August 25 - Mt. Daniel
8/15/12
WA Cascades West Slopes Central
2330
1
Went up to Mt. Daniel for a quick overnight bivy Friday night and ski on Saturday. Started out from Peggy's Pond Saturday morning and reached the bottom saddle of the East peak. Dropped my pack and skis and scrambled over to the Main summit. The lynch glacier has some crevasses starting to show, but looked very skiable. There are also lots of patches of snow around the summits that would be fun little yo-yo skis, including Mt. Hinman.
I scrambled back to my pack and climbed up to the East peak with my skis. After eating food at the top, I skiied what I think was about 1500' of snow (with one spot of walking over rocks.). I was able to start about 50' shy of the East peak and ended up near the small lake in the east basin. I started skiing about 10:30 AM, but it would probably be better to wait another couple of hours for the snow to soften more. It was kind of firm and the wind was helping to keep it that way as well. Then I climbed back down to Peggy's Pond gathered my things and hiked all the way out.
It was a long hike with skis for not a lot of turns, but at the end of August with a blue bird day, how can you complain?
On another note, I have been finding a lot of trash (socks, wrappers, starbucks cups, egg shells, etc.) along the trails in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area this summer. I have been trying to pack out as much of it as I can. If you see some trash, try to pack it out too so we can keep the forest clean! Thanks in advance.
I scrambled back to my pack and climbed up to the East peak with my skis. After eating food at the top, I skiied what I think was about 1500' of snow (with one spot of walking over rocks.). I was able to start about 50' shy of the East peak and ended up near the small lake in the east basin. I started skiing about 10:30 AM, but it would probably be better to wait another couple of hours for the snow to soften more. It was kind of firm and the wind was helping to keep it that way as well. Then I climbed back down to Peggy's Pond gathered my things and hiked all the way out.
It was a long hike with skis for not a lot of turns, but at the end of August with a blue bird day, how can you complain?
On another note, I have been finding a lot of trash (socks, wrappers, starbucks cups, egg shells, etc.) along the trails in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area this summer. I have been trying to pack out as much of it as I can. If you see some trash, try to pack it out too so we can keep the forest clean! Thanks in advance.
- the small bits of trash is referred to as micro-trash. too bad people don't know better. that's a good bonus if you go where there is little traffic.
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