The hike to the gran­ite rock of Half Dome is the longest, most dan­ger­ous, and most excit­ing trail in Yosemite Nation­al Park. Its peak, 1,450 meters high, was con­sid­ered inac­ces­si­ble for a long time. Its first con­queror in 1875 was George G. Ander­son. He drilled holes in the mono­lith­ic wall of the moun­tain, which decades lat­er were used to lay cables that made the ascent eas­i­er. Today, up to 50,000 hik­ers climb the Half Dome a year, but not all of them end up suc­cess­ful­ly. Rangers res­cue many who do not real­ize their strength, but some, unfor­tu­nate­ly, die. And the lat­ter is more than 60 peo­ple. In wet weath­er, the ropes and gran­ite rock become very slip­pery. The most dan­ger­ous sec­tion on Half Dome is the Slabs of Death, from which many hik­ers have already fall­en. In addi­tion, on and near the sum­mit, climbers can get struck by light­ning. There have been at least five such cas­es, and two of them were fatal. Anoth­er risk fac­tor is alti­tude sick­ness, caus­ing nau­sea, dizzi­ness, and heart prob­lems. And we should not for­get about a pos­si­ble encounter with a black bear. But those who over­come all obsta­cles and climb the Half Dome will have unfor­get­table views of Yosemite.