Getting In Shape By Climbing "A Half Dome Day"

A story by John Long about climbing at Joshua Tree in the 70s. They wanted to climb "a Half Dome day;" which is 2,000 feet of climbing in one day. Without ropes. Here's an excerpt:

"Yosemite’s Half Dome is two thousand feet high, call it twenty rope lengths. So we’ll have to climb twenty pitches, or twenty climbs, to put in our Half Dome day.

Bachar laces up his boots and cinches the sling on his chalk bag. 'Ready?' Only then do I realize he means to climb all two thousand feet solo, without a rope."