The Joys and the Risks of Yosemite National Park

The climb up the granite slab called Half Dome is the quintessential hike in Yosemite Valley. After walking more than eight miles, climbers ascend the last four-hundred feet on a kind of ladder made of cables and wooden steps. It’s hardly a challenge for experienced mountaineers, but the dangers are illustrated by what happened last Saturday. A 37 year-old Japanese visitor named Hirofumi Nohara stepped into a crack in the rock, twisted his ankle and plunged to his death.