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Last summer, I planned to summit Mount Whitney on a weeklong backpacking trip that would take us up Whitney Portal, and along the PCT. Unfortunately, there was heavy snow that year, so our original pass was closed. We headed to Cottonwood Lakes to start our trip instead. On our trip, instead of climbing Whitney, we decided to find a view of Whitney from afar, and ended up climbing Cirque Peak. Surrounded by snow-covered mountains, no other people or man-made structures in sight, was one of my most peaceful moments of the year.