YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK -- Climbing Yosemite's Half Dome is one
of the national park system's most iconic hikes in the
nationwide system, but fewer people are going to be able to
scale the granite monolith. The National Park Service on Friday
announced approval of a plan to permanently limit the number of
hikers who can tackle Half Dome to 400 a day. That is the same
maximum number of daily hiking permits Yosemite officials have
issued since 2010 under an interim plan that was put into place
to reduce congestion and make the steep trek safer. The park
also decided to keep in place the metal cables that hikers can
use on the 45-degree final ascent up the slick granite. Over the
past decade, up to 1,200 hikers a day had crowded the route.