June 19, 2004, Mt Daniel, East Peak

Hopefully this report falls in the better late than never category.

I had planned to do this trip as an overnight, but offers to ski on Sunday (see Jun 20 Forturn Mtn) with others prompted what Burgdoerfer describes as an athletic day trip. I left the Cathedral pass trailhead at 8:15 and was able to hike to Peggy's Pond in my trail shoes. There was some snow between Hyas Lake and Cathedral pass, but once past the pass, there was no snow since it is south facing.

There was lots of snow at Peggy's pond and beyond. The climb up to the east peak is most straightforward. From the top I could see 2 parties on the Daniel Glacier (a party of three and a solo dude). The 3 made nice turns down the glacier. The solo dude made an excellent face plant.

Since it was quite warm, I let loose a good sized sluffer from the top of the east peak. After that all was stable. And in general the skiing was quite good. I had to get back early, so no yoyoing. Arrived back at the trailhead at 5:30.

Some further observations:

I eyed the chute down to Venus lake. Suprisingly this south facing chute had plenty of snow.

I was somewhat dismayed to view the slope on the eastside of Bears Breast. I had seen it the week before from Furtune Mtn and drooled extensively. The slope still looked good, but the access looked problematic. There seems to be cliff bands between this slope and the lakes below. I had hoped a traverse from Venus lake might be possible. Further the slope looks kind of short and perhaps prone to climax slides for all that work to get to it.