Decided to do a quick overnight and climb up Mt. Daniel via Hyas glacier/Peggy's Pond.
Trail was in good shape, except for the copious amounts of horse manure. Snow free and pretty dry all the way to Peggy's Pond. Watch out for the bit of scramble to get around the SW side of Cathedral Rock in into Peggy's Pond - no snow, but there's loose rock and exposed scrambling in a few places.
Peggy's Pond was 99% snow free and the meadows were in great shape. Just a few bugs - nothing major - and plenty of water around. Only a few other people staying over night. Just a little chilly and a bit of wind.
A bit of early evening recon and discovered that there was no real way to get up the wall from the Hyas glacier to the North wall to gain the summit (we had climbed it that way 2 years ago in June) so we decided to do the South Ridge route spelled out by Becky.
Woke up in the morning to head up to Daniel and found the air filled with smoke and a tad bit of ashe from the fires in Wenatchee - made it a bit hard to breathe times and irritated my throat. Other than that the weather was spectacular. 6:20am start time.
Gained the ridge and got onto the upper Daniel snow field below the East Summit in 1.5 hours. Crampons and ice axes w/o using our rope on the steep snow up to the saddle on the South side of the East Summit - snow conditions were very good - almost too firm at times which made it a bit slippery.
At the Saddle we tried to make the scramble around the South side, but the scree was way too loose and hazardous so only I made it through to the saddle between Mt. Daniel and the East summit. Walked out on the Lynch glacier and took some pics - 9:30am by now which was our turn around time. Back across the scree field - it was worse coming back - and back at the camp by 11:30am. Back to the car by 3pm. One other climbing team seen in the way down - doubt they made it since they did not have the proper gear.
Though we didn't make the true summit of Daniel we had a great time - very spectacular hike and climb. Always a pleasure camping at Peggy's Pond.
One note - another camper who was also up early saw us leave and also saw a bear up in the barren valley below the Hyas Glacier - very high up for a bear!

Mount Daniel was a great choice for the clear weekend, including a dry overnight camp with potentially no need for a rain fly. Recent reports indicated that the ice on Pea Soup pond was receding so Lynch Glacier was not the route of choice, so here's what we did.
Drive in was unremarkable EXCEPT for the Forest road with 12 miles of potholes and a stream crossing (road is 1 hour drive). Recommend a vehicle with higher clearance and lots of patience for the knarly drive. Started at Cathedral Rock TH at 1100 am with climbing and overnight gear. Breaked at Squaw Lake which is beautiful! The trail to Cathedral Pass is in excellent shape with snow starting around 5000 ft, but trail melting out quickly. Trail from Cathedral Pass to Peggy's Pond requires a scramble up and around a snow mound (runout)about 1/2 mile into the hike. Minor scrambling around the ridge. Snow starts about 1/4 mile from Peggy's Pond but trail still negotiable. The pond is still snow covered and frozen, but melting around the edges. Several snowfree campsites (5600 ft), mostly on knolls. Prepare to snow camp in case there are several parties. Took 4 hours to get to Peggy's Pond at moderate pace and breaks. Used tent (bugs) but no fly. Plenty of water. Observed Mt Daniel and assessed route in preparation for am climb. Reports indicate large crevasse open at the top of Daniel Glacier just west of the East Peak and scramble route has very exposed terrain with scree and steep fallout on East side of East Peak. Decided to go up and take a look to decide which seemed the safest. Left camp at 530 am up east ridge boot trail (east/left of center gully). Ascended on snow and stayed east/left of bowl (used crampons and axe on perfect snow). Traversed high over bowl towards saddle on left side of East Peak with spire. Got to saddle close to 8 am. Assessed saddle on both sides of peak (right side would require rope to traverse Daniel Glacier and left side is scramble route). Chose scramble routes. One up the East Peak which has an ok boot trail but lots of loose rock and talus slides. Long John chose to go to the West Summit after crossing the scree section (30 yards long just after the saddle). Out and back in 1 hour.
Descended back to camp down East ridge which is highly recommended for the views, then scrambled down the rock with a couple of small glissades. Stayed east of the gullyBack to camp around 1 pm. Packed up and back to car at 5 pm. Overall recommend scramble route but exercise caution both to loose rock on the East Peak and scree/exposed trail just over saddle on approach to West Peak.

