Mount Langley Trip Report

Date Climbed: 9/14/02
Summit Elevation: 14,026 ft.
Elevation gain from tailhead: 4000 ft.
Trail Distance: 8-10.5 miles (one way)
Route: Old Army Pass to Summit
Time: About 12 Hours

Somewhat intimidated by the thought of climbing Mount Whitney and the associated 
red tape involved with permits, I decided Langley might be the best bet for my 
first 14er.  This turned out to be an excellent decision.  It turned out to be 
the most rewarding hike I had down thus far.

Rising to 14,026 feet, Mount Langley is the 12th highest peak in California and 
is only 465 feet shorter than Whitney.  The trailhead is at about 9,900 feet 
(http://www.peakware.com/encyclopedia/peaks/addapeak489.htm) which yields about 
a 4,000 foot elevation gain to the summit.

I arrived at the parking area shortly before 7:30am.  The main parking lot was 
full so I had to park in the overflow area (the Horseshow Meadow Equestrian 
parking lot).  The Cottonwood Lakes trailhead is located next to the restrooms.

I hit the trailhead (at Horseshow Meadows?) at about 7:30am.  Sun had hit the 
peaks around 6:45 so I could have gotten a slightly earlier start.  Not knowing 
the exact distance to the summit, I estimated on the topo map that it must be 
about 8 miles.  On the way back, another hiker told me the distance was 10.5 
miles.  I'm still not sure of the actual distance.

For the first two miles, the trail appears wide and well-used.  The trail makes 
its way west and south through forest and crosses over a small creek (Cottonwood 
Creek?) several times.  At approximately 2 miles I spotted the Golden Trout 
Camp, stopped to take a look, and then continued on.  It's around this point 
that the trail passes through a nice meadow.  Shortly after this point you will 
reach a fork in the trail.  To the left (South) are the South Fork Lakes and New 
Army Pass.  To the right (North) are the Cottonwood Lakes (and Old Army Pass).  
Although both New Army and Old Army will get you to the top of the ridge and on 
your way to the summit, Old Army is a quicker and more direct route.  New Army 
adds at least 2 more miles to the hike.

At about 4 or 5 miles the trail begins to break out of the forest and the 
Cottonwood Lakes come into view.  The trail winds between several of the lakes.  
Once you reach the middle point between all the lakes you are also about half-
way to the summit.  It's about this point that you will also spot a tin shack 
(probably used by the forest service).  The trail goes right past it so you 
can't miss it.  The tin walls are a logbook and record the history of the hikers 
that have past by.  They are covered with hundreds of names, dates, advice, etc.  
Trees and rocks are sacred and should not be defaced.  But a non-natural man-
made object placed in the wilderness is fair game.

Before reaching the base of the pass, the trail squeezes between the two 
Western-most Cottonwood Lakes.  Although most maps show the trail ending at the 
end of one of the lakes, it's path up the pass is quite obvious.  Up until this 
point the trail has been pretty much level with only gentle increases in 
elevation.  The pass is where things start to become more difficult.  I reached 
the base of the pass at about 10:40am.  It was also about this time that I met 
another hiker, Mark Tucker, and his trail hound Dharma.  He wanted to go to the 
top of New Army Pass but ended up at Old Army Pass by mistake.  The climb up the 
pass turned out not to be as difficult as I thought it would.  It took only 30 
minutes for the two of us to reach the top of the pass.

The closer you get from the pass to Mount Langley the tougher it gets.  The 
slope gradually increases and the sand and altitude really start to slow you 
down.  When you finally start to get close to Langley the class 3 rock in front 
of you can appear a bit intimidating.  Don't let this bother you.  If you stick 
to the left its a bit easier.  At the time however Mark and I thought it might 
be better to work our way toward the right.  This turned out to be a more 
difficult (although perhaps more rewarding) ascent.

At about 2:10pm we reached the summit.  As you reach the highest point on the 
North side of the summit, you will be greeted with a breathtaking (and there's 
not much breath to be had at this altitude) view of Mount Whitney to the North.  
And you will not soon forget the 3000ft vertical drop straight down.  There was 
already about 10 hikers who had reached the summit just minutes before.  One was 
able to use his cell phone to call home.

Mark and I spent about 45 minutes soaking in the views on the summit before 
working our way back down.  This time we worked our way to the south-west side 
of the mountain where most of the other hikers had gone up.  This was definitely 
the easier route.

Once we got back down to the lakes, Mark filled up my water bottles with his 
water filter and we went our separate ways.  I roughly estimated at this point 
that I should reach the parking lot around 7:30pm and expected I would need to 
use my flash light.  As it turned out I arrived back at the parking lot at 
exactly 7:30pm.  I did not however have to use my flashlight.  It didn't turn 
completely pitch black until I reached the trail head.  It only took about 45 
minutes or so to drive back down to Lone Pine.  Boy did that hot shower at the 
motel feel good!


Log:

06:45 departed Lone Pine (45 minute drive to trail head)

07:30 Left trail head
09:00 Reached fork in trail (left to New Army, right to Cottonwood Lakes)
09:26 Mount Langley comes into view
09:46 Reached tin shack by lake
10:40 Reached base of Old Army Pass
11:15 Reached top of Old Army Pass
02:09 Reached Langley Summit
03:00 Started back
07:30 Returned to trail head and parking lot

08:15 returned to Lone Pine


Stats:

Time from Trailhead to Summit: 6 hrs 21 mins
Time on Summit: 51 mins
Time from Summit back to Trailhead: 4 hrs 30 mins
Total Time: 12 hrs