Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board New Army Pass

Looking for trail conditions over New Army Pass. Snow, ice etc. Will be in the area over July 4 weekend. Wondering if I will need crampons and ice axe. Thanks much.

I will bring back a report from this coming Saturday.

Thanks Tomcat. Look forward to your report.

Runrjoe,

I went up Army and down New Army pass yesterday. Snow conditions were good to excellent. The trail up to Army Pass was much better than the trail to New Army Pass in my opinion. Lots of snow fields, but the snow is very well consolidated and post-holing was minimum. The stream crossing to the trail to New Army Pass is a wet one! Especially late in the day when we came down.

I was glad we took crampons. It made it safer and easier to go up the snow to Army Pass. We didn't use them for the descent of New Army Pass. Looks like the trail up to New Army Pass will be covered with snow for a couple more weeks?

Pictures are at Army and New Army Pass Day Hike

Here's some photos of Army Pass and Langley on June 24th...

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150217009705095.311420.654050094&l=226fb1eb58

Very pretty mountians!

Very ugly toe!

Walter, thanks for the update. Appreciate you posting that.

We were on Cirque, and I think we saw you on New Army Pass. Pretty neat!

Photos Here

As of July 10, Old Army Pass is still completely covered with snow, top to bottom, without visible trails or paths of any kind. Water, water everywhere. Lake #4 and Lake #5 have basically merged, getting to the pass requires some creative jumping. All north-south trails in the lakes area are partially submerged. Crossing Cottonwood Creek on the way to the New Army Pass involves walking over a wide, deep & fast-moving creek on a tree branch that does not seem more than 6-8" thick.

I recommend bringing extra dry socks (better yet, knee-high rubber boots).

I will be having three friends taking off from Horseshoe Meadows on July 25th, and backpacking around to Whitney Portal. If anyone can provide me with a current snow report atop New Army Pass in the coming two weeks, I sure would appreciate it. Thank you. Whitney Mike

I should be there on the 24th and I can fill you in, in case no one comes forward. (But I may not make it to the interwebs before late evening on the 24th.)

New army pass is almost completely clear of snow. The only exception is the last 30-50 ft of altitude gain. I think that the "standard" route is still snowed in there, but instead there is an alternative route that involves some walking on snow and some scrambling (and some risk of falling into High Lake 1000 ft below if you slip). I made it through both ways but that section is a bit disconcerting.

Up top, most of the snow is gone, except for some patches in shaded areas and above 13000 ft.