Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board New Army Pass via Cottonwood Lakes Trail Head

would like to hike to New Army Pass via Cottonwood Lakes Trail Head. Do I need a permit to hike those trails and does someone know how many miles from the trail head to New Army Pass? Just a day hike, will not be camping out on the trail.
TIA
Chris

To the west end of 11140 ft. Long Lake is about 6.5 miles. That is an elevation gain of 1100 feet from Cottonwood lakes trailhead. New Amy Pass is another mile or two and peaks out at 12300 feet. So the total distance one way is close to 8 miles, with about 2260 elevation gain. A little further and you can throw in Cirque Peak.

No permit is needed for a day hike in this area.

Ranboze posted photos of such a trip. http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2017744700059387516UPgfQD

thanks. was hoping someone could offer up some info. i have done this hike, many years ago. actually ran lots of it. i'm an ultrarunner. but never knew how far the distance was. am going to ask some fellow runners to join me but wanted to give them a good guess at the mileage.
thanks much.
chris

About 6.5 miles to Long Lake and 2+ more to the top of NEW Army pass. You can make a short cut down hill by following the drainage from South Lake down through a long meadow and reconnect the incoming trail and make a right.

You can save some altitude gain and shorter trip of it, by going up OLD Army pass from Lake 4. This trail has been abandoned and is not readily obvious in places. It is the route of choice for packers.

Day hiking - no permit. They would like you to let them know you are on the trail tho.

Only mental caution to remember is that the return trail from first water (where the log bridge is) is mostly up hill. You might wonder if you are on the correct trail.

A nice 21 mile run:

From Horseshoe Meadow to Cottonwood Pass follow Pacific Crest Trail to connect to Rock Creek trail up to New Army, drop down to Long Lake then the Cottonwood Creek trail back to Horseshoe Meadows (or directly down from north side of outlet of South Lake). Almost all of it above 10,000 and about 1/2 above 11,000. All of it on a good moderate lift running trail.

You could sneak up from the lake just beyond Cottonwood Pass to the ridge that includes Cirque Peak to the Army Pass and knock off a passel of miles and some elevation loss/gain.

What Steve said about the South Fork Trail being shorter...about a mile shorter. But, there are other advantages, the trail is a lot less sandy, the gains are constant...unlike the CL/NAP Trail that ascends then descends, ascend then descend...you get the picture and the are very few people who go up it.

Thanks for the replies. the 21 miler sounds great. i will give that a go in a few weeks. Weekend of the 4th i'll be visting family in alameda. the next weekend will be crewing at badwater. my runner will be going up the whitney trail to summit. i will be going up with her. the following weekend i'll be running the tahoe rim trail 50k. so maybe the weekend of the 26th i will give the 21 miler a go.
thanks again,
chris

Another good running circuit loop:

Shepherd Pass, down Tyndall Creek to catch PCT/JMT over Forester Pass, down to Vidette Meadows up to Kearsarge Pass down to Onion Valley. Onion Valley is just above Shepherd's trail head. Easy shuttle or hitch to car. That is a little over 30 miles and would fit into the strenuous or extreme day trip category. Might want to take a head lamp with you. Good moderate trails nothing steep except last 1/2 mile before Kearsarge and then its a run down a good trail to Onion.

I met two runners just south of Whitney on PCT that had come in Shepherd and were going out Army Pass. They had a very early 'alpine' start and were napping in the sun.

Chris, you'll find some additional info about the Cottonwood loop and some other trail runs on my photography & running blog:

http://www.photographyontherun.com/

There is also a page with Google Earth images and KMZ files for most of the trail runs:

http://www.photographyontherun.com/gpstraces.aspx

All the best for your runner at Badwater!

- Gary

thanks for all the neat info and links. now it seems i might try to get a permit for whitney on friday and climb on saturday. nice and easy as it will be good training for when my runner finishes her run from badwater to the portals. then when she starts up the mt. i can be better prepared.
i still will look into running/hiking some of the suggested routes you all have given me.
thanks a ton.
chris