The attempt to summit Half Dome includes an 18-mile roundtrip hike and scaling the near-vertical rockface while hanging on to cables.

Once I start something, I generally have to finish it.

Growing up, I was taught to follow through on my commitments. As I’ve gotten older, my belief in this value has only grown stronger. Our phones have made it easier than ever to be flaky — to cancel plans last minute or to put down a book and flick through viral video clips instead.

My attempts to rebel against this culture of laxity sometimes reach admittedly comic extremes. If I start a book that turns out to be not very good, I still have to finish it to prove that I’ve triumphed over the pull of giving up.

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This philosophy was put to the test last week after my friend unexpectedly secured a permit to hike Half Dome, the nearly 9,000-foot-tall granite behemoth in Yosemite National Park.

Summiting Half Dome had never been on my bucket list, but it was nevertheless alluring to imagine myself standing triumphantly at the top.

Still, I was far from overflowing with confidence. The route was 18 miles round-trip, which would be the longest hike I’d ever done. And then there were the infamous cables, up which hikers must haul themselves for the final 440 feet of sheer rock.

I studied pictures and videos online, trying to gauge the steepness of the........

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