High Sierra Topix

We had an itinerary planned for this trip that we went in knowing we probably couldn't do. (We'd wanted to make it from Horseshoe Meadows to Langley, Whitney, and Muir and back, mostly cross-country.)

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
CalTopo link: https://caltopo.com/m/2KBCHC1

(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.

second-to-last pitch on Tenaya Peak

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.

Half Dome, Clouds Rest, Mt Starr King, and more from the Tenaya Peak descent

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'.

Mt Langley looming over unnamed Cottonwood Lake

view from Cottonwood Lake #3


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.

first ramp

moving up to summit plateau

summit plateau

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.

Obligatory summit pic

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.

Day 3: off-trail to Miter Basin, over Crabtree Pass, through Crabtree Basin (6.5mi, +2180'/-1770')

Our goal for the day was to see Miter Basin and make it over Crabtree Pass, so we could decide whether or not to try to go up Whitney/Muir the next day.

The direct off-trail entry into Miter Basin proper from Soldier Lakes was a little marshy but straightforward.

entering Miter Basin from Lower Soldier Lake (we have lots of sun protection)

We passed two clusters of tents while walking up lower Miter Basin along Rock Creek. There was a fun miniature headwall to climb just before we reached Sky Blue Lake, where we stopped for some water and a snack.

We contoured around the eastern side of Sky Blue Lake in order to start heading toward Crabtree Pass. The terrain up to the pass ended up being somewhat complex; we detoured left after Sky Blue Lake then veered right again to bypass some cliff bands.

north end of Sky Blue Lake

finally nearing Crabtree Pass, Mount McAdie above

top of Crabtree Pass

Where we crossed, the Crabtree side of the pass was steep loose scree near the top, solidifying into semi-stable talus halfway down. After we made it down and could see our route from the bottom, we realized we could probably have taken a better line to skier's right. I was shaken enough by the descent to forget to take a picture of this, though.

grassy east shore of Upper Crabtree Lake

Once down to Upper Crabtree Lake the walking was easy again. We rounded the east, grassy shore of the lake, then took a nice use trail cut into the sandy slope above the north shore of the lake.

Once we were past the upper lake, the walking became nice and slabby, and as soon as we got near Middle Crabtree we set up camp.

almost at camp, near Middle Crabtree Lake

As far as we could tell, we had this half of Crabtree Basin to ourselves.


Day 4: off-trail to Crabtree Meadow, JMT to Guitar Lake, short off-trail exploration (7.9mi, +1470'/-1780')

Today was originally supposed to have been our day to summit Whitney/Muir, so we figured we'd at least head in that direction. We had two options for getting there: the on-trail JMT route from the west, or the off-trail shortcut from Upper Crabtree Lake up the dreaded sand hill to Discovery Pinnacle.

We decided we'd been off-trail long enough to enjoy a trail day, so opted to head to Lower Crabtree Lake to meet up with the JMT.

The first part of the day walking past Middle and Lower Crabtree Lakes was lovely, easy cross-country travel.
We'd missed the side trip to Iridescent Lake in Miter Basin, so really enjoyed the slight iridescing we saw from Lower Crabtree.

ponds upstream of Middle Crabtree Lake

getting water from Lower Crabtree Lake

lower Crabtree Lake, iridescing

The JMT was dusty and crowded — though we felt like such curmudgeons for thinking so, especially as we kept passing people thrilled to be there.

JMT near Guitar Lake

We've always been comfortable with giving up halfway up a mountain, so after reaching Guitar Lake, marveling at the number of friendly hikers there, and feeling a little out-of-breath just imagining going back up to 14k feet again, we decided to abandon Whitney/Muir and wander over to Hitchcock Lakes instead.

We became transfixed by a tiny pond (with a little class 3 playground above it) on the way there, though, and just whiled away the rest of the day there.

a nice pond

Day 5: back to Timberline Lake, then JMT/PCT over Guyot Pass past Rock Creek to dried-up lakes (13.7mi, +2530'/-2800')

We decided to try the PCT again. Trail miles are fast, but these ones were a bit dull — lots of forest with few views. Interesting to see all the parties heading toward Whitney though, from all over the world.

Getting back on trail at Timberline Lake

We aimed to camp near what looked on the map like two tiny lakes. We thought they might not exist, though, so we carried extra water from Rock Creek. (They turned out to be dried-up lake beds.)

Dried-up lake bed


Day 6: PCT past Chicken Spring Lake, over Cottonwood Pass, back to Horseshoe Meadows (9.7mi, +1070'/-1970')

Trails are tiny roads; people more mindful than us can probably still immerse themselves in the scenery around them, but we end up just tuning out entirely. Very comfortable walking though — Cottonwood Pass was barely a bump.

Sand by the trail

Chicken Spring Lake

We refilled at Chicken Spring Lake and were back at the parking lot by noon, slightly sore, somewhat disappointed in ourselves, but still very pleased to have been in the Sierra.

