Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports Old Army Pass?

hoping to dayhike Langley this saturday. most current summits have come up via New Army Pass. We'd much rather prefer to go up OAP (shorter, more scenic, less sloggy) so any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I was camping near Cottonwood Lake #3 and hiked up to Cottonwood #4 on Friday (July 21). The basin above #4 and almost all the way up Old Army Pass is still almost all snow. Unless you know the route and are very experience on ice and snow, I would stay away.

New Army Pass still has ice on the trail to the top. However, just below the top a chimney has melted out through the ice. We came over from Soldier Lake (among worst mosquitoes I have ever seen) earlier that day. About 15 had just come over NAP. We had to lower packs from ledge to ledge on that chimney, but no ice axe or crampons required. We did see a bunch of day hikers going up and many said they climbed the chimney. Not sure she climbed the chimney but I did see one woman wearing flipflops who had crossed a couple of snow fields.

We're planning to go over NAP next week (Aug 3). How high would you say the chimney was on July 25 (fully understanding it will be different by the time we get there)?

Chimney itself was 10-15 feet tall. I think we ended up lowering the packs in about three or four stages between the chimney and the one ledge.

To be honest, I would not worry about things next week. We were coming down and had no real problems once we had scoped the pass out. There had were two groups that had climbed right before us: Mount Langley day hiker couple and a troop of 13 or so Boy Scouts. Quite a few day hikers from the Cottonwood Lakes basis went up as we came down. We saw some of them the next day and they had climbed the chimney too.

I did see two hikers who had gone through that spot about three days earlier and they said there wasn't enough room for their packs in the chimney, so quite a bit of snow melt is taking place.

Thanks, all, for the info. Looks like NAP it is. would sneakers be fine? or would you recommend something sturdier? i hear NAP is a tedious slog.

I have no advice on footwear. I have seen folks in quite a bit of different footwear. Most of it runs in the nature of trail shoes/runners to heavier boots, but there are all kinds of exceptions.

Two years ago, my son's Boy Scout troop had a kid go up San Jacinto in a shoe duct taped back together. This last trip, I saw one woman above High Lake on the way up NAP and after a snow field or two, and she was wearing in flip flops. I didn't say anything, but I thought she was crazy. She, on the other hand, didn't seem bothered.