[jask]

Now that it's winter with plenty of time to study maps and dream about future trips I wonder if anyone's been to Mt. Dana and wouldn't mind sharing any info about the route? I'm thinking about doing a loop utilizing the route described in the Climber's Guide leaving Happy Hollow Camp on the Elwha and following the ridge down to around where the Goldie River enters the Elwha- or maybe do it the opposite way. Thankful for any input.

[rbuzby]

I wonder who it was named for. Maybe Richard Henry Dana, from 2 Years Before the Mast?

[asa]

From the OMR guide: "Dana was named by Charles A. Barnes, historian for the Seattle Press Expedition, for Charles Dana, editor of the New York Sun." I haven't been there, but I've been researching a similar trip that would include Dana.

[rbuzby]

Editor of the New York Sun? I guess in the 1890's there weren't enough prominent people out here to name stuff after.

[Ancient Ambler]

Ten years ago, 3 guys did a trip in which they ascended from just past Happy Hollow up to the ridge between Barnes and Wilder, proceeding from there to do Dana, Wilder and then Barnes, before heading north up the Bailey Range. They posted a TR on cascadeclimbers.com, which you can see here. They have a bit of info on the route up to the Barnes-Wilder-Dana ridge. Back in the day the TR had a workable link to another website with more detailed route info and good photos, but the link appears to be broken. If you're a cc.com member you could message the TR author to see if he's willing to share route info with you. Also on cascadeclimbers.com, if you do a search for "dana" and "wilder", you should get a 2002 post from a climber who reports doing a traverse from the Goldie up Dana's north ridge and then running the ridge to Wilder and Barnes. Not much detail on the route in this 2002 post; maybe messaging the author from within cc.com would get you more beta.

[RumiDude]

Leaving from Happy Hollow is the easiest route, IMO. once you make the ridge it is a matter of staying high while getting around to Mt Dana. Rumi

[Joey]

[Magellan]

A woman named Dana asked me if I wanted to hike up it about four years ago. I said yes. I contacted Curt B through Peakbagger.com. (Turns out, he was the guy who wrote the CC trip report) We never did hike it.

[jask]

Thanks guys (and Abert too) for the helpful links and information. I will check them all out. Another exciting challenge will be to see when the Olympic Hot Springs road opens again. Last summer the road to the hot springs trailhead opened so late we had to access it by coming in from Lake Crescent adding a lot of extra mileage. For this one I want to park at Whiskey Bend.