Having been up at the Cottonwood Lakes area a couple of times in the last few weeks, I've noticed that most people are not attenpting travel up some of the passes due to soft snow conditions. As an alternative, on Saturday 5/17/2014 not wanting too long a day I decided to tag Woolyback. Now I would'nt have thought of Woolyback, but having bumped into Bob Rockwell on the trail a couple of weeks back I checked out his website to see where his group ended up, sure enough it was Woolyback, a peak I had never climbed before so this was the perfect opportunity. It stands on the North shore of Muir Lake and at somewhere above 12800 appears to be a huge pile of grey rocks, but, as you ascend panoramic views of the Cottonwood Lakes come into view, so much so that I could'nt stop clicking away (I took way too many pics) as I stomped my way up the sandy/rocky slope/ to the summit. I did not see any log/register up there and was'nt really sure which bump was the summit, so I tagged every thing in sight just to be sure. On what appeared to me as the high point my GPS showed 12813', but it was'nt calibrated so who knows! The only snow I encountered were a few patches high up and they were not an issue.
So after a day of beautiful scenery I headed back to the car, on the way had a great chat with a backpacker from LA, sorry man, forgot your name (thats altitude for you I guess)
All in all a great early season day.
Cheers
Phil
Old Army Pass & Lakes 4 & 5
Other pics: [url=http://philbrown.smugmug.com/Other/Woolyback-5172014/40820771_h7xH6t#!i=3252978634&k=7hzVnTd][/url]
