I started my hike from Cathedral Pass Trail with the goal of reaching one or more of the Mt. Daniel prominences (something that had been on my bucket list since last Summer). I originally considered doing an overnight, but ended up doing a car-to-car single day push instead (which I don't recommend, having done it once).
The drive in is paved until after the Salmon la Sac campground and is bumpy/washboarded the remainder of the way. I saw low-clearance vehicles at the trailhead, but I would recommend a higher clearance vehicle for comfort and because Scatter creek is still flowing over the road a few inches.
Arrived at 10:30 and had to squeeze in an awkward spot right in front of the trailhead by the grass (fortunately I wasn't visited by field mice this time!!).
Got out of the car and got bombarded nigh instantly by mosquitos. I stuffed my gear in my pack as quickly as possible and set out with my Oboz Bridgers as my approach boots. This was pretty much a theme the rest of the trip, minus the windier/snowier sections.
The trail up to Squaw Lake was very wet/muddy in sections and steeper than I anticipated for the distance. Much of the water was shallow on the way to the lake.
Squaw Lake is completely thawed and there's a small creek [outlet] that needs to be crossed on the east side of the lake. The best way to negotiate this (since it was going up over my Bridgers) would be to use sandals or hop along the rocks to the side.
After Squaw Lake there was patchy snowpack with standing water over the trail in areas up to Cathedral Pass. One can avoid most of the standing water by sticking to the snow if at all possible, using gaiters, or by just bringing higher top boots. My Bridgers worked ok in this area, but I did my best to not run through or splash the puddles ;).
The traverse from Cathedral Pass to Peggy's Pond was a narrow, steep goat trail along rock, some loose scree, and through more durable forested area. The path was snow free up until the last 1/4 mile with a single tree that needs to be hopped over to get to the pond. From Peggy's Pond to the Mt. Daniel east peak summit block, there's pretty much persistent snowpack.
After reading recommendations and talking with folks, I decided to not take the summer trail. Instead, I tested the snowpack and after deeming it largely stable I hiked up old [glacial] terminal moraine. I didn't use my crampons on the ascent (I used my ice axe, a trekking pole, and climbing helmet), but I used crampons on the descent for safety. There was tons of rotten corn snow on the top-layers made the descent tricky in the afternoon, even with crampons, and the layers underneath which had been skied on were pretty icy/hard Cascade Concrete consistency.
I observed some D1 wet loose conditions on the descent along with some top-layer sliding and my kicking down fist-sized rollerballs with my crampons.
The east peak summit block is snow free in the last 300' (it's a light class 2+/3 scramble). I opted against down climbing to the other higher peak because a) I was tired, b) it was more socked in, and c) I didn't want to up and down climb up kitty litter scree part of the way.
For the record, there's no good way to glissade down safely due to cliffing and exposed rock; the old terminal moraine can be skied down if one is nimble and comfortable doing steeper (double black) slopes.
There are lots of creeks underneath the snow that I noticed starting to open up on the way down from the summit, as well as tarns/lakes.
I did the walkout as the sun was setting with the final hour being done entirely in the dark. I finally got back to my car around 20:00 and was both mentally and physically exhausted (thankfully I had some caffeine in the car waiting for me).
18 miles R/T and 5k'+; took me about 6.5 hours to summit and 4.5 hours to get back to the car (discounting breaks, transition times, time spent chatting with hikers/campers, etc).
I took 3L water and ran out approximately 4 miles from the end of the trail. I would have filtered more, but my water filtering gear was buried under climbing gear that would have been extremely annoying to untangle while being mobbed by mosquitos. I ended up eating clean snow wherever I possibly could to avoid risk of getting Giardia.
Gear Requirements
- Climbing helmet.
- Ice axe.
- Mountaineering boots or hard boots (for skinning).
- Mountaineering microspikes or crampons (recommend the latter).
- Layers (it was nippy up there with the wind/temps).
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