Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports Overnite on Langley 10-19-2012

Left the Horseshoe trailhead head at 7:20am Friday to New Army pass filled my 2 bladders and nalgene with 130oz of water at High lake 46deg. before going up the switchbacks of New Army.

Had lunch at New Army, no snow on switchbacks, then headed to Langley on the way saw a butterfly and said to myself "winters not here yet" took the middle way up though the rocks and got to the summit at 4:20..Set camp up and had a slight headache so took a ibuprofen. Had a nice dinner of chicken noddle soup,Hungarian pork and cracker jacks for dessert along with beautiful surroundings, light winds off and on 29deg. when I went to bed and watched the stars.

Dozed off and on till 9:30 when I took a sleeping pill and a 200mg ibuprofen and enjoyed the sky . At 1:15 I woke up and check the temp 27deg. and watched the sky for awhile..At 4am I woke for good and started coffee soon after..It got down to 25 and no wind in the morning..Brought micros incase I needed them for Old Army but didn't need them, snow was soft and stepped on..

I like to give a shout of my low top shoes that I bought a couple of months ago, after breaking them in on Baldy I took them to Russell and enjoyed them very much I have only owened 2 low top hiking shoes and this was my second, I went to A16 WLA to get a good pair or mids but the guy there told me to try these Patagonia Drifter GTX, these hard soles are really good on rock and scree..




Saw total of 5 Big Horn on way down from Langley..

Met karen from Bakersfield below the lakes and talked to her for awhile..

Nice weather to a nice overnighter, and topped it off with a BLT at the portal, thanks portal crew for my final meal for the season..

mark

Rest of pictures here Langley







Long Lake



Old Army Pass

Fifth Lake

Great report and pics Mark thank you. Question: Would you have gone without a tent had the weather forecast been questionable.

Thanks..Questionable, yes I would have still used the bivy...Depends also I might have just stayed home...

mark

gon2srf, I got rained on twice while using that Uber Bivy and it kept me dry both times aside from the slight condensation.

Good answer. Staying home or at lower elevation will also be one of my options. My sleep kit currently consists of a GG poly cro ground sheet, Synmat UL 7 mattress, Marmot Helium 15' bag, Integral Designs Event bivy and an MLD .75 cuben tarp. The tarp and Ti stakes weigh next to nothing and is awesome during extended rains. I really love hiking in winter and inclement weather but have no experience over 12,000 ft. so seeing your sleeping setup was comforting. Feel free to critique the sleep kit, I will be a Whitney newb and can use all the informatiom I can find.

Thanks for the reply. Bivys are great except for the the condensation as you pointed out being the biggest short coming.

Nice report, Mark. Thanks for posting. I am envious of your photographing the bighorn sheep. Where did you see them?

Good eye Steve, veiwing Marks pics from my phone I never even saw the sheep.

Here are two more of Mark's pictures, zoomed in and cropped.

Thanks for posting those.

Since this thread has morphed, slightly, here is Reason # 217 to live in fabulous Las Vegas:



These sheep are reliably witnessed just about every day (late afternoon is prime) in Hemenway Park in Boulder City (Las Vegas metro area).

I think the sheep on Langley are Rocky Mtn bighorns, and the sheep in Whitney Fan's are Desert bighorns. They're related, but not the same. Sadly, there are not too many of the Desert bighorns left.

(The two bighorn)..Steve thanks for blowing these up...these two are going up toward left side of the rock pile of the way to Langley summit. I was coming down from Langley..

Steve this is great for me, (three sheep photo)thanks again for blowing these up.These two in top photo I took that picture looked down to see the picture and I heard a "blonk" I looked up to see what that was and said to myself "they just head butted" up close I see now that they were just about to headbutt....So I got my camera ready for them to do it again looking over my camera to see when one would make the first move, about a minute later thats the next picture he is walking away...these pictures are different bighorns and about 150 yards west of where you drop down on old army pass..

Karen from bakersfield when I saw her on the trail she has seen up to 19 in the area..


thanks again steve

Confirmation of KevinR's observation -- yes, the sheep in the pictures I posted are desert bighorns.