Yosemite Might Limit Hikes Up Half Dome This Summer
Want to hike to the top of the Half Dome in Yosemite? It might be tougher to get a permit this summer than last.
The National Park is considering creating a new lottery system that will weed out scalpers and lower the number of permits that it gives out. Yosemite began limiting the number of people who could make the 8.2-mile climb in 2010. As many as 800 people a day used to try to scale the peak, but the park's permit system limited that number to 400.
Yosemite is considering lowering that number to 300, in part because of a deadly summer in the park, the Los Angeles Times reports. Fifteen people died, including one hiker who fell off the sheer face of the Half Dome and another who slipped down the cables after a rainstorm made them slick. (A few hikers were swept over Vernal Fall as well.)
The park is accepting public comment on the matter until March 15.
