June 5, 2004, East Peak - Mt Daniel

Hiked up to Peggy's Pond on Friday afternoon under blue skies.  Our goal was to see the inside of a tent, relax and leave the world behind for a couple days.  

Trail is bare below 4500 feet.  Trail was more or less continues snow from 4500 feet up to Peggy's Pond with the exception of the area just below Cathedral Rock.  Other than a couple snow tongues, the trail turned bare for a half mile or so. The pond is mostly quickly thawing, but there is 3 to 5 feet of consolidated snow from there to entrance of Hyas drainage.

Woke up to rain on Saturday morning and delayed starting for the top until 10:00 AM.   After the rain subsided a bit, we hiked up to the ridge line right out of the basin to make things a little more interesting (hikers right).  On the opposite side of Hyas drainage, we could see evidence of recent slide activity.  Several cornices had broken off and triggered some impressive slides.

Booted up to the top of the east peak of Mt Daniel in snow, fog and light wind- very alpine.  There was 4 inches of new, unconsolidated snow on a firm base.  Was able to ski from about 20 vertical feet so from the top.  Small sluffs were evident on higher, steeper slopes.  At about 6800 feet, the snow was much more stable and I enjoyed a nice line into the Hyas drainage.  Once at the bottom of the drainage, it was a quick  ski back to camp.

We stayed another night and woke up with 3 inches of snow on the tent.  I'm sure higher elevations received more.  There's still plenty of snow left and once it consolidates, it'll be worth the extra effort to get there.  All in all, a good time.