Home > Trip Reports > July 4-5, 2018, Mt Daniel ski Jade Lake paddle loop

July 4-5, 2018, Mt Daniel ski Jade Lake paddle loop

7/4/18
WA Cascades West Slopes Central
3388
4
Posted by CascadeYeti on 7/8/18 9:35am
This was my fifth time skiing on Mt Daniel but my first time skiing the Lynch glacier. I attempted this loop last year w/o packraft as a 3 day solo trip but the bergschrund was completely open 10ft wide and clouds came in preventing me from seeing any other route down Lynch or Daniel glacier so I skied back down to Peggy's Pond the way I came, yet again. I still wanted to attempt this loop and I had some good beta after searching various places finding that the Lynch glacier had total coverage and the bergschrund was only partially open. This year my friend Mike was able to come ski and raft with me as well as our friend, adventure photographer Ben Herndon, tagged along on foot. This time we only had two days to attempt this loop but we made it happen traveling about 12 hours each day. I estimate it's about a 25 mile loop with 7k ft gain. Thankfully we had overcast going up and combined with the scenery up high made it feel like we were making our way toward Mordor. We were on the west summit at 7pm, skied the upper Lynch glacier, then following the nw slope to camp at the drainage of Pea Soup Lake. We probably could have skied the whole Lynch glacier and skinned across the lake to camp and saved some time but it was hard to tell if it was doable from up high. The next morning was clear and the snow was rapidly softening. We scrambled up from camp to the dip-top gap with a few steep exposed snow and rock sections. From the gap we skied a nice mile long gradual slope all the way to the shore of Jade Lake where we set up our packrafts and paddled down the east unfrozen part of the lake. Marmot Lake was unfrozen but we did not raft due to time setting up the rafts again. Although the trail along the lake was not very easy with skis and boots on our packs. We probably would have made better time rafting Marmot as well. From there a long 10 mile slog back to the car where beers and mosquitoes waited. There was a quite a bit of snow around deception pass and the mosquitoes were relentless from Hyas Lake back to the car. It was such a neat trip with good friends and I felt like we were out there for four days not two. Maybe next time we'll add a day for skiing Hinman.

























Extra points awarded!

What an awesome creative trip! What a great adventure.

Don't tip! :)
author=CascadeYeti link=topic=40846.msg162198#msg162198 date=1531096552]


Excellent adventure!!! Thanks for posting😉


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july-4-5-2018-mt-daniel-ski-jade-lake-paddle-loop
CascadeYeti
2018-07-08 16:35:52