Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Langley tougher than Whitney?

Hey y'all,

I'm not sure if anyone has posed this question on a thread here before. There are so many threads that I couldn't look through them all.

I recently hiked Mt. Langley and had previously hiked Whitney. In my opinion, Langley's stats, in comparison to Whitney's, were very deceptive. I thought it was going to be an "easier" hike, but I must say after having done both, that Langley was much more brutal. Several others in my group said the same thing.

I'm glad I hiked Langley. It was so worth the extreme physical and mental testing required to get to the top and back down safely. The views up there are breathtaking. But the climb sure was a doozy. The good thing is that I wasn't very sore after the hike, which was surprising since I hadn't hiked at all in two weeks.

I'm curious to know how others feel about the two mountains in comparison.

Joyce

I totally agree. The first half of the hike to Langley is a walk in the park. After the pass it's not horrible until you start the sand slog up, then it was hell.

With nearly all of the gain at the peak of the hike (other than the pass) it's very deceptive.

Harder? No. Different? Definitely.

But I wouldn't have been able to say that when I took the trail to Langley in 07 (I climbed the NE couloir almost 2 years later). While there are trails up there, it's mostly sand at the end. Not knowing how to deal with that, how to adjust pace, how to expect to work more because my feet were sinking in (yeah, I posthole in sand, too), would make it seem harder. And it was, for me, but I was also stressing about leaving on my first big trek a few days later. "If I can't get up and down a sand hill with a day pack how the hell am I going to lug my Beast for 2 weeks?"

And yes, the structure of the trail is very different, too. All the ups and downs vs. either the Main Trail or the MR can be an awkward adjustment.

Chalk it up to a learning experience.

I've pondered this myself. Personally, I think Langley is more difficult (on summit day) as a backpack, but I suspect Langley is easier as a day hike. As a day hike, Langley is 2000 feet less vertical than Whitney (TH to summit). But, as an overnight, Langley summit from likely camps (cottonwood lakes, high/long lake, upper soldier lake) is harder than Whitney summit from Trail Camp. The climb from about 12,000' to 13,600' is steeper than anything on the Whitney main trail, thanks in part to the 97 switchbacks on Whitney, and that long flatish section on the backside of Whitney. Langley, unlike Whitney, has you doing some of the steepest, hardest climbing at high altitude.

Hi Hikergirl,

You didn't say if you used Army Pass or New Army. Did Langley
3 weeks ago. I used Army pass..liked this hike better than Whitney, trail to the Lakes had a lot more visual variation. Started at 5:30, saw multiple groups of deer all the way to the lakes. Army pass was a bit of a mystery until I reached the very end of the last lake, then the trail become apparant. Once at the top the trail to the "cliffs" was very workable, (way better than the center bowl of Baldy) I followed a group of 5 up the blocks to the summit plateau, but wasn't real pleased with their choice so took a different route down, more toward the lakes. Hit the summit in clouds and light snow pellets around 11:45 and yes the views are amazing even with the clouds. Trip down was uneventful 'cept for getting soaked at the base of Army pass. Rained hard for about 25min. The worst part of the day hike was the last mile... who needs an uphill at the end of the day. YUK!! overall though I'd say easier than Whitney.

Continued Happy Hiking,
Rick

I have never done a backpacking version of the hikes. I'm more of a day-hiker, at least for now. What made Langley especially difficult for me was the sandy part going uphill. Going downhill, I was grateful for the sand, but uphill was extremely challenging. My trekking poles kept getting stuck in it as well, which was quite annoying. The other really tough part was going up and over New Army Pass and then having to do it all over again on the way back. I heeded the advice of the locals who all said not to use Old Army Pass.

Overall, it was one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever done, but also the most challenging of my life so far.

Joyce

Rick,

Sounds like you had yourself a real adventure up there. That seems like more of a mountaineering route that you took. You are so right about that last mile. I felt like I was falling apart at that point. I didn't feel that way after hiking Whitney two weeks before that, although Whitney's last 2 miles seem to go on forever as well.

