Mt. Daniel Solstice

A very quick and sterile update for those interested in Mt. Daniel. First of all, there is still plenty of snow!
Scatter Creek is knee deep though. This may, or may not affect you. We chose not to cross via vehicle since skiing sounded way more fun than mitigating the effects of a flooded engine. Otherwise, blow downs block the road about a half-mile from the trailhead.

Once on the trail itself, snow patches and blow downs plague you until about 4,000 feet. Having added 3 miles to our approach, we camped at Squaw Lake. The lake is still mostly covered with floating blue ice. Getting around Cathedral Rock was a little tricky with steep snow and some travel through rock and dirt. We were really glad to have our ice axes. At least the snow was soft, so we could easily kick steps. Past Peggy's Pond and up towards Daniel, there is one larger crevasse opening skiers left (north side) of the Hyas Glacier. There was one witnessed point release on our ascent, on a SE facing slope, otherwise the minimal slide activity present seemed to have taken place the day before, primarily appearing to be several point releases on SE aspects and sluffing from a previous party's tracks. There were a few small cornice releases on all aspects. The Lynch Glacier looked messier with avy debris that seemed to be cornice triggered.

We didn't get corn, but enjoyed some really nice turns nearly the entire way to Peggy's Pond and only triggered one slow rolling pinwheel.

Long, great day. Glad to finally make it back there.