A few days earlier, though, I'd re-injured the ankle I'd broken climbing 3 months earlier (oops). So I was awkward on my feet, and probably not good for the mileage we'd planned. We still had the time off, though, and a perfect weather window. We figured we'd play it by ear.
Overview
(I know this is a super well-traveled area, hope it's okay to post yet another TR!)
Day 0: Acclimatization day in Yosemite
This was going to be only our second backpacking trip into the southern Sierra, after a first trip into Dusy/Barrett Basins in Sept 2022 where we got in over our heads with AMS and barely got ourselves out.
So we decided to try harder to actually pre-acclimatize this time, by doing a day of exertion at moderate altitude and camping at a lower elevation (7.5k) than the trailhead.
We'd always wanted to climb Tenaya Peak's northwest buttress in Yosemite NP, so we figured this was a good time to try — the whole day would be between 8150' at Tenaya Lake and 10200' at the summit, so a reasonable middle elevation.
We were slow to summit despite the easy terrain (4th and low 5th class except for one off-route ~5.8 pitch at the top) — a mix of me being sluggish (I'd wrapped a slippery ankle brace on the outside of my climbing shoe, so wasn't using the foot much) and there being ~15 parties on the buttress this day (Saturday).
We didn't manage to start descending til around sunset, but our headlamps were strong and the offtrail route back down to the lake (not the class 3 ledges descent, but a flatter class 2 mostly down ramps) was remarkably pleasant.
We slept at Aspen Campground in Inyo just outside the Yosemite eastern entrance, which was quiet, pretty, and at 7490' low enough to let us sleep and adjust. (We'd asked for acclimatization tips here on HST and the biggest one was to sleep lower the first night, and this worked much better for us than sleeping at 9-10k.)
Day 1: Cottonwood Lakes trail to Cottonwood Lake #3 + unnamed Cottonwood Lake (5.6mi, +1240'/-210')
Our chances of completing our "ambitious" (for us) itinerary were already low, so we decided to make them even worse by getting the latest start possible.
After packing our packs back up, getting breakfasy at Whoa Nellie Deli (where we ran into a party from Tenaya Peak the day before and traded descent experiences), and hunting around in Mammoth for a piece missing from one of our trekking poles (no luck), we finally pulled into the Horseshoe Meadows parking lot around 3:30pm.
We had no passes to cross today, though — still trying to ease in and acclimatize — and the Cottonwood Lakes trail was gentle, beautiful, and fast, almost like walking on a road. We passed only a handful of dayhikers hurrying on their way out to beat sundown.
And then out of nowhere we were in the Cottonwood Lakes basin, above treeline, and the view was instantly stunning, all blue lakes and jagged mountains.
No tents in sight. We accidentally explored some of the swampy meadow northeast of Cottonwood Lake #1, then found a pleasant campsite on the forested ridge east of Cottonwood Lake #3, between it and the unnamed lake to the east.
Before dinner we taste-tested the water from Cottonwood #3 and the unnamed lake — #3 was much preferred, which made sense as the unnamed lake was more like a large swampy puddle.
Slept well despite being at 11100'.
Day 2: Old Army Pass, Mount Langley, off-trail to Soldier Lakes (7.2mi, +2990'/-2940')
Our plan today was to summit Langley, then drop down on off-trail to Upper Soldier Lake.
First challenge was finding the unmaintained trail over Old Army Pass from Cottonwood Lake #4. The pass looked intimidating from below, but as we approached, the trail just kind of unfolded ahead of us.
On Old Army, we encountered one couple on their way to summit Whitney two days later, one group using the pass as an acclimatization hike to prep for a Langley summit the next day, and one group of Langley dayhikers who had started before sunrise, summitted, and were returning home. The last group warned us about scary wind on the summit.
The route from Old Army Pass to Langley was gentler than we'd expected a 14er could be: one long, smooth ramp with (comically-large) cairns marking the way, then a maybe 50-ft section angling up to the summit plateau (we did a couple unexposed class 3 moves to get up, but there were probably easier ways), then the summit plateau itself, which was another smooth ramp.
It was in fact windy on top so we only spent about 5 minutes on the summit, mostly crouching (scared) to look down over the cliff edge without being blown off. Neat how you can walk on this gentle ramp for miles, then the mountain just stops.
Coming down Langley was a delight after we realized we could sort of run down the scree. Worth summitting just to enjoy the descent.
We cut right off the Langley trail as Upper Soldier Lake came into view, and made our way cross-country down into Soldier Lakes Basin without too much backtracking.
Upper Soldier Lake was crowded, surprisingly — we passed four parties camped nearby within 0.25mi of hitting the trail.
We figured that if it was this busy at the "far" end of Upper Soldier, getting nearer the normal Rock Creek trail would be worse, so we moved up the northern ridge a bit to get further from the trail and found a nice secluded spot, albeit a bit far from water.
