TAY 37.2 (2020.88) - Sharks, Pow, Wind Slabs, and shenanigans at Mount Daniel

The pied piper called the crew to Cathedral Pass Trailhead and we set out for our assault on Mount Daniel. By the time we got to Aha Pass we were hiking in 8-12” of soft powder and the stoke was growing. We gobbled up the scrambly bits and effortlessly completed the sometimes sketchy traverse without incident.

Skinning began at Peggy’s Pond and and the deep powder had us salivating. But there were still plenty of rocks exposed. After a creek crossing and a boots vs skins race to the ridge line cutoff (Skins won!) we stopped for lunch on the ridge.

Sadly the backside was not in, and so we headed up the ridge toward East Daniel Peak. Traversing the ridge above the cliffs gave us some pucker worthy moments as we noted several sections of 1-3” wind slab on top of 2’ of unconsolidated new snow.

While skinning I broke off a wind slab that propagated 12’x5’ and was 6” deep. It didn’t run but was a reminder that the snow was not as primo as we had hoped down low.

We knew the summit was out and we made a plan to find low angle slopes to ski on our exit. Good, albeit shark infested turns were found and we played silly games skiing back to Peggy’s Pond.

The crux of the day was the deproach as black ice on the trail resulted in at least three of going down and turtling.

All in all a good day in the mountains.