Spring Skiing on Mt Daniel
DATES SKIED: 5/23/26
TOTAL MILEAGE: 15 MILES
TOTAL ELEVATION GAIN: 5,400’
This spring in the PNW has been a sneakily good season. A warm winter with too much rain and not enough snow had my expectations set low for spring, but I ended up getting out on a few lovely tours. In mid-May, a cold front swept in and deposited a refresh of snow in the mountains, resetting the corn cycle in the process. By the time Memorial Day weekend arrived, most of the best snow was on the slopes of volcanos and other high elevation areas, and I set my sights on Mt Daniel as a spring ski objective for the long weekend.
Since lower elevations had been warmer than average all winter and spring, forest service roads that usually remain blocked by snow into June melted out early. FS 4330, the long winding gravel road that leads to the Cathedral Pass Trailhead and Mt. Daniel, was one of them. I read a Mt Daniel trip report on TAY and the author wrote that the road to the trailhead was completely clear of snow and the notorious Scatter Creek crossing was manageable in their Tacoma (and apparently an intrepid Prius driver had even made the crossing). There weren’t many other trip reports I could find about the area, but it seemed that it could make for a prime time spring ski trip. I asked Sander if he was up for an exploratory mission in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and he was game to join. We had both scrambled Daniel in the summer of 2023 (though a few weeks apart), and each of our trips had inspired us to return for a ski trip some day. It seemed that some day was finally upon us.
We decided to drive to the trailhead the night before. It was forecasted to be warm and we expected a weak overnight refreeze. That combined with the fact that we hoped to ski the east facing East Summit meant we needed to start skiing early, like by 10AM early. We set an alarm for 2AM.
One of the many downed trees in the first couple miles of trail
I slept well. The car windows were cracked and the faint rush of the Cle Elum River lulled me to sleep, but my alarm still sounded far too early. I pulled myself out of my sleeping bag and started to get ready. As I was reorganizing my pack, I noticed a bobbing light heading down the road toward the trailhead. It was a solo hiker. I was surprised to someone else up so early too. The light turned down the trail and quickly disappeared into the dark forest.
At 2:30AM, we set off on the trail. There was a mess of downed trees in the first couple miles. In the dark they were annoying to navigate and slowed us down as we precariously stepped on rotting logs and sagging branches and hoped they held our weight.
We reached Nosh Nosh Wahtum Lake just as blue hour began to lighten the sky. Above the lake, we ran into increasingly deeper and more frequent snow patches until we hit continuous snow somewhere around 5,200’. We could have switched to skinning here, but the snow was still firm and supportive, and I wanted to keep my trail runners on until we crossed Cathedral Pass and the scrambly section of trail just past it.
Just before we reached Cathedral Pass we heard a noise behind us. I turned around and saw a solo skier skinning through the trees. It was the same person we had seen at the trailhead, we must have passed him in the dark as he was putting on his boots and skis.
Sure enough, as soon as we dropped over Cathedral Pass and onto south-facing trail, the snow disappeared. We passed the other skier as he was putting his skis on his back.
I was thankful the snow had melted out along this stretch because it meant the scrambly section was a non-issue. I had been worried about this section since I remembered how much it sketched me out on my 2023 Daniel climb, but this time around it didn’t phase me at all (yay progress!)
The last couple hundred feet to Peggy’s Pond were unexpectedly frustrating. As the trail wound back under the cover of trees and trended more west-facing, it became snowy and slick again. We fought our way up through the forest, still in our trail runners, until we broke out of the trees and into the snow-covered meadows surrounding Peggy’s Pond around 5:30AM.
We took an extended 30 minute break by the frozen lake—refilling water, eating breakfast, changing out of our wet socks, putting our boots on, and transitioning to skinning. The other skier re-passed us here and we wouldn’t see him again for quite some time.
We opted to take the summer route up from Peggy’s. I knew people sometimes headed straight into the gut and skinned up the east slopes, but both Sander and I had been on the ridge in summer and remembered it being relatively mellow and incredibly scenic.
The 500’ required to gain the ridge was rough, though. The early morning snow was still slick and the slope was steep, but with ski crampons (and one short booting section for me), we gained the ridge and found ourselves on easier terrain. The views from the ridge were well worth the effort. Circle Lake was still frozen, sitting in the basin below The Citadel with Mt. Rainier peeking out over its shoulder. This had been one of my favorite views on the trail during my previous trip, so it was a treat to see it blanketed in snow, all the hard edges and rocky features softened.
There was one dry, rocky section we were forced to scramble, which was annoying to do in ski boots, but it was over quickly and then we were back to skinning once again. Across the valley we finally saw the other skier. He had taken a different ascent route, going up the ridge across the way. He was a couple hundred feet above us. We watched as he traversed the slope below the East Summit and disappeared out of sight, presumably heading toward the main summit.
Despite it being barely 8AM, the snow under us was turning to corn already. Sander, sensing the prime corn window was opening, sped ahead, dropped onto the snowy east face at 7,100’ and made a beeline toward the East Summit. I had thought this crossing would be slow but it actually made for quick travel. Before I knew it, we were switching back to booting for the final 300’ push to the top.
Just before 9AM we topped out on the East Summit and were greeted by a wall of white to the west. While the east side of the mountain was clear, to the west was a thick, roiling sea of clouds. It was the marine layer coming off the ocean and it appeared the clouds were breaking right on top of us and the East Summit. The true summit, less than a half mile to the northwest of us, was completely engulfed in clouds. The clouds were spectacular to witness, they whipped around us in ephemeral waves cresting the ridge and then dissolving into oblivion. I could have stayed at the summit for hours watching the dramatic scene unfold, but we were unsure if the clouds could start to accumulate—and we were certain the corn was ripe for the harvesting—so we didn’t linger long. We snapped a few photos and videos and then clicked into our skis.
Sander skied down first, his telltale whoops of joy echoing up the slope after a few turns. Always a good sign. He radioed up that the snow was rippable and told me to have fun.
Wow, was it ever rippable! It was textbook corn. I took wide sweeping turns, relishing in the joy of letting myself gain speed, soft snow flying up from under my skis. We leap-frogged each other as we made our way down to Peggy’s Pond. The run ended up being just under 2,000’ of perfect corn on low angle rolling terrain. Toward the bottom it started to get grabby, but most of the descent was pure bliss. It was some of the best spring snow I’ve ever skied!
Too soon, we were back at Peggy’s. We took another break to refill our water bottles and have a quick snack.
We knew there was consistent snow for a couple hundred feet beneath Peggy’s, so we put our skins on and downhill skinned until we hit the dry trail. Sander kept his ski boots on for the trail walk, but I put my trail runners on to make the scrambly section a little easier. Another 15 minutes and we were back at Cathedral Pass. I put my ski boots and skis back on and we downhill skinned all the way to ~5,200’ where we finally accepted the skiing was over.
We changed into our trail runners and hit the trail. The descent through the downed trees was much easier in the light and we arrived back to the trailhead at 1PM, exactly 10.5 hours after starting, with seemingly the entire afternoon still ahead of us. This trip was spring skiing at its finest!