went up, a person before us moved especially slow. When we come down, it was late and almost nobody come up. These might made the final part easy for us.
Believe me, my wife, who could fail in PE test from primary school all the way up to college, made it. It is not a technical climbing. However, take pictures while on the trail need more nerve. In fact, all the photoes posted here was taken by my daughter. I was taking care of my wife and video typing :-)
The whole Half Dome trek on average takes about 10-12 hours. It took us 14 hours. Remember we had a person who failed in PE test :-( It was almost 12 hour walking of about 16 miles with elevation gain of 4800 feet. That is the difficult part. The easy part is the top of Half Dome is below 9,000 feet. There is no danger of AMS(acute mountain sickness syndrome?),
which normally shows up around 10,000 feet. The trail is in very good condition. There is water source and 3 restrooms in the first half. There is also a very small spring at about 3/4 of the way up. The spring water is directly drinkable and test better than any bottle water.
With a good spirit and a light load to carry, every one love nature and hiking frequently should and could make this proclaimed ultimate hike in Yosemite.
From my experience, the bulge just before the cable trail is most difficult. Although it looks like quite flat on the photo, it is almost vertical when it first appears. The trail there is pure short switch backs all the way up. On cable trail the cable helps a lot.
Also:
Bring torches or head light with you, one for each person. You never know how long it takes if some thing happens. It was 9:00pm when we made back to the camp sied.