We picked up some In-N-Out in Palmdale and tried to get ready to drive to LA.

Great route for a bad ankle, sleepydragon. We have really admired many of your bright photos; the first one we were struck by is that weirdly/beautifully lit shot of Half Dome as you were descending Tenaya Peak. The beach and brilliant water colors one from Lower Crabtree Lake is our other favorite. Thanks for putting together such a fine trip report. Harlens.

great report and pics. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for sharing your report and photos! I went on a similar albeit much slower trip (but coming out at Whitney Portal) a few years ago and our group was also surprised by how tricky Crabtree Pass was (and, similar to you, we also reflected that there were probably better more stable routes down the other side into Crabtree Basin). The night we got into Upper Crabtree Lake, a ton of smoke and ash blew in and we were afraid we would need to hoof it out overnight or the next day, but we woke up the next morning to clear blue skies and the most enjoyable ramble down to Crabtree 2. I love this area and hope to make it back there someday.

Did you process those photos to make the colors more vibrant? They really pop out.

Thanks so much for reading and comments, it means a lot coming from folks who have done so many amazing trips!

lauralai627 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 9:33 am Thanks for sharing your report and photos! I went on a similar albeit much slower trip (but coming out at Whitney Portal) a few years ago and our group was also surprised by how tricky Crabtree Pass was (and, similar to you, we also reflected that there were probably better more stable routes down the other side into Crabtree Basin). The night we got into Upper Crabtree Lake, a ton of smoke and ash blew in and we were afraid we would need to hoof it out overnight or the next day, but we woke up the next morning to clear blue skies and the most enjoyable ramble down to Crabtree 2. I love this area and hope to make it back there someday.

Whitney Portal exit sounds like the much superior way to do it!
If we were to do it again, we'd try to leave that way, or to return through Crabtree + Miter Basin the way we came as an out-and-back. Seeing the same beautiful scenery again facing the other way
would've been much preferable to the loop back on the trail we chose.

We had some smoke while we were out there too (visible on the fringes of some of the photos), which probably made us more conservative with our approach, but nothing like what you encountered — we were lucky!

Bishop_Bob wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 2:12 pm Did you process those photos to make the colors more vibrant? They really pop out.

I added some contrast/sharpening since they're a little dull when raw out of the camera, but no specific color-tweaking. The blues were SO blue out there!

I was struck when out there by the blue of the sky in particular — this was the highest place we'd been for a long time, and the deep-blueness of the sky (fewer air molecules to scatter the sunlight?) kept making me pause.

Thanks for the trip report.

What was the reasoning behind doing the route with the hard stuff first and easy walk out second? I tend to do the reverse. Nice to read how Old Army Pass works. I have always done New Army Pass. I absolutely love Crabtree Lakes! I have spent several days there and still want to go back. Yes, the PCT from Crabtree Meadow to Cottonwood Pass is REALLY boring. With all the great country just off the PCT in the Upper Kern I see that trail simply as a means to get to the good stuff. I did Whitney exit twice and never had much trouble getting an exit permit, but that was the days when you could walk into a ranger station and get a permit. In spite of lots of people the Whitney exit is spectacular.

Wandering Daisy wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2025 12:20 pm What was the reasoning behind doing the route with the hard stuff first and easy walk out second? I tend to do the reverse.

Yeah, this was definitely a mistake. We had originally wanted to make it an out-and-back through Miter and Crabtree Basins, and just take New Army Pass back to make it a little different. We were slower than we'd hoped, though, so ended up bailing out to the trail for the second half to be certain of making it to LA on time.

In retrospect we should've known we'd be slow (my ankle sprain was pretty ugly, and my partner wasn't feeling strong either), and either done this loop trail-then-xc to have light packs on the cross-country, or (probably better) only gone as far as Crabtree Lakes, and have ample time to return and maybe explore further in Miter Basin. Crabtree Basin was beautiful and so quiet, my favorite place that we made it to on this trip.

Wandering Daisy wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2025 12:20 pm Nice to read how Old Army Pass works.

We were worried it'd be sketchy but it was quite smooth once the trail appeared — and felt pretty easy because it's so much lower than New Army. There was one spot (2/3 of the way up) where it seems like in a snowy year the trail would be covered, and there wasn't an obvious path around. So maybe not good before the snow melts out. But otherwise great, and very convenient for getting to the easy way up Langley.

Wandering Daisy wrote: ↑Mon Feb 17, 2025 12:20 pm I did Whitney exit twice and never had much trouble getting an exit permit, but that was the days when you could walk into a ranger station and get a permit.

Alas! I logged in a couple minutes late for the two-weeks-in-advance permits and by 7:04am the Whitney exits for our date were booked. Everyone we met on their way to summit Whitney did seem much more excited than us about the summit, though, so we were happy for them to have the permits instead of us! We'll have to make it up there one day — it's a beautiful mountain.