Climbing Half Dome
A photo looking into Yosemite Valley. Half Dome is the massive dome on the right side of the photo with a sheer wall on one side and a steep, rounded face on the other. Every year, up to 50,000 (!) people line up to walk and climb to the top of Half Dome, most going up the rounded face, but some climbing up the steep side.
This is my third and final post about our trip to Yosemite National Park. This post is about climbing Half Dome, an iconic granite dome in the heart of Yosemite Valley. But it is not about me climbing Half Dome. It is about 3 middle-aged women we met who got up one morning at 4:30, walked 16 miles round trip and climbed Half Dome, the last part of the climb clinging to wire ropes up a near-vertical face.
The story begins as we were flying to Fresno, California to pick up our rental car. I had some prayer time with the Holy Spirit on the flight. One of the things He told me was that in Yosemite He would bring people to me that He wanted me to pray for. He made it clear – I was not to seek them out. He would bring them to me.
Our second night in Yosemite we were staying at the Rush Creek Lodge. At night, standing just outside the light of a campfire, I saw a woman in her late 40s or early 50s. She had a strip of tape on her leg that looked to me like black electrician’s tape. So without thinking too much about it I went up to her and asked, “what is that on your leg?”. She told me it was like an Ace Bandage. I asked if she had been hiking. Almost immediately she was joined by two other women. Together they told me an incredible story.
Susan, Julie, and Georgia (all about the same age – friends from their Catholic church. And not their real names) were going to climb Half-Dome tomorrow – all the way to the top. They knew it was going to be a difficult climb. In hindsight, they had no idea!
The year before, Georgia on a whim, had submitted her name to a lottery for selecting the people who would be allowed onto the wire cables the following summer. Anyone can get a permit to climb up to that point, but you had to have won the lottery to go the rest of the way on the cables. Georgia had won and she could take three people with her. She chose 3 friends but one dropped out. And so the remaining three were staying at the same lodge we were at.
We talked about the climb and it became obvious that two of the women were terrified of what tomorrow would hold. None of them had ever done anything as audacious or as dangerous as this. Then the Lord said to me, “These are the ones I am bringing to you for prayer”.
So Judy and I prayed over the two. I prayed courage, boldness, safety, strength, and the power of God to get them to the top. Plus some other words. They were amazed and blown away – no one had ever prayed for them this way.
They left early in the morning. All day on our own hike Judy and I stopped about every hour and prayed for the intrepid women. Several times we felt the prompting of the Spirit saying, “Pray now for strength and resolve”. So we did.
When we got back to the Lodge about 6:00 PM we were anxious to hear from the women. But we could not find them. We looked in the hot tubs, the dining room, and even the bar. But no sign of them. We had given up, thinking they were all in bed, when at about 9:30 PM they came ‘dragging’ into the Lodge. Nothing had prepared them for what they went through – no YouTube video, no climbing magazine article, no National Park description. They had made it to the top and back down, but they were exhausted!
Judy and I sat with them as they ordered and ate dinner. They described their climb up to the top of the Subdome where they picked up the wires. Just that walk to the top of the Subdome was difficult. But the wires were almost more than two of the women could do. Several times they froze going up, absolutely knowing they could not take another step. But both of them told us that somehow they found the resolve to keep going. One of the women was coached by a man who made it his mission to get her to the top.
They told us that the prayer the night before was powerful – it calmed them so that they were able to sleep. When we told them we had prayed for them all through the day, they believed that our prayers were part of how they were able to keep going. They believed!
Did our prayers really help them? I think they did but honestly how can I ‘prove’ that? The skeptic would dismiss this idea as fantasy. But it doesn’t matter what the world thinks. They believed that our prayers had made a difference in their climb. They knew that when they were completely out of energy, they found the resolve to take one step, and then another step in the power of the Holy Spirit. What a testimony to the power and presence of God in difficult, even dangerous circumstances!
God forged a bond between Judy, me, and the three women. Whenever they tell the story of their climb, they will also tell about how God brought two strangers to them the night before and the evening after to offer prayer, encouragement, and release power. They will share how the Holy Spirit met them and manifested Himself to them on Half Dome.
And I will remember that God told me on the flight out to Yosemite that He was going to bring people to me for prayer. If I ever question God’s faithfulness, presence, and power I can think of these three women who climbed Half Dome and how God used me and Judy to reveal His glory.
Blessed to be a blessing,
John