Can someone clarify the roundtrip distance it is hiking from Cottonwood lakes TH to the summit via (i) New Army Pass and also from(ii) Old Army Pass? I know its a bit longer from New Army, but I've heard various distances ranging from 19-24mi for each, didn't bring a GPS and the maps I have aren't detailed enough to calculate it.

Thanks!

nyker, I'm not sure about New Army as I've never tracked that. When I went up Old Army last month with a friend, he tracked it via an app on his phone which showed 19.8 miles if I remember correctly. .

ok thanks, that's around what I thought. I know the route up New Army is a bit longer, but not sure by how much?

My gps shows the distance from trailhead to Army Pass as 7.2 miles, Army Pass to New Army Pass as 8/10 of a mile, and New Army to Trailhead as 7.1 miles. Hope that helps. Of course I created my own switchbacks between Old Army and New Army, so it could be done shorter.
John

Actually, the route through NAP can be short if you go via the South Fork Trail, that is usually blocked by a tree limb 180' or so above the first stream crossing. Once you achieve South Fork Lake you go cross country through the lakes basin to just below Long Lake. This cuts off 2 miles RT and all but eliminates roller coaster trail but not the sand.

You save a mile going this way. However, my pass of preference is Army Pass. It eliminates the climb back up when you are just a tad wasted.

Ugh, I thought it might actually when I went down to South Fork, by accident when I was not paying attention. I opted to turn around and take the established route instead. Nice basin down there though.

This is the only way I will go to NAP. I hate rolling overused sandy horse trail. The only time I use it is when I head for Army Pass...I even cross countried back back from Army Pass the last time go down it.

I know what you mean! I wouldn't mind doing this climb again, maybe camping and doing some of the side trips and take more time for photography. That area is real nice.

Of course there is always the Tuttle Creek to Langley route. 4.5 miles one way. Much steeper (starts lower also, so total of ~7K' elevation gain). Guess you could call it the Mountaineer's Route.

Rob, you asked about the mileage, but I suspect you really want to know how long it would take you to do it. If you hiked at the same level of effort as you did on Whitney with me and Carine, and didn’t make any route-finding mistakes, I think it would take you 10-11 hours, car to car.

Yea Bob, I think that's about right. Correcting for the added time it took to do my little trip to Cirque lake and the stops for some photos around the lake, I was in that ballpark.