In recent years as visitation has increased, numerous search-and-rescue incidents have taken place on and around the cables. This trend led park management to investigate visitor use on the trail system leading to Half Dome, including behaviors on the cables.
The Half Dome Trail (HDT) hike has long been the setting of an iconic experience in Yosemite National Park. The trail takes visitors up the only route accessing the summit without technical climbing. Over time, it has transformed from a historic multiday wilderness experience to an ambitious, and frequently epic, day hike. This 16-mile (26 km) hike ascending 4,000 ft. (1,219 m) is a significant undertaking that ends with the last 400 ft (122 m) of the ascent exposed and on a cables structure.
Dr. Lawson used ExtendSim to model visitor use measurement and monitoring of visitor movements to provide a basis for standards that frame acceptable conditions. Results are compiled in an article written by Dr. Lawson, Bret Meldrum, Nathan Reigner, and David Pettebone and published in the Spring/Summer 2012 issue of Park Science magazine.
Steve Lawson, PhD, Director, Public Lands for RSG Inc. has been using ExtendSim to model visitor use in national parks for over a decade; including models of visitor use at Yosemite, Mount Rainier, Isle Royale, and Rocky Mountain National Parks, Muir Woods National Monument, and the Inyo National Forest.