Skiers Complete First Ski Descent of Half Dome to Valley Floor

Yosemite’s Half Dome is not a ski line. Of course, it’s better known as a rock-climbing destination high above the floor of Yosemite Valley. That didn’t stop two locals (Jason Torlano and Zack Milligan) from chasing their dream of becoming the first to link turns from the summit all the way to the valley floor. Torlano and Milligan did just that earlier this week when they took advantage of ephemeral conditions to ski off the summit of Half Dome. Conditions consisted of half an inch of névé poorly bonded to blue ice. Snowboarding pioneer Jim Zellers is credited with making the the first unroped turns off the summit via the Cables Route in 2000, but did not continue to the valley floor. After skiing the Cables Route, which according to an interview with Outside Magazine, included a 60-degree section of blank ice that Milligan fell on, Milligan and Torlano continued down to Mirror Lake by linking patches of snow on a climbers trail.