June 16, 2004, Mt. Daniel, Cle Elum River
6/16/04
WA Cascades West Slopes Central
2283
0
Mike, Matt and I took advantage of a beautiful day to do this trip, which I have wanted to do for a long time, and expected the coverage to be just about right based on TonyM's report from about 10 days earlier. The road ford of Scatter Creek was reasonable for a passenger car, although we wouldn't have wanted it to be a whole lot deeper. The trail was bare to near Squaw Lake, patchy to about 5300' but then continuous to Cathedral Rock, bare except a couple of snow patches on the south traverse under Cathedral Rock, and then there was solid coverage from Peggy's Pond on. At Peggy's Pond there were remnants of new snow from the weekend, but this layer deepened as we went up the Hyas Creek Glacier cirque, so that near the top there was up to 12" of new over the firm old snow. Skinning up we easily triggered slides of the new layer on steeper sun-warmed south slopes. We gained the ridge overlooking the Daniel Glacier near the pinnacle, then traversed south under the east summit to skin up its south ridge to within 10' of the top.
There appeared to be good coverage straight down the east slope of the east summit, so we started our run that way. The snow was a little funky, with a hint of a breakable crust near the top of the deep layer of new snow, and near the bottom there were some rocks covered only by the new snow. From there down to 7000' turning was challenging with the crust layer overlying the deep new snow, but below there was less new and a more south aspect to the slopes, and the turning was good. We ski cut the steeper section around 6800' and cleared it of the new snow, then had nice skiing from there back to Peggy's Pond.
Here's a photo looking up the Hyas Creek Glacier cirque from about 5800' on the way back:
Mike and Matt switched back to trail shoes at Peggy's Pond, but I had brought my waxless skis so I kept my ski boots on for the Cathderal traverse and was able to ski about three-fourths of the was back to Squaw Lake before the snow became unlinkable. The trail hike back to the car was shady and cool, but still seemed a lot longer than on the way up. Scatter Creek was a bit higher than in the morning, but still not a problem.
There appeared to be good coverage straight down the east slope of the east summit, so we started our run that way. The snow was a little funky, with a hint of a breakable crust near the top of the deep layer of new snow, and near the bottom there were some rocks covered only by the new snow. From there down to 7000' turning was challenging with the crust layer overlying the deep new snow, but below there was less new and a more south aspect to the slopes, and the turning was good. We ski cut the steeper section around 6800' and cleared it of the new snow, then had nice skiing from there back to Peggy's Pond.
Here's a photo looking up the Hyas Creek Glacier cirque from about 5800' on the way back:
Mike and Matt switched back to trail shoes at Peggy's Pond, but I had brought my waxless skis so I kept my ski boots on for the Cathderal traverse and was able to ski about three-fourths of the was back to Squaw Lake before the snow became unlinkable. The trail hike back to the car was shady and cool, but still seemed a lot longer than on the way up. Scatter Creek was a bit higher than in the morning, but still not a problem.
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