Welcome to the next edition of

California Mountain Adventures!

For this adventure I joined a group of friends on a three day trip to climb

Mt. Langley!

My friend and fellow mountaineer Tyler Johnson invited me and a few more of his friends to come climb Mt. Langley for his birthday! So I met him really early and we drove from Lone Pine up to the trailhead at Horseshoe Meadows. We met his other friends there, got our packs together, and hit the trail before the sun was up! We headed up the Cottonwood lakes trail with our headlights on. We got up into the Cottonwood lakes basin as the sun came up. Once the whole group had made it we left the trail and headed for Muir lake. We got to the lake and hiked around to the north side. The north side of the lake was a long beautiful beach! We found some nice spots to setup our camp in the trees just above the beach.

Sunrise from the Cottonwood lakes trail

Junction to Muir lake

Reflection on Muir lake

Muir lake

The beach on the northern shore

Overlooking Muir lake

There was no real plan for the rest of the day and it seemed like most the group was just going to relax at camp and enjoy the lake. But I'm much to restless for that, so I got my fishing pole setup and headed out to try fishing some of the many lakes in the basin. I tried fishing Muir lake, but didn't see any fish there. From Muir lake I dropped down to Cottonwood lake #1 and Cottonwood lake #2. Both had trout, but #1 was hard to fish because of the high grasses around it. From there I caught the New Army Pass trail up to Long lake. I fished there for a bit and saw some nice trout. From there I continued up the trail to High lake. Which was a beautiful lake, but I didn't have much luck fishing there. From High lake I saw a group of people making the climb up Cirque peak(12,900'). So I decided I might as well climb up there too! So from High lake I headed directly up the northern slope. It was really easy class 2 climbing and I quickly passed the group. I got to the summit and wow... what a great view! The peak perfectly overlooks the Cottonwood lakes basin and has huge views to the south overlooking the Golden Trout Wilderness.

Cottonwood lake #2

Cottonwood lake #1

Long lake

Long lake

Enjoying the views on my way up Cirque peak

Views south overlooking the Golden Trout wilderness

Me on the summit, with Cottonwood lakes basin down below

I hung out on the summit for a good while enjoying the views. I was surprised the group I passed while climbing hadn't showed up at the summit so I went to look off the north side and they were getting close. I yelled down and gave them some encouragement. "You're almost on top!... the view is totally worth it!" I yelled. Then I grabbed my pack and headed down the south face. This side took a bit more route finding to avoid loose crappy rock, but with a bit of due diligence I kept it class 2 and avoided the worst of the loose rock. The south face dropped me down to Cirque lake. I hiked around the lake and tried some fishing without much luck. I caught the trail there and headed over to the Southfork lakes. This was the best fishing!! I caught lots of good size trout there. Then I made my way back over to Cottonwood lake #1, this time on the less grassy side so I was able to catch a few trout there before heading back to camp at Muir lake.

Cirque lake

Southfork lakes

The next morning we all got up early and got ready for the big climb up Mt. Langley(14,027')! I headed out before the rest of the group because I also wanted to climb the Major General(12,400') a smaller peak just southwest of Mt. Langley. So from Muir lake I headed over to Cottonwood lake #3, up to Cottonwood lake #5, and then caught the Old Army Pass trail around Cottonwood lake #4 and up over the pass. From the pass I left the trail and climbed cross country out to the summit of the Major General. On approaching the summit I ran into some Bighorn sheep! It was so cool to see them. I love getting to see bighorns. The summit had some great views overlooking Miter basin and the Soldier lakes and had views of so many other awesome peaks! As I took a break there I thought "I wanna climb that one, and that one, and that one, and that one, and ..."!

Sunrise at Cottonwood lake #3

Cottonwood lake #5

Cottonwood lake #4

Overlooking Cottonwood lake #4

Arriving at Old Army Pass

Bighorn Sheep!

Overlooking Miter basin from the Major General

Views looking west from the Major General

From the Major General I headed straight up the west slope of Mt. Langley. It was a big steep climb, but nothing technical. I climbed and climbed and as I was getting near the top I look over and what do I see?? My buddy Tyler making his way up! So we joined up and made the summit at the same time!! The rest of the group showed up shortly thereafter. The views from the summit were AWESOME!! Especially the views north up the Sierra Crest to Mt. Whitney the tallest mountain in California!

Climbing Mt. Langley

Me on the summit of Mt. Langley

Tyler on the summit

The whole group on the summit!

After enjoying the views and getting lots of pictures we started down. Tyler was jealous that I had climbed Cirque peak the day before without him, so with plenty of time left in the day we left the rest of the group at Old Army Pass and headed for the peak. We made our way up to New Army Pass and then followed around the edge of the huge cirque that gives the peak it's name. Then up the west ridge to the summit. So I got to climb Cirque peak two days in a row! Woohoo!! We signed the register and then headed down the north slope to High lake. We headed back to meet the rest of the group at our camp at Muir lake for our last night. That night we had a super fun party by the lake celebrating Tylers birthday and everyone successfully making it to the peak!!

Overlooking Cottonwood lakes basin on our way down Mt. Langley

Overlooking High lake and Long lake from New Army Pass

Hiking up the west ridge of Cirque peak

Tyler on Cirque peak

Mt. Langley from the Cottonwood Lakes basin

Getting back to Muir lake

Me looking out across Muir lake

Clear starry night

The last day we got up and packed up camp and made our way down the trail back to the trailhead at Horseshoe meadows wrapping up yet another awesome California Mountain Adventure!!

*all photos by @derekrichardson or by Tyler Johnson and used with permission

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