Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion Acclimatjzation - Cirque Peak

Hello,

I just finished my first acclimation hike today going from Horseshoe Meadows to Mulkey Pass, Trail Pass and Cottonwood Pass.

I was gonna keep going to Cirque Peak and come down via Cottonwood but weather got nasty quick. Hail, thunder, lightning...what a show! I was the only guy coming down Cottonwood while I passed people heading up into that mess..oh, well

I want to try again tomorrow and go directly from HM to Cirque Peak and back. Have you guys/gals done this? How many miles round trip? Hours?

Thanks for any info you have.

About 15-16 miles round trip. 6 hours? Can't remember...it depends on you. It's flat most of the way. The only part that will have you breathing harder is New Army Pass.

:)

There are more than a few ways up to Cirque, here are a few suggestions...

NAP...When you top the pass hang a left and stay as close to the edge as you fell comfortable and make your want around on the big slabs.

CP...Go toward Chicken Spring Lake on the PCT. You will climb out of CSL and continue down the trail until the terrain on your right opens up. At that point, angle to high point on the horizon. There is some reasonably easy bouldering at the end.

NAP is easier, CP is more fun.

My guess it's 20-22 miles via NAP and 15-16 via CP.

My friend and I are planning to go up Friday night for a couple nights at Cottonwood Lakes. Here is our planned itinerary:

Friday night - arrive Horseshoe Meadows late (probably between 9 and 10 pm), hike to Cottonwood Lakes in the dark.

Saturday - Acclimatization hike to Cirque Peak, back down to sleep at Cottonwood Lakes

Sunday - Early start to head up Langley, hopefully off the summit before noon, then pack up camp and head home.

Questions:

1. Permits are all reserved for Cottonwood Lakes trail for Friday. We will not be arriving in Lone Pine until after the visitor center is closed - so we won't be able to pick up a walk in permit. Any suggestions on alternatives? Should we consider Cottonwood Pass?

Our backup plan right now is to camp at Horseshoe Meadows Friday night, run down and get a walk in permit on Saturday and hike to Cottonwood Lakes on Saturday - possibly needing to cut our acclimatization hike to Cirque Peak.

2. OAP or NAP? On Sunday, we plan to start out very early in the morning (in the dark). I know there has been a lot of discussion on this board, and the consensus seems to be that OAP is the better option - but due to the route finding issues, would NAP be a better choice for us given our alpine start?

Thanks in advance for the help!

The Visitor Center in Lone Pine will give you the option to pick up the permit in the night box -- in the kiosk by the road.

I think that requires that you not camp in Sequoia N.P. (not sure about just hiking into the park), but you can alter your itinerary if that is a kink.

Call the Wilderness Permit office in Bishop: 760-873-2483 and figure out what is required. They're the ones to call to set up the night-pickup.

I'd go OAP -- dawn would likely be approaching by the time you got to the upper half where any difficulty might be.

Thanks Steve. I actually called the Visitor Center in Lone Pine, and the Ranger told me that we could do a night pick up if we reserved a permit online. Apparently they don't allow you to get your hands on any walk in permits unless you are physically there in person while they're still open.

I will call the Bishop office to see if I get a different answer.

Ahh now I see where the confusion was - what I meant in my original post is that all the permits are gone, and I cannot reserve one prior to arriving. Therefore, our only option is a walk-in permit. I just realized my wording made it seem like we had already reserved a permit. Sorry for the confusion!

Have you looked at the map of the area? Which of the Cottonwood Lakes do you plan to camp at, 4 or 5?

Why not go to High Lake and take NAP up to Cirque Peak. It's right there. Come back down and keep camp there or move over to the Cottonwood Lakes and go up OAP the next day?

If your first night is at the Cottonwood Lakes, it seems like you're adding on needless miles going back and forth to Cirque Peak. Just my $.02.

Yeah, when I said camp at Cottonwood Lakes, I was actually referring to that entire vicinity. Where we actually camp, I don't know - we planned on scoping things out when we got there.

I suggested doing NAP for Cirque, and then OAP the next day for Langley to my friend. He is concerned about the route finding on OAP if we're going up in the dark. I think there's enough beta on this site to easily do it during the day, we're just not sure how smart it is to attempt in darkness.

Steve had a good point though - it will probably start getting light out as we get to the top of the pass.

Thanks for the input, much appreciated!

How about this:

Nite 1: CWP to Chicken Spring Lake
Day2: CSL along PCT, climb Cirque (class 1&2) from the west, camp at lower Soldier Lake (about 10,800)
Day3: Climb Langley via NAP trail, but cut off to OAP junction, climb peak, descend OAP back to car.

I've done the CWP to Chicken Spring at night several times, a very nice night hike.

I just hate to buy the same terrain twice, and this gets you seeing a lot of different areas.

> I will call the Bishop office to see if I get a different answer.

Oops! I thought I read that you had a reserved permit. I misread what you wrote. Sorry.

Bryan, there are currently two reservable permits available for Cottonwood Pass for Friday, 8/17. Snap them up, and you can pick them up in the night box.

http://www.recreation.gov/permits/Cotton...amp;entryType=1

Or watch the Cottonwood lakes permits -- if someone cancels theirs by tomorrow, you can have your Cottonwood Lakes preference.

Thanks Ken, that sounds like a good itinerary!

Steve - my wording was bad, sorry about that! I saw the 2 permits for CWP - time to call my buddy and see what his thoughts are.

Thanks everyone for the great tips. :)

I made Whitney yesterday and will post my TR soon. Thx again!!