Regional discussion and conditions reports for Washington and Oregon. Please post partners requests and trip plans in the Pacific Northwest Climbing Partners section.
I am looking for information on a traverse between Mount Hinman and Mount Daniel in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The route we are considering is coming down from Necklace Valley to the La Bohn Gap and the standard route up Hinman, coming down the NW face and traversing up to and around Pea Soup Lake to ascend Lynch Glacier. Then descending by the standard Peggy's Pond route. Has anyone crossed between these mountains at a relatively snow-free time of year? I've seen reports of winter time crossings and only speculation on whether this is possible without Pea Soup Lake frozen over. It almost looks like you could come up just below the western ridge of Daniel and traverse across its western flank to come up a relatively snow free couloir and bypass most of Lynch Glacier in a recent photo I took from Terrace Mountain. Any one with hard info or even more speculation, I'd love to hear it! Thanks!
Curious if you found info on this route? I was attempting to traverse from Cathedral Rock to West Fork Foss River over Labor Day weekend a couple years ago and got turned around by snow. We traversed the north side of Pea Soup on the south face of Lynch Peak to the saddle between Lynch Peak and Dip Top but then detoured North to Jade lake because of incoming weather. We were planning to continue around Pea Soup and then traverse over to Hinman. Hopefully we get another shot this year and would love to try the route you mentioned if its possible. From everything I've looked at the western flank of Daniel isn't very friendly.