the eyelets with lashings. Although it was a crude device, it worked. At 3 p.m. on October 12, 1875, he erected a crude flagstaff and stood on top of Half Dome, “waving the starry flag of his adopted homeland,” according to the Mariposa Gazette.

      During all this, his shoes proved to be too slick, so he tried wearing just his socks, and then he wore bags coated with pine pitch tied below his knees; however, the pine pitch was too sticky to allow progress. He then tried wearing moccasins with pine pitch only on the soles. This technique appeared to work best and enabled him to adhere firmly to the smooth granite. But again, while the pitch prevented him from slipping, it also required great effort to move his feet and almost proved fatal several times. He settled on barefoot. Think of the pain of standing on 2 inches of the spike while balancing and hitting a sledgehammer to drill another hole. Pure determination. The way to the 13-acre summit was now in place. We don’t know exactly how long all this took Anderson; estimates of a month seem reasonable. Each day he would work long and hard, and then return to his cabin area to forge new spikes and sharpen his chisel.

      In the valley, Anderson’s absence had been noticed and there was concern. A search party was sent up to look for him. On the trail near Nevada Fall, Anderson encountered the men and informed them he had reached the summit. The news quickly spread.

      In the days following, he escorted several English tourists up the mountain. Soon after, he took up Galen Clark and Sally Dutcher, who became the first woman to climb to the top.

      John Muir is believed to have been the ninth person on Half Dome. Muir later wrote of his November 10, 1875, experience in his books The Mountains of California and The Yosemite, as well as the November 18, 1875, edition of San Francisco’s Daily Evening Bulletin, excerpted below:

      On my return to the valley the other day I immediately hastened to the Dome, not only for the pure pleasure climbing in view, but to see what else I might enjoy and learn. Our first winter storm had bloomed and all the mountains were mantled in fresh snow. I was therefore a little apprehensive of danger from slipperyness of the rock, Anderson himself refusing to believe that any one could climb his rope in the condition it was then in…. I therefore pushed up alone and gained the top without the slightest difficulty. My first view was perfectly glorious. A massive cloud of a pure pearl lustre was arched across the valley, from wall to wall, the one end resting upon El Capitan, the other on Cathedral Rocks, the brown meadows shadowed beneath, with short reaches of the river shimmering in changeful light. Then, as I stood on the tremendous verge overlooking Mirror Lake, a flock of smaller clouds, white as snow, came swiftly from the north, trailing over the dark forests, and arriving on the brink of the valley descended with godlike gestures through Indian Canyon and over the Arches and North Dome, moving rapidly, yet with perfect deliberation…. I have always discouraged as much as possible every project for laddering the South Dome, believing it would be a fine thing to keep this garden untrodden. Now the pines will be carved with the initials of Smith and Jones, and the gardens strewn with tin cans and bottles, but the winter gales will blow most of this rubbish away, and avalanches may strip off the ladders; and then it is some satisfaction to feel assured that no lazy person will ever trample these gardens.

      Anderson’s feat planted the seeds of the big-wall climbing mecca that Yosemite has become. His climb marked the debut of bolt placements in the American climbing scene. It opened an inaccessible mountain to many Yosemite visitors and made Half Dome a destination for hiking and climbing enthusiasts from all over the world.

      Yet Anderson did not rest on his laurels. He presented the idea of building a wooden staircase to the Yosemite Board of Commissioners. They set aside $2,000 for the project, but nothing came of it. Anderson even talked of building a steam-powered tram to take his guests to the top.

      In the months that followed, others tried Anderson’s route. However, the elements took their toll on the rope until it became unusable in a few years.

      In the spring of 1884 Anderson died of pneumonia and was buried under a granite rock in the park cemetery. With Anderson gone, the hope was that “some venturesome member of the English Alpine Club should come along and have the goodness to replace it,” as Alden Sampson wrote in a letter to author James M. Hutchings. Enter two true cowboys of the era, Sampson and A. Phimister Proctor. They arrived at Yosemite in search of fishing and relaxation and a try at going up Half Dome. When they heard that a Brit was being sought to replace the rope, Sampson said: “This aspect of the matter, I must own, galled our pride; and the more we thought it over the less we liked this solution of the difficulty. Should we, forsooth, wait for foreign sinew to scale for us a peak of the American Sierras? Not if it lay in our power to prevent so humiliating a favor!”

      After a short rest below Nevada Fall, at La Casa Nevada hotel, they rode their horses up the trail and arrived at Sub Dome to survey the situation. They saw that most of the original Anderson spikes had come out, making it difficult to ascend the smooth, steep sides. Being skilled cowboys, they used a rope to lasso higher spikes and rock holds. Proctor took the lead. The technique was to lasso a spike and then pull himself up. Amazingly, he did this barefoot because his cob nail boots were cutting in. Showing immense strength, he then did a jackknife to put his toe on the spike and worked his hand out. He would then lean precariously into the rock. All went well until they approached a bare stretch of a hundred feet, where every pin had been carried away. Gently clutching shrubs 8 inches high, the two gingerly hugged the rock. After many tries, Proctor finally snagged a rock edge and pulled himself up. They then were able to bring up their rope and secure it. Half Dome was open once more! However, the Proctor-Sampson rope also suffered from the harsh winters and soon became unusable. A replacement rope was installed by Thomas Magee Jr. and Stewart Rawlings in 1895, but it also frayed. Ropes put up in 1901 and later were successful to varying degrees.

      A. Phimister Proctor; courtesy A. Phimister Proctor Museum

      A. Phimister Proctor went on to become a world-class bronze sculptor. His focus was on life-size animal- and western-themed monumental designs. His Teddy Roosevelt and buckaroo renderings are among my favorites. The Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming, houses many of Proctor’s artworks, and the Proctor Museum in Seattle continues to preserve his legacy.

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