[iron]

full disclosure: i'm still new to the mountaineering world. consequently, my descriptions will likely vary from what your interpretations are. hence, i try to have more photos than text... okay, so i heard some good things about daniel and that it should be well within my grasp given my current skillset (<1 year of actually exploring the mountains as opposed to dayhikes to lakes and such). my buddy hollywood (NWH: b00) thought that since i liked exercise, this would be a fun trip. i didn't research much at all. i glanced at the 75 scrambles in WA book for trailhead directions, looked at the pics justus posted in their recent TR, and talked to my friend mary (aka the little dripper) who had done the trip about a month earlier. 3 sources of info = confusion. plus, since i'm semi new to route finding, things were bound to go haywire. got to the trailhead - check. off to a good start. the bad thing was it was nearly 10a. that's not a good time to start when you're dayhiking something you don't have a clue about. found the trail - check. so far so good.

trailhead

well-maintained trail

small pond before pass

made it to peggy's pond in 1.5 hours after talking with my new friend sam for about 15 minutes. he said the route was easy to find, so i felt confident going it alone.

trail junction leading down to peggy's pond

deep lake

peggy's pond with cathedral rock

from peggy's pond, i continued to a small feeder creek that came from the drainage basin justus and crew went up - check. occasionally, i would find cairns along the way... always encouraging. this area was gorgeous btw. there were lots of little snow fields, tarns, nice granite slabs to walk on, rich green mosses, and just general goodness. the mosquitoes were bad if you stopped, so i tried to avoid that as much as possible, though i did spend a lot of time scratching my head and thinking: sh##, this doesn't feel right.

creek from drainage basin

heading towards drainage basin

on boot path up drainage basin

drainage basin

last of the plant life in the basin

continuing up

a group of 5 practicing ice axe arrests and boot glissades

loose talus and scree

up i continued. i stayed right of the waterfalls and creek from the drainage basin. eventually, i saw a saddle and headed towards it via some switchbacks up rock ledges. once there, i could see the east summit (which at the time, i did not know was the east summit).

east summit and ridge i was temporarily on

again, there was another saddle to aim for. i tried avoiding snow if i could, even though i had the pons and axe with me. i guess since i have the least amount of experience using pons (compared to scrambling, deep fluffy powder, climbing, etc), i felt it was prudent to avoid it without someone more experienced along and holding my hand so to speak. eventually, i gained the east/northeast ridge at EL 7120 and took that for a bit. soon, i realized i wanted to drop below it on the east side to avoid what appeared to be class 4 exposure. crossing a snow field to get up to the saddle (pons used, but probably not necessary), i was reassured i was en route given the handful of other boot prints from the eastern ridge from peggy's pond.

coming off and over snowfield to meet saddle between east summit and east bump

i trekked up the ridge to the south to gain the summit of a nob (EL ~7580) where i met bloated chipmunk, mountain man, and todd. for some reason, my brain wasn't working. even when i passed below the east summit, i didn't realize that's what it was (hence going to this nob). when i got to the top, i looked north and said: sh##, that peak's taller.

mountain man, bloated chipmunk, and todd

down i came to the ridge and then found a boot path up to the east summit and the usgs marker. when i got to the top, it was apparently clear the next peak north and slightly west of me was taller. down and over i went. again, this boot path on the west side of the ridge was wonderfully easy.

east summit

benchmark on east summit

looking back to central and west (true) summits

it was a quick ascent up to the central summit, but again, i could tell the next summit over was slightly higher still. down and over the saddle i went, hopeful there would be no more taller summits on the same ridge that i would need to go up. each new peak offered better and better views. i particularly liked the west (true) summit's views of pea soup lake. simply stunning! plus, i made it before my cutoff time of 3:30p (always a bonus).

by gosh, a trail!

central summit

west summit and ridge above daniel glacier

final ascent of west summit

little ole me on top (don't let the shadows fool you).

pea soup lake and daniel glacier

pea soup lake

now, armed with knowledge of the trail on the west side of the ridge as well as the ridge trail leading to/from peggy's pond, i made quick work of the descent. somehow, over the next ~8 miles, it only took 2:15. views were great the entire time.

venus and spade lakes

glissade down snowfield from ridge

circle lake from east southeast ridge leading to peggy's pond

and a ridge trail too!

overall, this was one of my favorite trips of the year and perhaps my favorite summit to date (i have about 45 total, most of those coming this year since meeting hollywood and senor juan (JT)). i seemingly seldom go on trips anymore that have gorgeous lakes; this was definitely the exception. on my way back down the ridge, i was amazed to see the plethora of trails all over the place. it soon became apparent that most of them probably worked and got you to the saddle or some other route that would let you summit daniel. when i got down to peggy's pond, i see why i would have missed the 'junction' to the ridge trail.

unmarked 'trail' junction - main trail in distance

go left and you're on the way up the ridge, right and you're heading towards the basin

trip stats ~16 miles RT 6000' 8:00 (5:45 up (scratching my head), 2:15 down)

[Bloated Chipmunk]

I noticed it says "slow n lazy" underneath your name. WTF? We saw you moving pretty quickly down that ridge!! Good to meet you up there. Thanks for taking our photo! Congrats on summiting Daniel.

[Ingunn]

Wow, you make *really* good time! Looks like a perfect day, love the photos!

[Layback]

Great TR & pics. Thanks for sharing!

[mntsun]

Nice work! I like how you try to hide the shameless peakbagging of the three summits by attributing it to navigation errors.

[b00]

2:15 down, you would done better with me along - you could have done it twice as good 4:30 :>)