Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Mt. Langley via Cottonwood Lakes

I struck out in the lottery but still want to do some climbing with my wife. Is there anything that I should be aware of in doing this trip? Pros/Cons? I plan on taking it easy as we like to enjoy our surroundings and take lots of pictures. Any ideas/hints would be helpful.
We will stay at HM for our initial night and go from there.

This is an excellent trip, and I strongly recommend it. Depending upon when you go, you may want to go up Old Army Pass, my favorite route. However, you need to go later in the summer, when the snow has melted. Earlier on, New Army Pass is better.

Thank you for the post. We are considering taking some Boys Scouts up Langley. They are not experienced so we are concerned about their ability to do the route. So I will watch this post closely for any advice people offer you. New v. Old Army route? etc...

If they are inexperienced or date is an issue you might want to use New Army Pass. There are a couple lite Class 3 sections of Army Pass near the top, which will not present a problem to most but some might balk at them. Also, Army is on a north face and retains snow much later than New Army Pass. My guess if there is not more snow, New Army will clear by the mid-July at the latest.

If go via New Army the place to camp is Long Lake.

I also enjoy Old Army Pass much more then New Army and although I have slipped and fallen down twice (mildly) on Old Army I have never felt the route is difficult or dangerous.

What I don't like about New Army is you snake all over the place before you really begin up it but Old Army is a flat walk along Lake 4 and then you just begin right up, also when you reach the top of New Army you are a few hundred feet higher then Old Army and you have to drop down to connect to the route near Old Army so it's a longer route with more altitude gain and loss.

Early June: New Army Old Army
The passes in general: New Army (from a distance) Old Army
Views back: New Army Old Army

If it helps at all this set is a successful climb of Langely from Old Army and this set is an ascent of New Army (early season).

I don't know if any of these will help because it was a failed attempt at Langely from Old Army.

I definitely prefer Old Army Pass given the views and distance but also must caution on the terrain during the winter/spring months. There are a lot of loose rocks and gravel that are prone to slides when the ground is moistened by the snow melt.

Last year in July took a 15ft fall when the ground shifted into a mud slide. For the novice New Army Pass may be better, at least until the summer .

I don't want to hijack the post but I have been meaning to ask the veterans this question. So if we go in August Old Army isn't a bad route? By then we will have been on several outings so they will have a very modest amount of experience. Certainly not up for any truly technical stuff. If at worst it is a modest class 3 with limited exposure they should be fine. Our current thinking is day one to lake 4? Day two summit and back to base camp. Day three hike back to the cars. Seem reasonable for 12-13 year olds? I hope the responses are useful to arnesarmy as well. Thanks!
arnesarmy, if you have your heart set on Whitney and Langley is a back up, try get a walk-in permit. I did it last year no problem. People who enter the lottery sometimes have to cancel and those permits become available. So don't let striking out of the lottery stop you from trying to get a permit if you really want to do Whitney.

By August, Army Pass will at worst just require a very short bit of easy Class 3 to get around some snow near the top. The three-day trip you described sounds reasonable.

I like to camp at lake 3 myself and from there it is 1 mile to the base of Old Army, Lake 4 is very exposed...

The pic I posted above of Old Army when it was clear of snow is early august so you shouldn't have any problems at all, the only place that makes you climb around some large rocks is near the top but it's extremely easy I think.

Your time frame is what I normally plan also.

My favorite camp spot is just to the southeast of lake 5, up in "hill", where there are a lot of protected flat spots. About a 10 minute walk to the outlet of lake 4. I think the 3-day plan is a good one.

If you go to NAP, Long Lake is the place to camp. I did a trail rehabilitation project on that trail up to Summit Lake, and cleaned out the campsites, as well. There are a lot of camping spaces on the west side of the lake.

In either case, don't leave any rocks on the trail!

Thanks for the tips on camping spots. I am thinking I will go do a quick solo outing before I take the boys. I really prefer to have first hand knowledge of what I am getting them into. Any beta you give is greatly appreciated.
So is the round trip around 22 miles either way? Are Long lake and Lake 3 both at about 11,200? Do you think that is to high to camp on their first night out? Is it roughly 8 miles to either Long lake or lake 3 from the trail head? Are either trail pretty easy to follow, well graded? Is there more water and more to see on one trail vs the other? I do prefer less exposure. For example I don't like Trail Camp very much. Too exposed and crowded. I like Outpost Camp better, it's just hard to find a spot without a ton of sharp rocks in your back. (I also like the lower elevation of Outpost Camp)
Again sorry if I am hijacking your post arnesarmy. I hope the answers to my questions help with your questions.

Lake 3 is about 100 feet lower.



Both Locations are about 6 miles.



Yes both are nice trails.



Water isn't an issue either way but it depends on what you want to see when it comes to views.

I knew I could count on everyone to give some very good insight. It's all appreciated and will make our trip a good one. I still need to see the open dates for Whitney since that was our ultimate goal this summer and we had struck out on the lottery this year.

The current Cirque Peak 7.5' USGS Quad has lakes numbers improperly. Most veterans of this area use the old numbers, as does the forest service on the map at the trailhead.

I agree Lake #4 is exposed but there are a few campsites around Lake #5. Most camp around Lake #3.

My wife and I (age 66 and 63) did Mt. Langley from Lake 3 (Forest Service identification) going up Old Army Pass on August 19, 2006. We left Lake 3 at 7am and reach the top of Langley by 1pm. It was a very pleasant walk and did not have any problems other than picking our way through some boulder fields near the top of Langley.

The day before we did a loop hike up Old Army Pass and down New Army Pass to be sure we could make it through the snow field near the top of Old Army Pass. I remember, and have some pictures showing one big patch of snow just below the top of Old Army Pass that required us to kick in some steps to get through it. Rather than post the pictures of what Lake 4 and Old Army Pass looked like here I can send them to you, if you would like to see them.

By the way, we also scouted the route up from Lake 6, but ran into a couple of people who had tried it and had bailed out. They said that the route was not easy; hence they were planning to approach Langley from Old Army Pass the next day.

I would add layover day at Lake 3 before trying Mt. Langley just to get acclimatized. My experience is that young children take a bit longer to get use to the altitude. There are a lot of good day hikes in this area.