We had absolutely gorgeous weather on Langley, except for the breeze and wind chill factor. There wasn't a cloud in the sky for many miles. I took almost 300 pictures on the hike. Good times.

Joyce

Joyce,
Just a note on Army Pass... Didn't encounter anything
that would be considered exposed, loose or miss-stepable
(is that a word, think not, but you get the idea.) Using New Army looks like it adds a lot of extra work to the hike.
Rick

Hi We took a short trip behind Whitney the other day that has a scree section and sand slope. Try adjusting your stride and loading before you move.Baby steps on scree and flat foot on sand ,It takes pratice but will make the trips easier across these sections.
Hope to see you on the the 13th of Oct. Thanks Doug

Hi All!

Thanks for the great info on Langley! My friend & I will be going up on Sept 30. It will be the first time for both of us & we will be doing an overnighter......

-cat

while we're on this topic,
does anyone know the mileage to Langley via New Army Pass ?
and
does anyone know mileage trailhead to Long Lake/High Lake ?
gonna spend couple nites up there w my wife early Oct
thx

Trailhead to Long Lake is about 6.5 miles

Long Lake to Summit is about 4 miles, I think, though I say with less confidence. But this is where you do the hard climbing.

Total one way, TH to summit, is about 10.5 miles.

This link might be helpful to you also:

http://timberlinetrails.net/LangleyTrail.html

For each mountian they present their different challenges. In my opinion Langley is more mentally challenging primarily because of the elevation gain/loss when coming from NAP as well as the long slog on the sand. I haven't done the whitney trail in years, but from what I remember is that it was very straight forward and really not steep, I didn't mind the switchbacks just because it was a trail versus other peaks where you switchback because there isn't a trail.

Either way the gaining the summit block was also more challenging than the Whitney Trail just because of the slight scrambling and route finding required.

So... while Whitney may be a more physical challenge, when push comes to shove Langley pushes one mentally further which in my opinion is harder than any physical feat.

Very understandable. Whitney is one of the easiest peaks to climb in the Sierra.

Time-wise, how has hiking Langley compared to Whitney?

Great feedback, guys! Thanks! I'm enjoying reading your responses.

63Chevy - Time-wise, at least for me, Langley was a shorter hike than Whitney by about 3 hours. When I did Whitney, I took a nap at Trailside Meadow on the way back, so that added more time. I practically ran down Langley because I just wanted to get back to the trailhead as soon as possible. My feet were so tired.

I agree about Langley being more mentally challenging than Whitney. I read trip reports on the hike in advance to prepare and what really struck me is that people said that Langley was one of the easiest fourteeners to climb. This was constantly on my mind through the hike. So when the leader of my group, who was well ahead of me, told me on the radio that he was turning back before reaching the summit, I couldn't make any sense of it. I wondered, "Can it really be THAT bad up there?" Come to find out, he stopped just before the rock scramble and said he didn't feel like climbing rocks at that elevation. The rock scramble really isn't that bad if you go up the "right" way. Many people seem to miss this for some reason, especially on the way down since there are so many trails marked by many different cairns.

I was tempted many times to turn back on that quest, but deep in my heart I knew that I was supposed to be on that mountain on that particular day, so I pressed on. I didn't have summit fever or altitude sickness. I just had a deep conviction in my heart so I followed it and ignored the negative thoughts in my head that tried to convince me it was not my day. I learned an important life lesson on Langley that day and I'm glad I stuck with the climb.

Keep climbing, y'all!

Joyce

I've been considering doing Langley for a while and this thread is focusing my attention. I'm thinking about driving up from L.A. Friday afternoon, camping at the trailhead campground and doing the mountain as a dayhike on Saturday.

I'm a slow, steady hiker. My roundtrip time on the MWMT last month was 17 hours including long breaks at Trail Camp and on top.

Let me know if you are interested in joining me. If you're in the L.A. area we could drive up together or meet at the campground.

The day after I did Langley, I mountain biked White Mountain Peak... in 3 hours. Therefore I'm going with White Mountain being the easiest by far.

Didn't mountain bike it, but climbed White quite easily myself. I'd definitely mark it the easiest (ahead of Whitney or Langley) too...