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Re: Mt Whitney VS. Mt Langley day hike
thx123 #26718 08/08/12 07:58 PM
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 1,253
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Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 1,253
Originally Posted By: thx123
Wow, this forum and you guys are awesome. So much useful info I could never get else where.

One last question, is it safe to camp at the Cottonwood lake during thunderstorm?

(Obviously I won't try to summit Mt. Langley if I see thunderstorm forecast.)


These are my stories and I'm sticking to them...

Too many years ago, a friend and I backpacked up to the Long Lake intending to summit Cirque Peak that day. As we set up camp at about 10 AM, it started to rain and hail. We watch all sorts of folks retreating down New Army Pass because of the weather. One guy in short and t-shirt during the worst of the hail.

We went up the following morning at about 5 AM, by 8:00, we knew we were going to have to hurry to get down before the lightning.

Last year, the same friend hiked to the top of NAP, saw and heard the weather and turned around headed back. There were people still heading toward the summit as lightning was striking it.

You most likely will not be able to see the weather until you top either AP or NAP. If it looks like crap you turn around. My advice is to start early, hit the base of pass at sunrise and be off the summit by 10.

Take a liberal dose of summit fever drugs prior leaving the trailhead.


Re: Mt Whitney VS. Mt Langley day hike
tif #27675 09/12/12 12:57 PM
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 671
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Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 671
Originally Posted By: tif
It took us about 4-5 hours to summit from the lakes, the down hike was ~2.5 with a few longish breaks. Had we taken the rocks up, we would have shaved at least 1/2 hour off compared to the scree slog we did.

We hiked from trailhead to the lakes in just over 3 hours FYI 7am-10:15am or so). Left the lakes around 11am-ish give or take and summitted around 3:45p (3:00p for the fastest in our group - but he did take a 15-20 min nap at one point)we spent somewhere around 20-30 mins on the top and were down to army pass within about an hour and a half from the summit. We were back at camp a bit before 7pm.

If I had to do it over again, I'd summit on day 2 rather than on day 1 of an overnight backpack, the hike out from the lakes is quite easy. That slog up the scree (the unavoidable part before the boulder/rock section) is HARD in my opinion - coming down ain't so bad but going up feels like two steps forward one step back...


Thanks for the info.

Based on your hiking time, would it be reasonable to say 13-15 hrs hiking time as a day trip?

For comparison sake, how does this compare to what you'd plan on for a Whitney day hike?

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