Cirque Peak routes????

[hikehigh]

Anyone ever hiked up Cirque peak via the south fork of cottonwood creek? Cottonwood pass and new army pass seem to be the obvious other ways to go, but looking at the topo, south fork looks like a good direct route to the base of the peak?? Any info???????

[giantbrookie]

Looking at the topo, it seems to me that the South Fork approach is less convenient than the other two options (Cottonwood or New Army with New Army easily being the preferred and most simple route) given that one would have to do some route finding to dodge some cliffs, whereas the other two routes one simply follows a ridge or one can ascend directly from High Lake on the New Army trail) for a class 1 route. In any case, a S. Fork approach seems to needlessly make the simple more complicated, plus the New Army route gives one the option to easily do Langley and Cirque in the same day.

[BrianF]

I did it that way once. Up the Soth Fork to Southfork lakes, over to Cirque Lake and up the cirque east of Cirque lake. There is a very good use trail up the the south fork, very easy to follow. The climb up the cirque was class 2 with loose scree and talus - in other words; a slog. It is a better descent route