Glacier Snake Climb: Mt. Daniel (2012 Mazama Climb 090)

Mt. Daniel, at 7,960 feet, is the highest peak in both King and Kittitas Counties in the Alpine Lake Wilderness.  The Alpine Lake Wilderness itself is a beatiful area in the central Washington Cascade range and the wilderness contains other spectacular peaks such as Mt. Stuart, Dragontail, and Colchuck Peak.  Mt. Daniel itself is made up of five peaks: West Summit, Middle Summit, East Peak, West Pyramid and Northwest Peak  The West Summit is the true summit even though topo maps state that the East Peak is.  Since the West Summit is the true high point, it was our objective for the climb.

We met at the Cathedral Pass trailhead on Friday afternoon with an anticipated departure time at 1:00pm.  My carpool buddy, Andrew, and I were the first car there.  We made great time leaving Portland at 6:00am and arriving in Cle Elum just after 10.  We drove through Roslyn (think Northern Exposures TV show) and then to Forest Service Road 4330 where we would drive 10 miles to Tucquala Lake which is where the Cathedral Pass trailhead is.  Because the roads were so bad, it took us an hour to travel the final 10 miles.  Though we were ontime, the rest of our climbing party was delayed by the road conditions.  Fortunately for me and Andrew, we had more than enough time to prepare our packs, eat our lunches, and get situated.  After the other vehicles showed up, we split our group gear, did introductions, and began our climb around 2:30pm.

As the title suggests, this was a Glacier Snake Climb led by Obi Wan Danobi Snake (Daniel).  Also on the climb was Hungry Snake (Dan).  We had two new Glacier Snake graduates who would be officially named during the climb.  The Cathedral Pass trail crosses the Cle Elum River at around 3,200 feet elevation and then immediately ascends about 1,600 feet to the top of a ridge.  Once on the top, it was a short hike to Squaw Lake where we took a break, ate some food, and traded ropes.  We continued northward and climbed another 800 feet to Cathedral Pass enjoying views of Cathedral Rock directly ahead of us and Mt. Stuart off in distance behind us.  Once at the pass, we turned onto the Peggy's Pond trail which is not maintained and required some downclimbing as we scooted around the southwest side of Cathedral Rock.  We had to cross two separate snowfields , one of which had a significant runoff that required us to scramble up and around the snow.  Slowly, but surely, we made our way to Peggy's Pond which was only partially melted out.  There were enough melted out areas where we all were able to set up our tents on the rock instead of the snow. After setting up tents, we made dinner, filtered water, and Obi Wan Danobi Snake informed us that we would leave at 6:30 the next morning.

Though the winds picked up overnight, I was able to get a reasonable night's sleep.  The next morning, we rolled out of our tents, ate breakfast, put our climbing gear together, and headed off at around 6:45am.  West Summit is not visible from Peggy's Pond, but East Peak is.  We knew that to get to West Summit we would have to get to a saddle directly south of East Peak.  So, we started up a hill directly to our west which would soon become the southeast ridge of the mountain.  We did not need crampons, though we did carry them with us.  We kicked stepped our way up the snow.  The snow did not entirely set overnight, yet it was firm enough to get some good steps in.  We were more or less in the snow for the first 1,000 feet above Peggy's Pond and then when the ridge became more defined, we were able to move onto a primitive dirt trail with cairns leading the way.  Directly below us to our south, we enjoyed views of Venus Lake, Circle Lake, and Spade Lake.  Venus and Circle Lakes were just starting to melt out and waters below were a beautiful light blue color.  Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams were easily visible beyond the lakes.

At around 7,000 feet our ridge curved to the north and though we saw a traverse across the snow to the East Peak Saddle, we decided to scramble up the sometimes 3rd class rock because some in our climbing party thought it would be more fun.  We were making good time and though it was starting to warm up, the energy level of the entire group was still strong.    The scramble did not cause us any major problems until right before the saddle where there was a minor gendarme that was too sketchy to get around without protecting because the dropoff was significant.  So, Obi Wan Danobi Snake and his assistant, Chelsea, set up a fixed line while the rest of us put on our harnesses.

We made it around gendarme easily, but then the trail descended below the ridgeline before climbing back up to the saddle of East Peak.  It was here that a couple of climbers got really nervous because the trail itself is sketchy and the angle of the drop off is significant.  We all made it to the saddle safely and started to the northwest towards Middle Summit.  We saw a high angle snowfield that we would have to cross ahead of us, but before we got there, the climbers who probably never recovered from the previous section, became sketched out because of the dropoff below the trail.  Though they tried to continue, it became clear that the next section would be to nerve wracking to go on.  A few of us felt that we could safety continue on the trail if we proceeded carefully, but with members of the group who did not feel the same way, Obi Wan Danobi Snake rightfully had us regroup and we discussed our options.  Obi Wan Danobi Snake made the call to return to the saddle and there we decided not to proceed towards West Summit.  Since East Peak was right there, and it became clear that it was nothing more than a 3rd class scramble, we decided to scramble to the top and there we treated to terrific views of West Summit and Middle Summit to our west, Mt. Rainier to the south, Glacier Peak to the northeast, and Mt. Stuart to the east.  Obi Wan Danobi Snake declared that he would issue Summit Certificates for Mt. Daniel - East Peak.  We took a lot of pictures while on the summit and then descended back to the saddle.

From the saddle, we plunge stepped our way down to the boot track that we saw across the snow coming up.  The boot track would bring us back to the southeast ridge.  With our ice axes out, we carefully traversed the snowfield and made it back to the dirt exposed trail.  We descended safely down the southeast ridge and back to our campsites at Peggy's Pond around 5pm.  Back at camp, we enjoyed a relaxing dinner, then we filtered water and headed to bed.

We woke up the next morning, packed up camp, and headed back to Cathedral Pass, Squaw Lake, and eventually the trailhead.  We were back at the cars by 10:30 am.  We drove into Cle Elum and had brunch at the Sunset Cafe.  At brunch, I learned an important lesson:  Prime rib is not a very good filling for an omelet.   A few people had Bloody Mary's which was the advertised drink special.  We watched the opening weekend events of the Olympics on TV.  Obi Wan Danobi passed out Summit Certificates and then we said our goodbyes and drove home.

It was too bad we did not climb the West Summit on this trip, but it is perfectly understandable the reasons for stopping short.  When climbing, safety is always the most important consideration, and we did the prudent thing.  The Alpine Lakes area is so beautiful, that climbing or hiking anything in that area is well worth it.

And congrats go out to our newly initiated Glacier Snakes.  Maika became known as "Nanny Goat Snake" because her laugh sounds like a nanny goat.  And, Annie became "What What Snake" due to her expression "What what in the butt."

To see all the photos from this climb, go to Mt. Daniel climb photos