Marmot Lake, Jade Lake, Dip Top Gap, Mount Daniel, Peggy's Pond & Nosh Nosh Wahtum — Friday, Jul. 25, 2014

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway

I decided to climb Mt. Daniel and thought I'd check out Marmot/Jade lakes along the way so made a loop out of it and climbed the Lynch Glacier of Daniel. NOTE: This is an off-trail seldom-traveled route that goes down to Peasoup Lake and up to Daniels; there are class-3 scrambles and glacier travel with crevasses. The trail to Marmot is great, though there's an old avalanche/blowdown mess on the other side of Deception Pass. Look for the made-made branch formation up the meadow a ways for the trail. The trail to Jade is steep and requires the use of hands. The trek up to Dip Top Gap is a long slog with crampons, including a terrifying traverse on loose scree. Made a bivy shelter up on the gap and slept there. Getting down to Peasoup, you really need to stay high (drop maybe 100ft below the obvious rock outcropping), then traverse until you can downclimb the class-3 ridge above the outlet. Cross outlet, class 3 slabs up to Lynch, then ascend weaving around several crevasses. The descent of Daniels took awhile.. Peggy's Pond was empty and beautiful but couldn't be enjoyed for all the bugs. Squaw was better but still buggy. This trail is in great shape. Some steep/exposed terrain under Cathedral Rock near the pond, esp. considering it's a popular hike! All-in-all, a much needed get-away from everything.