Louisa on the Diving Board in Yosemite 2002

Diving Board in Yosemite 2002

I was at a dinner party in Interlaken, Switzerland last sunday (10.03.2010) with a bunch of daredevils!! One was a BASE jumper from Australia, Grant R, the others was a beautiful woman from California now living in Interlaken; had no fear of sky diving, walking across makeshift footbridges or jumping off cliffs. Kind of made me a little insecure about my complete and utter fear of heights. I do have a fear of falling and heights, however, if someone bets me to do something, how can I say no.  I once read that "smart may have brains but stupid has balls". Well I do pride myself on the latter... Here is a little example of my 'stupid has the balls' story...


After hiking up Half Dome in Yosemite in 2002, my roommate bet that I wouldn't go out on the diving board. Here is a photo of me inching my way out to the edge. I did get out to the very tip of the diving board, but somehow can't find the photo. LOL just like the BIG fish that got away I guess.

We started the hike from Camp Curry located in Yosemite Valley at about 4000 feet elevation. There is a short, flat walk from Camp Curry to Happy Isles, the trail-head. We walked up the 'misty trail' to the first fall - Vernal Falls. There are some great photo ops here and I would take the time to enjoy the views, take some photos and then continue on to the Nevada Falls. It's about 8 miles up to the top of Half Dome (8842 feet). Once at the top of the Dome, we had lunch, took photos, climbed (well, I climbed) out on the Diving Board and then took a nap before heading down the ropes again.



On our way out we stopped to take photos of the guys/gals climbing El Capitan - I've always wanted to climb, but can't get off the ground