Trip Report: Cottonwood Lakes/Mount Langley 5/17 - 5/19

[7empest]

Started off by spending the night in the Cottonwood Lakes Campground. There are nice walk-in sites for hikers located right near the trailhead. This was my first time hiking south of Mt. Whitney and I’m impressed how beautiful the this area is. It snowed a bit around sunset but nothing was sticking.

Day 1:
I hiked up to High Lake below New Army Pass on my first day. The area was nice and there was a coyote hanging out by the lake when I arrived. Got more light snow show that evening but like the previous night, nothing was sticking.

Day 2:
I woke up and hiked over New Army Pass. There was very little snow on the pass. The cornice of snow was still there but if you veer off trail (climbers right) you can avoid it almost entirely. At most I took 5 steps in snow the get up and over. The weather was very nice. The walk over towards Langley was nice. I didn’t realize if you hike over New Army Pass and head towards My. Langley you basically walk along the top of Army Pass too. I left most of my camping stuff at the Soldier Lake Trail jct. on my way to the top of Langley. The summit was beautiful. The air was still and the sun was plentiful. I didn’t need to hike through any snow on the way to the summit. I found the extraordinarily large rock cairns on Langley somewhat comical but they seem to get the point across as foot traffic appears to be concentrated the the intended “route”. I signed the hiker register and headed down to Soldier Lake for the evening; Another beautiful spot that was new for me. I had the whole summit to myself for about an hour before a trail runner joined me up top.

The trip was supposed to conclude in Onion Valley but the weather forecast was pretty nasty sounding. I took the queue from several PCT thru hikers that were exiting before the storm and decided to head back to my car at Cottonwood Lakes Trailhead.

Day 3: Started off by hiking up and out of the Soldier Lake area back toward the trailhead. I decided to descend (old?)Army Pass so I could explore the Cottonwood lakes area that I had initially bypassed on my way over New Army Pass. There was still a bit of snow covering the upper switchbacks on the East side of the pass. I decided to just bypass the snow by scrambling directly down the pass. It wasn’t too bad but there were some areas of scree with loose boulders mixed in that were a little annoying. When I got down the Cottonwood Lakes basin I wandered around a bit and visited several of the lakes. Around then I realized I had dropped my phone somewhere below Army Pass and my current location. Trying to find it proved basically impossible as I had covered almost a mile; most of which was either scrambling or off trail. So unfortunate no pictures.

The trip was fun. Only saw about 10 people the entire hike. There was a moment where the sun broke out and I could see the little mosquitos buzzing. They were still pretty lethargic and unmotivated as I didn’t need to use bug screen. I would say they’ll be getting buzzing there this week but maybe the cold snap zapped them dead like a hard frost on early spring flowers. (Very uneducated guess!)

Here is one photo of the Summit that came from a video I texted from the top. Was surprised to have strong LTE signal up there.

[balzaccom]

Sorry about your phone. That's got to be depressing. But a nice report. Good to know what things are like up there. And you have a great reason for not posting any more photos!

[narc1370]

Thanks for the report. How were camping conditions at High Lake? I've pulled a permit for that area for a similar trip in a couple weeks and I''m still debating New Army Pass vs Army Pass for a route.

[7empest]

High lake was nice and there were good camp spots fairly close to the west shore. If you plan on staying at High lake then New Army would be the one. Again, Army Pass still has a bit of snow up top and hiking around it sucked for me. If you use micro spikes it would be easier just to walk in the snow. But you said you aren’t going for another couple weeks so it may all be gone. I’m not quite sure of the patterns for this area as this was my first visit.

[GGC23]

I'm heading to this area this weekend, so thanks for the conditions update. We're planning on taking Old Army Pass on the way home, so if you can pass on what your phone looks like and any more info about where you think you dropped it, I can keep an eye out.

[7empest]

It is a pink iPhone 8, but my guess is any phone you find in that area is mine. Lol. I would guess it is below the bottom of the snowfield, basically right on top Pass (you’ll probably see some steps kicked) and somewhere ABOVE the loose scree section half way down the pass (fall line straight center) when my bag came to rest it has literally laying on top of a bunch of decomposing blue nylon half buried and in tatters. Also, there should be a semi cylindrical shaped battery bank somewhere. Good luck and be safe