Half Dome

Pada hari keempat, Polly memutuskan untuk mendaki Half Dome. Bukan melalui jalur kabel terkenal di bagian belakang (yang sudah ditutup untuk musim ini), tetapi di udara. Wajah utara Half Dome menjulang hampir tegak lurus dari dasar lembah. Tingginya 1.500 meter dari granit halus, dipoles oleh gletser 15.000 tahun yang lalu.

On the fourth day, Polly decided to climb Half Dome. Not on the famous cable route up the back (it was closed for the season anyway), but in the air. Half Dome's north face rises almost straight up from the valley floor. It is 1,500 metres of smooth granite, polished by a glacier 15,000 years ago.

Dia memulai saat fajar pertama. Dia terbang dari hutan pinus dekat Mirror Lake dan naik perlahan dalam spiral.

She started at first light. She flew from a pine grove near Mirror Lake and climbed slowly in spirals.

Pada ketinggian tiga ratus meter, dia bergabung dengan kawanan burung swift berleher putih. Ada puluhan dari mereka. Mereka adalah burung kecil tercepat yang pernah terbang bersama Polly. Mereka melesat dan berteriak melewatinya. Polly adalah burung paling lambat di udara. Burung-burung swift tampaknya tidak keberatan.

At three hundred metres up, she joined a flock of white-throated swifts. There were dozens of them. They were the fastest small bird Polly had ever flown with. They flashed and screamed past her. Polly was the slowest bird in the air. The swifts did not seem to mind.

Angin bertiup lebih kencang pada ketinggian lima ratus meter. Granit sudah hangat oleh matahari. Batu yang hangat memanaskan udara di atasnya. Udara panas naik. Udara yang naik mengangkat Polly. Dia naik dalam lengkungan panjang, membiarkan batu melakukan pekerjaannya.

The wind picked up at five hundred metres. The granite was already warm from the sun. Warm rock heats the air above it. Hot air rises. Rising air lifted Polly. She climbed in long arcs, letting the rock do the work.

Di tengah perjalanan, dia beristirahat di sebuah pijakan kecil. Dari sana dia bisa melihat jalur kabel. Kabel-kabel logam tergeletak di atas batu telanjang seperti tulang punggung yang panjang dan tipis. Mereka ditutup untuk musim semi. Pada bulan Juli, ratusan orang setiap hari akan mendakinya.

Halfway up, she rested on a small ledge. From there she could see the cable route. The metal cables lay along the bare rock like a long thin spine. They were closed for spring. By July, hundreds of people a day would climb them.

Di puncak, granitnya datar. Seratus meter melintang, sedikit miring, dengan beberapa tumpukan batu kecil di mana manusia menandai puncak mereka.

At the top, the granite was flat. A hundred metres across, slightly tilted, with a few small piles of stones where humans had marked their summits.

Dia berjalan ke tepi papan loncat, lempengan menggantung yang terkenal, dan melihat ke bawah. Lembah tampak seperti pita kecil di bawah. El Capitan begitu dekat hingga dia merasa bisa terbang ke sana. Pohon-pohon di dasar ngarai tampak seperti bulu halus.

She walked to the edge of the diving board, the famous overhanging slab, and looked down. The valley was a small ribbon below. El Capitan was so close she felt she could fly to it. The trees on the canyon floor looked like fuzz.

Dia tinggal di tepi itu cukup lama. Kemudian dia meluncur dari bibir dalam lompatan kecil yang tenang dan segera menarik diri untuk meluncur sepanjang lengkungan kubah dalam perjalanan turun.

She stayed at the edge a long time. Then she pushed off the lip in a small calm dive and pulled up almost immediately to glide along the curve of the dome on the way down.