Trip itinerary: Day 1: Tuolumne Meadows to Upper Cathedral Lake; Day 2 Upper Cathedral Lake - day off; Day 3 to Sunrise HSC; Day 4 to Unknown Lake [located on Cloud's rest trail between Tenaya Lake/Sunrise junction and the Clouds Rest junction]; Day 5 to Sunrise Creek via Cloud's Rest summit; Day 6 to Half Dome; Day 7 to Valley.
First 4 days only spent approx. 3 hours on a trail. Trails were covered in snow making it slow and difficutl to navigate. Sign at the Cathedral Lake junction was covered in snow except for the top 2 inches. The rest of the trail - snow covered. Needed map, compass, and GPS. Met several others on first 4 days, most of them lost trail at some point. Good news was there were no mosquitos until we hit the Valley.
River crossings were not too bad. Of more concern were the boulder fields on the other side of the river crossings. One time fell waist deep into snow between Tenaya Junction and Clouds Rest. That's a scary feeling. Snow cups abound throughout the trail and morning hiking is easier since afternoon sun turns snow soft. After the CRT junction on North side, going was faster and easier as we were able to pick up trail and it was not bad going to summit. Once you reach the CR summit, winter transformed into summer. Trails were visible and virtually no snow. Met a couple at Sunrise Creek junction who lost JMT from Sunrise Creek to Sunrise and had to turn back.
I have hike Half Dome 5 times and this was the best experience due to several factors. Left from Sunrise Creek campsite instead of LYV. One of the best campsites I have stayed at in Yosemite as we viewed the backside of Half Dome and had a campfire the night before and after the Half Dome hike. This location also reduced the Half Dome hike since it is 1/5 miles closer to HD compared to starting at LYV.
Another factor was that with the HD permits in effect, there was only one other person on the cables when we climbed the cables at 8:45a on 6/19. Rangers were all over checking for permits which reduced the number of folks on the cables.
Memorable, but difficult hiking due to the snow conditions. We survived and still had a great time because we scaled way back on our itinerary since we usually backpack about 8-10 miles per day at a leisurely pace.
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