Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board New Army Pass from Horseshoe Meadows, Options

Looking to do 4 day mid-week "New Army Pass" trek in August starting at Horseshoe Meadows campground (Route 8 in Paul Richins "Mount Whitney, complete trailhead to summit hiking guide, 2001")

If we can get a walk-in permit for the Trail crest exit, will come down the main trail, then get ride back to car at Horseshoe. If we can't get a walk-in, then we'll be stuck with returning the 18 miles via NAP vice coming down main trail, right?

First night to acclimate at Horeshoe Meadows

Day 1: Is it feasible to get to Soldier lakes on day one, 10.5 miles? We're "decent" hikers, i'd rate 7/10. If not, is camp near/around NAP okay? Books says so, but nothing round here mentions it. Or get near NAP and make day 2 a bit longer.

What about camping/fishing at High Lake? Long Lake sounds like an option, but i'd be inclined to get more covered in day 1.

Day 2 to get to Upper Crabtree Lake for night 2.

Day 3 would be to day-pack summit and back to Upper Crabtree. (~8 mi round trip) for night 3.

Day 4 would be return to portal via Mt Whitney trail. (~9.5mi down) This would entail a short back track up to the trail crest junction, right? Night 4 would be hopefully in a warm bed in Lone Pine after a few beers

But, if we don't get Mn trail pass, then we may have to do a 4th night on the return, right? As upper crabtree is 14.8 miles and we're not the best after 10-12 . . based on experience

Or, are there other options?

There's just 2 of us, wife and I and i spoke with authorities and they said it would be pretty likely to get a walk-in when we arrive. Does that sound feasible?

Thanks in advance

I believe 10 of the 25 Trail Crest exit permits are available for walk-ins, which become available at 11 AM the day before you hike.

...But that always puzzles me: You are going on a 4-day hike. So you need an exit permit 5 days away from the current date. That puts you in front of people looking for an exit permit who come in the next day for a 3-day hike. But it puts you behind people coming in the day before for a 5-day hike.

If you don't get an exit permit, there is also the option of exiting via the Whitney Russell pass. While it is off-trail, it is pretty easy class 2 hiking over to Iceberg Lake. From there, the only difficulty is finding the easy route down to Whitney Portal (the Mountaineers Route). If you study the various maps and pictures here of the route, it would not be too difficult. I would opt for this exit over the return to Horseshoe.

Going to Soldier Lakes if your not a bad hiker isn't so bad, I haven't done it but once you reach the top of New Army in 7 miles it's all a down hill slog.

On average I can reach long lake in just over 3 hours.

Long Lake depending on what you consider nice may be nicer because it's still in the tree line, High Lake offers plenty in the way of camping and with a longer trip it's probably a better idea to stay there.

As for fishing I am unclear on the regulations imposed on the South Fork Lakes, as I have understood the Cottonwood Lakes other then Lake 6 is catch and release only which probably is why you can walk down any creek in these areas and the trout scatter with every step, there is thousands of them!

First off, I'd go over Army Pass, there is less climb.

However, if you are going to NAP and were staying east of the pass on day one, I'd opt for Long Lake, campsites are more plentiful and sheltered.

If you are used to carrying the backpacking weight Soldier Lake isn't all that hard...my friends and I were in good, not great shape, and made it to Lower Rock Creek Crossing a few years ago on the first day in. Last year, in crappy early season shape we made to Soldier Lake via Cottonwood Pass in a day...those sandy ups and downs about killed me both in and out...thank God for Alaskan Amber at the trailhead.

Why are you planning on coming back to Upper Crabtree? I'd just go over the pass and plan on spending a night at either Trail Camp, Outpost Camp or Lone Pine Lake...depending on how you feel.

A note of advice, the exit permit is good for 3 days...according to last person I spoke to on the Reservation Line, the day of, day prior and day after the date on the permit.

Thanks everyone so far!

Thanks wbtravis. I'm going to look into Army Pass vice New Army pass, i've read that before too.

We are decent packers, so maybe the soldier lake option will work based on what you report.

We will go over the pass and down Trail Crest . . . only if we can get a walk-in permit as i noted above. That is our ideal route, but won't do it w/o permits.

Thanks again.

Thanks Steve,

I called yesterday and got my permits to enter & exit horseshoe meadows as planned. And, I spoke with the ranger about the walk-in exit pass options as it did puzzle me, same as you. Yes, you're correct in the logic, from what i understand. I guess you could look at it as the person out longer gets better chances

He said that they will issue them "in advance" assuming there is still "walk-in" openings for the planned day of exit. So yes, you can get a "day before" pass in advance. Of course, one can't get one 2 months in advance, and he couldn't give me a specific number of how far is too far, but he said "within reason" and it also has to be attached/part of a logical trip. Meaning, if you're doing a 4 day trip, you can get an exit permit for the 4th day, even 5 days in advance - as we're going to attempt.

It makes sense to me . . kind of

I'm sure repeated here, but there are 10 walk-in exit pass permits per day (15 reserved, which are all gone of course). Chances would be pretty good that the 2 of us will be able to secure some for our planned exit.

If not, then we have an extended trip . . and we'll make it back to the car.

Two years ago, I went from Horseshoe Meadows to Whitney Portal in five days as follows:

Day 1) Horseshoe Meadows over New Army Pass to Solder Lake. This is a long day, about 12.5 miles. The first few miles from Horseshoe Meadows to Cottonwood Lake #1 is fairly mild, a good way to start the hike. Going up New Army Pass is a slow grind, especially with a 45 pound pack. Once New Army Pass is reached, then you have several downhill miles. At Solder Lake, there are several campsite options. Just before the ;ake there a few sites, and a communal bearbox. We actually camped by the lake, and the views made it worth the little extra walk.

Day 2) Solder Lake to Crabtree Meadows. Another long day, about 10.5 miles. The only difficult part is the climb up Guyot Pass. After this, it is downhill to Crabtree Meadows.

Day 3) Crabtree Meadows to Guitar Lake. Be sure to stop off at Timberline Lake for a rest and check out the views. You will reach this just before Guitar Lake. No camping is allowed here, but it is a beautiful lake. I took lots of pictures. When you get to Guitar Lake, there are several places to camp, we were at the eastern edge of the lake.

Day 4) Guitar Lake to Trail Crest to Whitney Summit. It is about 3.5 miles from Guitar Lake to where the JMT joins the main Whitney Trail, then another two miles to the summit. I spend the fourth night on the summit, awesome sunset and sunrise. The only downside to this is you need to carry enough water to last from Guitar Lake until you reach Trail Camp on the other side. For me, that meant leaving Guitar Lake with 7 quarts (15 pounbds) of water.

Day 5) Whitney Summit to Whitney Portal. Eleven miles to the best burger around the famous Moose Burger with bacon.

Overall, I really did enjoy this adventure. I took lots of pictures and met many nice people. I definitely will do it again.

I hope this helps. Whitney Mike

I was thinking of doing this same hike sometime over the summer. What typically is the easiset way to handle entering one area and exiting another when it comes to transportation? Is it fairly easy to coordinate with other hikers? Is there any type of shuttle service from Whitney back to HM? I'm guessing driving 2 cars up from SoCal is the best bet, correct?

Yea, we're figuring the same thing. Although we certainly won't take 2 cars (just the wifey and I). As our trip nears, I was going to look into the shuttle service for a one way transfer. [url=http://www.mtwhitneyshuttle.com/][/url] http://www.mtwhitneyshuttle.com/ Will be a bit last minute, as it all depends if we get the Exit permit or not. Don't want to hitchhike, so if worse comes to worse, we'll return to Horseshoe.