A group of six of us attempted to climb Mt. Daniel on June 18-19, 2011. We ran into several issues attempting this climb at this time:
- Road to trail is inaccessible: blow downs have blocked the road approximately 3/4 mile from the trail head.
- The trail is not visible nor accessible in places: there are several major blow downs that you must cross on the visible trail. Once you reach the snow line at about 4000 ft, the trail is not visible.
- The snow conditions slowed our rate of travel: regardless of traction devices, the snow was slushy (yet firm), there are, however, several areas of weakened snow or hidden caves/moats around trees/rocks requiring more caution.

Upon reaching Cathedral Pass, we began the traverse to Peggy's Pond. It took approximately an hour for us to traverse 1/3 mile kicking steps around Cathedral Rock. We crossed one significant gully with exposed rock and then back onto snow. The second gully prevented our traversal at that elevation. There was significant exposed unstable rock/dirt to continue and we opted to turn back after we were unable to determine a safe route towards Peggy's Pond.

The snow conditions on the traverse were also unstable, and during our return on the traverse my footing broke loose and I had to self-arrest from an uncontrolled slide of ~100 ft.

Another group of climbers we met at Cathedral Pass on our return also went out to assess the trail after us and ended up abandoning their attempt that evening as well.

With limited peak hike options available in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area that we could do in one day, we settled on Mount Daniel. Although we could have picked a better day to do the hike, it was a much better option than our other option of packing The Enchantments into one day.

We left Bellevue at 7 AM, got to the Cathedral Rock trailhead by 9 AM, and left the trailhead at 9:15 AM. The roads leading up to the trailhead were in great conditions with no closures. The weather had been gray all morning, so we didn't expect it to turn sunny any time soon. We checked the weather forecast beforehand and there was a chance of rain in the PM.

The first mile of the hike was non eventful until our bear sighting. According to my friend Tim, he spotted the bear sitting on the side of the trail about 50 feet ahead of us. When he noticed us approaching, the bear then fled downhill and disappeared into the woods. I didn't see the bear myself, all I heard was some serious, heavy tumbling through the trees. We were both in shock and kept still until we could no longer hear the rumbling. A minute after the bear took off, two men with four horses came down the trail, apparently from the horse camps. We passed along our bear sighting info and then went on our merry way.

We hiked past Squaw Lake, Deep Lake, plus a couple other small, nameless lakes before reaching Peggys Pond. Cathedral Rock was covered in deep clouds when we got to the pond. But lucky for us, the clouds soon dissipated and we got a clear view of the monumental rock formation. We heard a couple of hikers/climbers conversing as they were coming down from the rock.

After Peggys Pond it was pure scrambling for the remainder of the hike/climb to Mount Daniel. After going through the lake, the distinct trail started leading westward for another half mile or so. From that point on, loose rocks and scree started to appear and the trail became faint. We both brought our GPS devices, so we weren't worried if we didn't stay on the scrambling route. We realized we would be fine as long as we followed the ridge line up the mountain. We gave ourselves until 3:30 to summit the peak and would turn around if we couldn't summit by then. We past Circle Lake along the way.

Apart from the steep climb, the hike was smooth with occasional encountering of marmots and picas. The last mile and half was more challenging, as we had to climb over some big rocks protruding into the bluffs. There was especially one tricky spot where Tim and I weren't exactly sure how to get around without sliding down a sheer of rock. Eventually we figured out a way to maneuver through it with some "acrobatic" skills. After that point, things got easy and we were able to climb all the way to the West Pyramid according to our GPS tracks. We arrived at the summit at 3 PM, with no visibility of any nearby peaks.

We found two USGS reference marks and a lonely Buzz Lightyear action figure at the summit. It started to rain as we left the summit at 3:30.

Flickr - http://bit.ly/mt-daniel