I rallied the troops for a (very fortunate) lottery application-winning weekend in Yosemite -- 2 nights in the valley, and 1 night near Cloud's Rest to summit Half Dome.
I had done this hike a few years back and was so blown away by the experience that I decided to bring 5 friends who'd never experienced backcountry Yosemite up top. A few relaxed nights of tomfoolery down at Backpacker's Campground and a 2-day jaunt up to the top of the dome.
We cowboy camped below Cloud's Rest and caught probably the coldest night in all of June -- we all woke up to ice covering our sleeping bags. A 3:30am wakeup call was easy with the excitement of the cable section -- and the ice-cold victory beverage atop "the visor" over a sunrise view of the entire valley.
While the hike and the views were epic, it all comes down to great company -- we could've been anywhere else on the planet and we'd all have found plenty of mad fun together, but to be in arguably the most beautiful place on planet earth was just a mega bonus.
The icing on the cake: the very next morning en route to Reno for a KETL shoot (featuring a ton of new product, by the way), we flew right over Yosemite Valley -- a true full circle moment.
David Clark - Media Crew
