Ansel Adams made the diving board famous with his class shot Monolith, and ever since then many landscape photographers have made the difficult hike in Yosemite to the same location as sort of a pilgrimage. I first tried to reach this area two years ago, and we took a wrong trail and ended up cliffed out on the back side of half dome. So last week Jeff Mitchum, Jeremy Long, Dave Frank, and myself tried again.
"Mountain Man" Jeremy Long by Vernal Falls on the Mist Trail, Yosemite.
The group at the diving board, an impressive gathering at a really remote location!
It was a REALLY hard hike with 40 lbs of camera gear on our back, but we eventually made it there and back again. 17 miles, nearly 6000 ft of climbing, and 14 hours round trip. Jeff brought some really great peanut butter and chocolate brownies which helped revive us at the half way point. At the Diving Board we also ran into Josh Cripps and John DeGrazio who came running up a knife edge ridge, very impressive!
The skies were a flat grey, no dramatic light to be seen unfortunately, so the image I had envisioned has yet to be made. That only means one thing though, I will be headed back soon.....
A cloudy day on the face of Half Dome
Peering over the edge.......
The view down, this is why they call it the diving board. (don't think I would jump without a parachute)