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I've been looking for info on a Daniel-to-Hinman traverse/scramble but have been coming up empty. Earlier this week, when I went up to the lower slopes of Mt. Daniel via the Cathedral Pass trail and Peggy's Pond trail -- well, before I got rained back to the car -- I got the wonderful view from just before the junction where you can drop down to Deep Lake, looking up at (left to right) Mt. Hinman, Mt. Daniel, and Cathedral Rock.


Looking at the maps (GT and USGS), doing an out and back from the east seems -- please note the word seems -- straightforward, especially if you use the south slopes of Daniel to get to Hinman. The distance and the difficulty don't look bad, and, assuming you get an early start from a basecamp at Peggy's Pond, for instance, it could be done in a long but not too long day. Looks like a fun two-fer. Maybe.

So here's the big question: no one appears to write about this route/idea -- why not? What this tells me is not that I'm a pioneer and a daring, audacious adventurer who has discovered a new, never-done-before route, but quite the opposite, i.e. that folks have done it and it either isn't fun or isn't a good idea, and no one wants to recommend it as a thing they think other people should do. Or...?

Anyone have any opinions or experience on this? Thanks.

EDIT: I also could just not have looked hard/long enough for info. References and/or links? Thx.

I've wondered about the south side of Daniel myself, and have viewed it from various angles. I think there are a coupla wrinkles in any southside traverse plans, ie, ribs forcing one into some serious exposure. But I not set foot there so I am only speculating.

If you are looking for a traverse to climb the two mountains, I can speak from personal experience on the north side. I've been up Mount Daniel in summer and Hinman in spring via ski, both times staying on the north. I cannot recommend these routes with enuf enthusiam, but they are more wilderness-y and thus longer. You can access the area from Jade Lake or Necklace Valley/LaBohn Lakes. Climbing to the summit of Daniel from "pea soup lake", I went around the west side of the lake, the upper Lynch Glacier presented almost no crevasse issues (I was solo and unroped). You can even do these as a thru/traverse, and get back to your car with a bicycle on the forest service road if only one car available.

Personally, I think the second option you listed (not feasable/fun) is the most likely. I went up Daniel via Peggy's Pond and back down in a day when I was in shape a couple years ago, and from the small views I got of the land between there and Hinman, it didn't look like any fun. But i guess this all depends on your idea of fun... i know a lot of people think of activities I would never partake in as "fun"