They skied down Half Dome to Yosemite Valley. It was a lifelong dream with ‘relentless risk’
Jason Torlano started dreaming about skiing down Half Dome – rising nearly 5,000 feet above his childhood home in Yosemite Valley – after moving to Yosemite National Park at age 5.
In February, at age 45, that dream came true.
Torlano and his friend Zach Milligan completed the ski on Feb. 21. After skiing down Half Dome’s steep arching back – almost exclusively visited by summer hikers who cling dearly to cables on its spine for support – they continued to descend, ending five hours later at Mirror Lake in Yosemite Valley. The ski included rappelling down a couple sections of the “death slabs” that didn’t have enough snow to ski down.
The epic adventure was preceded by a frigid night huddled under a tree near Half Dome’s summit, and then briefly in a cave, so they could start at sunrise. That sunrise made the freezing temperatures feel worth it.
“It’s so beautiful, looking down and watching the Sierra light up,” Torlano said. “That’s what it’s about really.”
Skier with a passion for Yosemite, helping others
Torlano isn’t a sponsored skier. He has the talent to be, but his path has been different, said friend and professional skier JT Holmes.
You’d think he’d be “swimming in sponsorships,” Holmes said, “and kind of leveraging that whole thing, but Jason is just passionate about what he does and is an example of an athlete that is in it for the purity of the sport.”
Torlano hasn’t heard of anyone else skiing from the top of Half Dome to Yosemite Valley via the “death slabs” – what rock climbers scramble up to reach the sheer face of Half Dome, different from the trail hikers take to the backside of the dome.
Torlano estimates he’s done over two dozen first ski descents in Yosemite, including another a week before his Half Dome achievement, skiing to Yosemite Valley from Taft Point via a new gully. His first descent down Yosemite’s Clouds Rest in 2013 drew widespread awe.
Torlano now lives just down the road from Yosemite in the small community of Sugar Pine with his wife and children. He also enjoys rock climbing, which helps inform his work doing rope access for numerous companies. He formerly served in the U.S. Army, and was also a Yosemite park ranger who went on rescue missions to save stranded visitors.
He volunteers with Free Burma Rangers and spends several months a year overseas, serving as a medic and helping people flee war zones in Syria, Iraq and Burma. Torlano described that work by saying he can’t change the world, but he can help people, and that matters.
Two days after his Half Dome ski, Torlano had little time to talk with The Bee about that achievement because he was busy helping a friend roof his house in nearby Oakhurst that was hit by strong Mono winds last month.
That’s Torlano.
“Jason is one of those guys that does more doing than talking,” Holmes said.
Dangerous ski descent down Half Dome
Torlano said he’s tried to ski down Half Dome for the past three years. He’s spent hours studying snow conditions and routes on Half Dome, including from a friend’s small airplane. It all finally came together on his fourth try, Sunday morning.
Milligan, who accompanied him, is a rock climber who doesn’t consider himself a skier. But others weren’t available Sunday, and Milligan was up for the adventure. He thought he’d likely just film Torlano as his friend skied down Half Dome, but when the time came, Milligan decided to click into his skis, too. He felt calm atop Half Dome and took it as a good sign.
Things quickly turned perilous when Milligan skied over part of a protruding cable on the dome and started to lose control.
“I was able to get my ice axe in and not die,” Milligan said of the terrifying moments that followed.
Their path down Half Dome was narrow, icy and “high consequence.” Sliding a foot too far in either direction would mean falling hundreds of feet to a sure death.
Fortunately Milligan was able to right himself. And, more than that, even make a video from the side of the dome of Torlano skiing past him. At one trouble spot, Torlano stood “in perfect balance like a crane” on just one ski as he slid one, and then the other, under a cable blocking his path. As he did that, he quickly clicked out of, and back into, each ski.
“It was like a trick of balance that was superhuman,” Milligan said of his friend.
Torlano then did a series of big jump turns down Half Dome. Milligan side slipped down, a style where skis are kept sideways, pointed across the mountain.
Milligan was impressed by his friend’s skill.
“I was focused on trying to stay alive,” Milligan said, “where he was having a good time. ... It’s fun to see him in his element. He was born to ski.”
They were “elated” at the bottom of the dome, Milligan said, “and then had to remember we actually had a long way to go down the death slabs.”
The cord they used to rappel down a couple sections of the slabs was “awful” for rappelling, Milligan said, which made that uncomfortable and scary. It would take about five hours to reach Mirror Lake. They skied most of the thousands of feet down.
Torlano sat by himself at Mirror Lake for a few minutes at the end, trying to register what they just accomplished.
“I just couldn’t believe we pulled it off,” Torlano said.
Braving the snowy puzzle
Snowboarder Jim Zellers did the first snowboard descent of Half Dome in 2000, but didn’t go down the slabs to Yosemite Valley. Torlano called him Saturday as he was hiking up to the dome, seeking advice.
Zellers described assessing snow conditions on Yosemite domes like trying to solve a puzzle, a “chess game.” Zellers once tried to get some insight about this from a park ranger, who simply told him, “Stay away from the domes.”
For most, skiing and snowboarding down Half Dome is not something that should be considered. Zellers said it takes years of training and being in the environment, studying the dome and snow up close. Half Dome’s distance from civilization makes that hard.
“You can’t really watch Half Dome. You have to walk to the base and kick the snow,” Zellers said, “so it takes a lot of effort. So it’s up to you to figure it out and know your snow science.”
Ironically, Torlano said the only time he’s been seriously injured skiing was on a simple run at Badger Pass Ski Resort in Yosemite, not out on his more dangerous and remote wilderness descents. He broke both wrists falling at Badger Pass 15 years ago.
Holmes called Torlano “one of the most hardcore skiers that I know – and I’m a 20-plus-year professional skier.” He said Torlano’s Yosemite descents require an extremely high level of dedication and passion. The Half Dome ski Torlano just finished had a “relentless risk factor the whole way.”
“I think people should find Jason’s life and his historic ski descents as an inspiration to get out there and achieve your goals,” Holmes said. “Jason is someone who does not let a day go by without working towards some sort of goal that he’s passionate about.”
%20with%20Milligan%20coming%20down%20half%20dome%20behind.jpg "jason torlano (orange) with Milligan coming down half dome behind.jpg")
This story was originally published February 25, 2021 at 11:00 AM with the headline "They skied down Half Dome to Yosemite Valley. It was a lifelong dream with ‘relentless risk’."
