I hiked to the top of Half Dome on Labor Day weekend in '07. Crazy, I know, but it was a very last-minute trip where I joined some family who were already planning to go. The crowds were HORRENDOUS that weekend!!! FAR worse than these pictures show! Thankfully since my sister-in-law's husband was continuing on the John Muir Trail with some friends and got there plenty early on Thursday, we were able to get some back-country permits to camp overnight up there no too far from the base. We got up early and were able to get up to the top of the Dome before too many people had arrived on Saturday morning. Even by 11am, getting down was a real pain with all of the people climbing up already. We ended up having to decend the rock on the outside of the cables because we really couldn't make any headway otherwise. I don't recommend doing that unless absolutely necessary (which with the 400 permits a day is pretty unlikely now), because you certainly risk you life in doing so. That is one reason where I can see the permits being a good thing. Yeah, it stinks to limit the number of people who get to have "the experience", but with the crowds getting so bad it is only a matter of time before we would hear of people falling off and dying on a routine basis.

BTW. for those that don't know, the park removes these cables for the winter months and reinstalls them in the spring.