Brit travelling to the states for an adventure !

REI rents equipment, they have stores in LA. Don't forget the bear cannister. Permits can be hard to get. The days are getting shorter and colder; a good light is essential. Have fun.

With regard to tents, not sure what is available in the UK, but some of the preferred lightweight suppliers here are tarptent, six moons design, lightheart gear, and others that escape my mind right now.  Perhaps others will chime in.

If you don't already have a sleeping bag, price point is a factor.  There is a trend here to using down quilts as opposed to full on sleeping bags.  Not a fan myself, but they are marginally lighter if you have a good sleeping pad.  Enlightened Equipment is a good one to look at.


www.enlightenedequipment.com/quilts/

Cheers!

THere are a number of REI in California that no longer rent sleeping gear. I will recommend renting a Wild Ideas Bearikade directly from them, and renting from an online rental agency such as lowergear.com, as playing games with rental gear is the last thing you need to do.

Also, three weeks is a much, much more reasonable amount of time than one week, especially if you can actually manage four weeks. Fly in to San Francisco and get Amtrak up to Merced, YARTS into the park, and take advantage of the fact that people arriving by bus can stay in a backpacker camp without a permit. (This is in the Superintendent's Compendium available in PDF on the official Yosemite website -- print a copy of the page and bring it to educate the ignoramus workers in the park, they don't all know the rules.) That fourth week can be travel time, and tourist time -- any time not spent on public transportation, you can hang out in Yosemite valley being a tourist, or in Tuolumne Meadows acclimating to elevation.

Also don't believe a word anyone tells you about bear risks -- bear spray is illegal here and you won't need it. There are other ways to deal with bears. Read all about that on the official Yosemite bear safety web page.

If you intend to do Half Dome that is a permit you request in addition to the JMT permit, which you indicate on the form - don't bother with the lottery, that is for day hikers. And there are plenty of wonders out there if you don't get it -- trust me, you can replicate the experience of watching people take selfies anywhere in the park. No need to fuss with idiots on the cables causing traffic jams to do it. There are nicer peaks to be on that won't require the hassle.

Aim for August - Early September and you won't need to worry as much about mosquitoes giving you West Nile.

Later than mid September will cause transportation issues as the shuttle/bus schedules diminish radically past that date.