Luckily, I'm not afraid of heights nor were the children then in 1985 in the fall. But, after we spent an hour or two looking at the amazing view from the top of Half dome after climbing up the cables from near California-Nevada Falls after climbing up past Vernal Falls, my now ex-wife got vertigo and realized she might fall. So, since I was an old rock climber I knew how to save people who got like this from exposure. Because when you look down the cables from the top of half dome you are looking at a serious angle down several thousand feet of exposure. So, if you lose your nerve coming down or don't have someone fearless in regard to exposure helping you, it's possible you could die.
So, what I did is I faced her and grabbed both cables (except when someone needed to pass us and then we waited for them) and then I slowly backed down while holding both cables. I told her to look at me not the exposure and told her I wasn't going to let her fall. Our two boys were there giving moral support to her too who were then 10 and 14 years of age.
We succeeded in getting her down past the cables in one piece unlike the lady who fell to her death on Half Dome.
By the way, you shouldn't attempt this (especially going down) unless you really aren't afraid of heights and can be very very focused sort of like driving a big truck at night until you get all the way down past the cables.
Also, you have to make a reservation for doing this now with the forest service. You can no longer just climb up there and climb up the cables anymore I hear.
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