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The route up Half Dome that John Muir climbed in 1875 is the same one you’ll ascend today — if you’re lucky enough to score the special permit required to hike Yosemite’s most recognizable feature.

After years of traffic jams on the cable-lined path up Half Dome — and several related deaths — the park put in place a permitting system in 2010. That eased the crowding somewhat, but in the intervening years, computer programmers essentially have rigged the online-permit system, making it exceedingly difficult for average tourists to land a climbing pass. In 2011, permits for the entire summer were sold out within five minutes of the first moment they became available online, according to the park superintendent at the time, Don Neubacher.

The park has since reviewed applications for Half Dome permits each year and found the success rate in the preseason lottery has been as low as 2 percent for weekend dates in 2017, according to Yosemite’s Wilderness Center, which supervises the permit process. The success rate can grow to 32 percent for people taking part in the daily lottery on weekdays, according to their review.

This year, park rangers are trying to level the playing field for permits and improve the experience on the old rock. The deadline to apply for a permit through Recreation.gov to climb Half Dome is 9 p.m. Sunday. Because of this year’s high snow levels, the cables likely will go up in early June, after Memorial Day weekend.

Once the cables are up, rangers said they will make available an additional 50 permits each day, the exact number based on cancellations and rates of no-shows, in a second lottery. For these, you put in for the permit two days prior to your date, and then find out the same day you applied (usually that evening) if you won.

That’s where the odds of winning a Half Dome permit go up to 32 percent for weekdays, 14 percent for weekends, according to the Wilderness Center. By comparison, during the preseason lottery in 2017, when heavy snow delayed the start of the season — similar to this year — the chance of being approved for a weekday was 7 percent, and for a weekend date, it was 2 percent, according to the park’s review.

The quotas now allow 300 people per day to scale Half Dome. That is roughly 225 day-hikers and 75 backpackers with multiday wilderness permits. Over 10 hours, that figures to about 30 people on the cables per hour. The hope is that the days when hundreds of people clambered on the cables at once are forever gone.

Attention, backpackers: The new rules require that you need a Half Dome permit even if you have the coveted John Muir Trail permit or wilderness permit. It used to be that you could use your wilderness permit to sneak over to Half Dome — but no longer.

If you want to go Permit required: When the climbing cables are up, Half Dome permits are required to continue past the base of the Sub Dome. Dates: Permits for Half Dome are valid only for the date issued. Season lottery: 225 permits for each day are awarded through a season lottery. Apply for season lottery: Apply for Half Dome permit for specific date at www.Recreation.gov. The deadline to apply is 9 p.m. Sunday. Fees: $10 application fee; $10 if awarded permit in lottery. Daily lottery: When the cables are up, roughly 50 permits are available each day by lottery. The actual number of permits available is based on cancellations and rate of nonuse. Apply for daily lottery: Apply for daily lottery two days prior to date at www.Recreation.gov; to apply for a Saturday, for instance, you would apply on a Thursday, and be notified by email Thursday night. Backpackers’ lottery: Those on multiday wilderness trips who want to climb Half Dome must apply for a Half Dome permit when applying for their wilderness permit and trailhead date; 50 Half Dome permits per day are available by reservation. $10 per person. Backpackers, first-come: For backpackers on multiday trips, 25 Half Dome permits are available, first-come, first-served, at wilderness centers in Yosemite National Park. $10 per person. Wilderness trailhead permits: Go to “Trailhead Information” at: https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/trailheads.htm. Through-hikers: A permit awarded to hike the John Muir Trail or Pacific Crest Trail does not include a Half Dome permit; wilderness permits for trips starting outside of Yosemite are not valid for climbing Half Dome. Contacts: Reservations, 877-444-6777 (better to apply online), www.recreation.gov; Yosemite National Park, 209-372-0200, www.nps.gov/yose; Yosemite Wilderness Ranger (they request that you call only if you cannot find your answer online), 209-372-0826.

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Preparing for the hike up Half Dome

The trek from Yosemite Valley to the Half Dome summit and back is a grueling 17-mile round trip with an elevation gain of 4,800 feet. Most hikers break it into a two- or three-day trip and camp at Little Yosemite (about the halfway point, 4.7 miles in).

On the main route up from Yosemite Valley, you take the Mist Trail past Vernal and Nevada falls and emerge at Little Yosemite. Here you turn left on the John Muir Trail, then split off on the approach to Half Dome. You head up a rock staircase that climbs about 600 steps, then rises to Sub Dome at the base of the back wall of Half Dome and you reach the climbing cables.

Here, where the cables begin, the hike gets tough. Grab ahold of a cable and work your way up carefully. Gloves are a must. There are plenty of crevices that make good footholds. The wall might look vertical, but it’s sloped enough to ascend without any special climbing gear. It might feel scary at first, but for most, it is easier than it looks. For most, fear is transformed into euphoria along the way.

The crowned summit, not quite flat, is 13 acres. The best spots to sit are along the rim at the face above Mirror Lake and where you can see across Yosemite Valley. Below you is nearly a mile of empty air. The canyon walls are framed by El Capitan to your distant right, three-spired Cathedral Rocks to the left. The granite exposures and canyon walls are like nowhere else on Earth.

Starting this weekend, the hope is that the equality of getting the Half Dome permit is solved, the trip up the cables is never again a parade, and you can enjoy the view just as John Muir did.

Tom Stienstra is The San Francisco Chronicle’s outdoors writer. Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom