In my opinion, climbing Half Dome with bare hands is almost as silly as climbing with bare feet. You technically could—hey, people have done it before—but why would you?
Gloves protect your hands the same way shoes protect your feet, giving you a better grip on slick surfaces and reducing unnecessary strain on your muscles. They’re cheap, lightweight, and potentially life-saving.
After two trips up the cables at Half Dome, I’ve found that the best hiking gloves are the kind of rubberized utility gloves used by mechanics and plumbers. My favorite brand is MadGrip, because, as the name suggests, they’re mad grippy! They’re also hydrophobic, which helps maintain friction even in wet conditions. (You should never be hiking Half Dome when it’s wet, since most of the injuries and deaths there over the years have occurred in inclement weather—but the chains may still be slick with sweat from Nervous Nellies on the cables ahead of you. :P)
If you do wear gloves to the cables on Half Dome, be sure to follow Leave No Trace principles and take them with you when you leave. By the end of the season, there’s always a half-rotting pile of gloves beside the trail that rangers have to carry out. Gross.
These gloves are also perfect for hiking the iconic Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park and Mooney Falls on the Havasupai Indian Reservation in the Grand Canyon, both of which feature Half Dome-esque chains (and ever-increasing crowds) on steep exposures. Though Mooney Falls is less exposed and at a lower elevation than Half Dome, the wet, rusty chains and crowded route can make it tough. I’m not sure I would have made it up or any of these three trails without gloves, so I’m glad I had them (literally) on hand. 🙂
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