To Langley and beyond...

Southern California and far-away places. Hiking, wildlife, cycling etc.

To Langley and beyond...

Postby Ellen » Wed Jul 10, 2019 12:07 pm

Howdy All :)

On Friday morning, Miracle Marilyn and I joined five other members on the San Jacinto Meetup for a Langley backpack. It's been a while since I've carried a backpack across a log over a stream, so I had two good baptisms before reaching First Lake.

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View of Langley (on the right) from First Lake.

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View of Cirque on our way to Long Lake.

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View of Long Lake from our campsite.

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Saturday morning alpineglow.

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View of Cirque on our way up to New Army Pass.

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Looking back at the lakes as we're heading up.

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Looking up at New Army Pass :shock:

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Cresting the cornice on New Army Pass with the help of our exceptional leaders Kirk and Tracy.

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At New Army Pass. Our teammate Lynn took the photo. Just call us the Crazy Cornice Crew 8)

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Made our way over to Langley. On the final ascent, we followed these cairns (I call them pagodas) to the peak.

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The Magnificent Seven at Langley.

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Views from Langley -- looking towards Olancha in the above photo.
Last edited by Ellen on Wed Jul 10, 2019 1:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ellen
 
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Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2007 9:38 am
Location: Riverside, CA

Re: To Langley and beyond...

Postby Ellen » Wed Jul 10, 2019 1:27 pm

After refueling and signing in, we headed back down.

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Looking back at Langley from New Army Pass. Once at the pass, our leaders Kirk and Tracy evaluated various descent routes -- dropping over the snowy cornice/cliff was not an option. Our next option was to head over to Cirque (shown below) and check a descent route.

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Once at Cirque, Kirk and Tracy determined that dropping down a steep slope over large rocks and scree to rejoin the New Army Pass trail was not an option. As the sun set, we made our way down to the Pacific Crest trail. Then, we took the PCT towards Chicken Springs Lake and Cottonwood Pass. After an agonizingly long walk, we finally reached the Cottonwood Pass TH at midnight. The Magnificent Seven bundled into three cars and headed into Lone Pine to refuel and rest.

Fortunately, the Dow Villa had rooms available in the motel section. Unfortunately, the only place that had food was the Chevron station. The night manager was lovely and took good care of us. The team microwaved various frozen items (burritos and Hot Pockets) before heading back to the Dow for hot showers and a few hours of sleep.

The next morning, we ate breakfast at the Alabama Hills Café and drove back up to the Cottonwood Lakes TH. Started heading up about 1 PM and reached our basecamp at about 5 PM. We had fun discussing our adventure before exhaustion and hypothermia drove us into our tents. On Monday morning, we had a leisurely breakfast, broke camp and headed down. We made it back in time to have another great meal at the Alabama Hills Café before heading home.

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Oh and did I mention that Saturday was Tracy's birthday :lol: :roll: :lol: She'll NEVER be able to top that birthday backpack :lol: :twisted:

Happy Birthday Tracy :)

Miles of smiles,
Ellen
Ellen
 
Posts: 2578
Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2007 9:38 am
Location: Riverside, CA

Re: To Langley and beyond...

Postby Ed » Thu Jul 11, 2019 7:53 am

Ellen,

Thanks for the trip report and photos, and congratulations on a great trip. I take it you carried your backpacks up New Army Pass? Or is that why you went back up?

Having dislocated a shoulder crossing a stream on a log, I am thankful your crossings were safe though wet. I first encountered the cornice in 1970, on a 4th of July trip. Being fairly novice backpackers, we were completely unprepared for it. No ice axe, no ski poles, nothing. Not even sure we knew what a cornice was. We would have turned back, but a lone backpacker came up as we were pondering it, said 'Let's give it a try', and clambered up a gap through it, which gave us the courage to go on. I think it was partly that experience that led us to acquire basic mountaineering skills and equipment, even though we were only backpackers then.

It is a long ways out of that region by any route, but Cottonwood Pass is quite an addition!
Ed
 
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Re: To Langley and beyond...

Postby Ellen » Fri Jul 12, 2019 11:33 am

Howdy Ed :)

I use my Gregory Deva backpack for a summit pack as it holds everything needed for emergencies. The cornice definitely caused my gut to contract :shock:

Comments from Hikin' Jim and our leader Tracy about the Cirque picture on Facebook (before I wrote the TR):

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Hikin' Jim: Let me guess... You took a circuitous route?

Tracy: It was GORGEOUS!

Hikin' Jim: Tracy, well, I can definitely see the cirquemstantial evidence...

:roll: :lol:

I believe the stats for Saturday were 19 miles (a good amount of cross country) and about 5.5 gain.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen
Last edited by Ellen on Fri Jul 12, 2019 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
Ellen
 
Posts: 2578
Joined: Thu Mar 29, 2007 9:38 am
Location: Riverside, CA

Re: To Langley and beyond...

Postby Ed » Fri Jul 12, 2019 11:46 am

I think I would have asked for a volunteer to jump up and down on the cornice until they broke a trench through it, rather than take Cottonwood Pass.
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