Nine of us camped out near Cottonwood Lake #4 on Saturday night. One group started hiking at 5:30 on Sunday morning, and a second group started at around 8:30.
I hiked with the early group. We took the main snow chute up to Old Army Pass. The snow had frozen overnight, resulting in good conditions for cramponing. At its steepest point, someone measured the slope at 45 degrees. We summitted at around 10:30, and hiked back down to the top of Old Army Pass. By early afternoon, the snow had softened, so descending wasn't too difficult. Each of us faced into the slope, with the ice axe in the stake position, and two hands on the axe.
On the hike back to Horseshoe Meadows, I talked to two hikers who had summitted Langley via New Army Pass. They had used ice axe and 4-point crampons.
