Mount Daniel, Peggy's Pond & Cathedral Rock — Friday, Jul. 24, 2020

This is a quick trip report for the east summit of Mount Daniel via Cathedral Rock Pass.

The road is rough but passable for all vehicles if taken slowly.  There is about 13 miles of gravel driving that has the usual diet of potholes and rough rocks.  The Chatter Creek ford isn’t very high at this point, maybe a foot.  The biggest difficulty is the sharp bank that drops down into the ford.  Fine in a high clearance vehicle but a passenger car will have to take it slow. On the drive in as you are headed north, look to the left side for a more “gentle” entrance into the ford.  I noticed it on the way out.  I arrived at the trailhead at about six AM to eight or so cars already parked.  When I left, that number was closer to 14.

The trail to Cathedral Rock is snow free and in good shape. Some muddy spots here and there and I was surprised to even still see some snow patches near the trail before even getting to the PCT junction.  A left at the junction with the PCT (it is well marked) and a short little jaunt along it brings you to the Peggy’s Pond cutoff.  For those of you who have not been on this side trail, it has a scrambly section that will likely see you use your hands a couple of times.  Just take your time, there are some cairns to help guide you along the easiest route and if things seem a bit more difficult than they should, stop and look around.  It’s likely you have gotten off the trail. But once through this, a short grunt up a steep section and you will find yourself at the enchanting Peggy’s Pond.  I didn’t notice any bugs at this point despite being close to water but I did apply bug repellent at the trailhead.

I have climbed Daniel a handful of times, all along the SE ridge but on this day I had a bigger route planned with Daniel just as the starting point, then traversing over to Hinman and the looping back around using the Chain Lakes, Lake Williams, Dutch Miller and PCT trails.  Given this, I decided I wanted to move further north into the bowl on the east flank of the mountain created by the Hyas Glacier, find a nice ascent line to the NE ridge and then drop down onto the huge NE flank of the mountain and summit from there before beginning the traverse.

While I enjoy the SE ridge of the mountain, I have been missing out!  The moraine area of the glacier, if it an even be called that any longer, is incredible.  A world of rock and snow with tumbling waterfalls surrounding you on three sides as you ascend into the upper bowl.  It truly is an alpine feeling.  I picked a line that I thought would work well for gaining access to the NE ridge and began to work my way up to the ridge traveling on both snow and rock.  The snow was soft enough that I kept my traction in my pack but the rock slabs were a bit more crumbly than I anticipated and had lots of loose rock covering it which made for tedious scrambling.  I stayed to the snow as much as I could.

I topped out on the ridge at about 7,100 feet and looked at the huge NE expanse of the mountain.  It was here I planned to drop down onto what I believe is technically a portion of the Lynch Glacier and make my way to the summit.  Unfortunately, despite deep blue skies on the eastern side of the mountain, the western side was socked in by a layer of low clouds.  I decided to keep ascending the NE ridge to see what the weather was doing over the next 20 minutes or so.  This involved some snow travel and class 3 scrambling.  As I delayed doing this, the clouds started to pour onto the northeast side of the mountain.  I decided to call  off my bigger traverse as I didn’t want to try and navigate the traverse over to Hinman in low visibility. 

So for fun, I traversed below the east summit of the mountain and made the final scramble up to it.  This is mostly rock and class 2 with a couple of class 3 moves (use your hands but a fall would have little consequence except maybe to your pride).  I enjoyed the views from the east summit but decided to not make the trip over to the true summit.  I did notice that the traverse below the east summit to the true summit still holds snow and will have you crossing an exposed portion of snow.  Recommend traction especially early in the morning as the sun doesn’t hit this until later and it would be unfortunate to have to turn around so close to the summit! 

I then scrambled down the east summit, hopped onto the snow and took a long trailing descent down the bowl and back into the moraine area.  There are some steep sections here and I took out my ice axe for fall protection and a bit of glissading I did to finish the descent.  Far preferable to dropping back down on the SE ridge in my opinion and honestly, it is the way I would ascend the mountain right now too.  From there I tucked away my ice axe and retraced my steps back to the car.  I saw two groups camping and two groups ascending the mountain.  For those camping at Peggy’s Pond, please remember to utilize campsites with bare ground. One of the campsite was set up on the meadow next to the lake.  I will also note, there is a climbers path leading to the moraine so you do not have to walk on the meadows. It is well marked with cairns and easy to follow.   

Trip total was around 14 miles with a little over 5,000’ of gain.  Also, water sources are a bit scarce until you hit Peggy’s Pond and then they are everywhere.