It's hard to call a Sierra peak easy but at 18 miles with 3,000 feet elevation gain this is pretty close. There are numerous ways to this peak but the standard is via New Army Pass. I have been to Old Army twice but this would be a first going over this pass. The route is pretty roundabout and there does appear to be a shortcut via the South Fork Lakes that I found about later. The first hour is hiking in forest until you come to the drainage that you use to access the lakes. Another 45 minutes finally gives you your first view of a Cottonwood Lake. My last attempt at Cirque had come to an abrupt end two years ago at this point when a storm and lightning hit. Today there was just the faintest of cloud cover to the west while the east had some patchy clouds. The view of the range really opens up at this point. You pass a second small lake and then start climbing to Long Lake which IMO is the jewel of the basin. From here it starts to get pretty bare as you make your way up to the last lake, High Lake. New Army Pass is accessed by climbing the north wall of the drainage which puts you exactly on the opposite side from Cirque to the south. The climb is quite gentle for a Sierra pass climb but the elevation may affect you.
You reach New Army Pass after 7.5 miles of hiking and the weather was quite pleasant in the low 60s with minimal wind. A 1.5 mile xcountry is required with about 400 feet elevation gain to the peak. The ridge is flat and sandy with some very odd rock that has been weathered into unusual patterns almost like coral. The final climb gets steeper and rockier but can be bypassed to the west if you so wish. We first stuck to the ridge and then for the last hundred feet moved over and contoured along the sandy slopes until we saw the high point and beelined to the top. The peak is not as popular as I thought but pretty popular for a Sierra peak.
We arrived on top in just about four hours. The view down to the Cottonwood Basin is tremendous as it drops off dramatically. West and south are also nice views while the north is blocked by Langley. The top of the peak has an eroded rock that is shaped like a bathtub that my son got great enjoyment out of laying in and taking selfies of, kids these days. The sign-in can had many familiar faces including the famed paid of Dick and Jill who had hiked it last year aged 72 and 68 respectively. The cloud cover was coming in fast and my hopes of a traverse to Cottonwood Pass were not to be as I saw rainfall in that section. I got my son out of the bathtub and we did a much better job traversing the west side descent. I wanted to get to the pass before the rain hit us and we started descending just as the first drops started coming down. An odd thing happened on the way down the switchbacks, the clouds broke up and the sun came back out. This allowed us the luxury to chill out at Long Lake for a bit and see who could keep their feet longer in the cold lake. There was a lot of activity near the lakes with campers, dogs, and horses all out.
We finally had enough and started down the long trail back to the car. About halfway down the clouds decided to make a comeback and this time they meant business. Thunderclaps and lightning were all around us, yet no rain. We increased our pace and made it back to the car and even though it was 3:30 it was as dark as sunset. The clouds were apparently waiting for us because within five minutes as we had just finished changing and loading up the car, we got whacked by torrential rain. We joined the line of cars that were getting the F out of there and once we got to the main descent down to the valley the rain had stopped. We got one more surprise on the 395 near Fossil Falls with another torrential downpour and violent wind. The hike took us a total of 8 hours and was as close as I can remember to not feeling tired for that amount of time on the trail which was probably due to a combination of good terrain and minimal elevation gain.
Cirque Peak
I made an attempt on Cirque back in 2013 from Chicken Spring Lake. Ran out of water, my partner lost his pack, and hilarity ensued. It sounds like the views are worth the effort. Definitely not an easy hike and a very nice area. Thanks for the report.