dbd and wbt: Please review the ground rules in the first post of this thread.

QITNL: I cringe when I see any suggestion of reducing quotas. Wbt has mentioned getting "politically powerful environmental activist groups" involved, and there, too, I fear their response will be the same as your suggestion.

The Half Dome situation, in fact, is the reason I have terminated my membership in the Sierra Club. The SC at the state level supported cutting the numbers so drastically on Half Dome without even trying to evaluate other methods to enhance the safety. I have always felt that twice as many Half Dome hikers could be accommodated if they would issue time-sensitive permits, where (some) hikers have to pass the checkpoint before 10 AM or after 2 PM (or something like that).

Every time I see the call to reduce numbers, I see an exclusive attitude, such as "those once-and-done types don't deserve to hike in my territory". In the Half Dome situation, they were called the flip-flop Disneyland hikers, and similar terms.

I would put reducing quotas at the bottom of the list of options, about the same level as requiring Wag bags. Locking people out of the wilderness is a good way to get less and less support for National Parks and National Forests.