Having kicked off my two week trip by being chased off of a peak by storms the previous day, I was looking forward to the long term forecast of clear and warm weather. However, when my alarm went off at 5:30 in the morning on Tuesday, August 12 I was disappointed to see quite a few clouds still lingering over the peaks. I studied the latest forecast and it had a similar prediction as the day before: storms clearing out throughout the day, leading to a week of clear skies. So, once again, I decided to trust the forecast and headed up Horseshoe Meadows road to the New Army Pass trailhead. My goal of the day was Cirque Peak, and not just the summit – I was planning on doing a loop over the peak via New Army Pass and Trailmaster Peak.
Trip Report
I packed up and was on the trail by 7:30 am. Grey clouds drifted above, occasionally allowing the sun to break through. Since it was only my second day out I was not acclimated and I could definitely feel the elevation (10,000 ft) as I picked up my pace. Fortunately, this trail starts off relatively flat so you have some time to get yourself warmed up before any real climbing.
About a mile and a half into the hike I turned at an unmarked junction up an old trail along the South Fork of Cottonwood Creek. You’re unlikely to find this trail on maps, but it is mostly easy to follow. There are one or two places where it fades a bit, but the signs of trail engineering are easy to pick up – tree blazes and sawed logs are the easily spotted red flags.
For the next 2.5 miles the trail gently climbs, gaining only 700 feet. Eventually, the old trail curves to the north and you’ll find yourself at the base of switchbacks that climb a few more hundred feet in the next quarter mile. Above these switchbacks you will be at the east end of the South Fork Lakes and will get your first view of the beautiful cirque ahead. You’ll also intersect the maintained trail to South Fork Lakes.
I took a break and studied the clouds. They were not improving, and the darkest and scariest looking of the clouds were hovering right over the cirque bordered by New Army Pass and Cirque Peak. I watched clouds blowing through quickly, with the sun poking through occasionally. Deciding to continue on, I thought back to my previous time on this trail and how we had gotten way off course and had to pick our way through a giant boulder field.
This is where the only tricky routefinding takes place. Any sane person would be tempted to continue straight and walk along the edge of the beautiful meadow. The terrain is flat and the view is wide open. However, if you continue this way you will end up in that annoying, endless boulder field. Instead, gain the forested ridge to the right and follow it towards the lake just to the west of Cottonwood Lakes #1. If you do this, you avoid the boulder fields and will eventually intersect the heavily traveled and well-maintained trail that goes to New Army Pass from Cottonwood Lakes.
My GPS track (embedded and downloadable below) shows the routes I took between the two trails. Both work, but the right/north track that I took on the return hike was a bit better.
Anyways, once I connected to the trail I moved quickly up to Long Lake. I was keeping a very close eye on the sky. Above Long Lake, you step above the treeline and are much more exposed. If these clouds were not going to clear out and turn into afternoon storms, it would not be a good place to be. Other parts of the sky were showing some promising signs of clearing so I decided to continue on.
I climbed to High Lake where I decided to rest and nibble some food and take in the weather. It simply wasn’t clearing over the ridge. I really wanted to climb to New Army Pass then traverse over the ridge to Cirque Peak, from which I would drop down the southern ridge and descend via our Trailmaster descent route. I was making great time and was about an hour ahead of my expected schedule. I sat at High Lake for about 20 minutes and the sky just wasn’t changing.
As I ate up that time padding waiting for the stubborn clouds to clear, a nearby backpacker came over to talk. She had been waiting for storms to clear over that ridge for three days before climbing the pass. She asked where I was going and I gestured towards Cirque Peak, hidden in the clouds. “Oh, there’s a peak up there? We haven’t seen what it looks like since it’s been covered in clouds for three days.” My heart sank – I figured it wasn’t going to clear in the next 30 minutes, and any longer than that and I would be hitting my turnaround time before I got to the summit.
I decided to turn around.
With my back to the cirque I retraced my steps back towards the old South Fork trail. Before dropping down the set of switchbacks I stopped for another break. I turned around to take in the view, and of course, there were now blue skies over Cirque Peak! If I had gone ahead to the pass instead of turning around, I would have been near the summit by now, enjoying clear skies and a lovely view.
While disappointing, I don’t like to gamble with weather and I was proud of myself for not letting summit fever talk me into a potentially dangerous situation. Those clouds could have started throwing lightning as easily as they cleared out, and that’s not a chance I want to take. Just like Leavitt, Cirque is not going anywhere. It’s a beautiful area, and with several options for climbing the peak I can find a new approach next time I try.
People who spend a lot of time in the Sierra understand the mostly predicable nature of how storms work in the summer. Mornings can start clear, but tiny clouds can build into storms by mid afternoon. One learns to study the sky and plan for exposed travel over passes and peaks in the early part of the day. However, there are exceptions to that pattern and today was a perfect example. It was the complete reverse of the typical Sierra stormy day, and that gave me enough uncertainty that I turned back on what ended up being a perfectly safe peak day. If there is one thing I can be 100% certain about, it’s that you should never underestimate the power of the mountains and err on the side of caution whenever you have to make a decision like this.
Smart to be careful with the weather. When we did Langley, we were on the summit when the lightning came about. Lucky that it didn’t hit us, but we got about 4″ of snow below us. Also in August. Though Cirque the day before was nice. A two day weekend out of Northern CA, the things we did, then!
Last summer, I struggled to see Cirque Peak through the rain from the trail to the SW from Chicken Spring Lake. I had researched slogging it up from that side, as I had taken some tenderfoots to the lake and left them there while I was going to bag a peak. It ended up raining 11 hours that day. Needless to say, Cirque is still on my list and we got off the mountain that day, since all the campsites were rapidly become ponds.
btw, weather forecasting for the Sierra has been greatly improved since the 1980’s (when you didn’t even have Doppler). With a connection, available anywhere with $$, you can track incoming cells, and even determine what the local weather may do, and still bag the peak SAFELY. My life as far as incoming is well worth the small expenditure, but as some would always have it. Even the 1950-era conceived TV advises when to go hiking or not, or to be advised. When T-storms are forecast, you probably won’t want a metal ice ax sticking up out of your pack!
My oldest (now all grown up at 36) climbed up there when he was 9 or so. I have to say you cover some territory in the Sierra. Fun to look at your photos and remember all the special places. If you haven’t already, try to find your way to ANWR. I think you might like it. As far as Sierra goes, Kaweah basin is one of my favorites.