Cornmaxxing

Mt. Daniel is a special place to me. It’s the heart of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, a volcano sized massif with glaciers and lakes on all sides. I’ve ended many epic adventures on the summit of Mt. Daniel, including the Alpine Lakes Crest Traverse and Paddy Go Daniel. With such a central position, the views from the summit rival any peak.

With its gentle glacial and post-glacial slopes, I have long wanted to ski Mt. Daniel. The challenge is typically access. The road does not melt out until mid spring. Then there’s the Scatter Creek crossing to deal with – often it is recommended to have a high clearance vehicle, which I do not have. By the time I know the road is drivable for my car, it’s a discouragingly long walk with skis. But this year it was high on my list to ski, even if it meant more walking.

Ben, John, and I drove up the night before to the Cathedral Pass Trailhead. The creek crossing was not very deep – maybe 8 inches? We got a 5 AM start, hiking over blowdowns up the trail. Snow was patchy around the first lake, and became consistent around 5300 ft, but the snow was firm so it was easier to keep walking.

The south facing traverse beneath Cathedral to Peggy’s Pond was completely dry. If this still had snow, it would be sketchy, but it probably melts out before anyone is reasonably driving to the trailhead. Upon reaching Peggy’s Pond, we immediately had a snowpack a few feet deep, and transitioned to skis. It took us about 2.5 hours to get to this point – a pretty long spring ski approach.

It really seemed we had an ideal setup – 8,000 ft afternoon freezing levels after a strong refreeze. Honestly, I had expected the snow to still be decently firm as we ascended towards the East Summit, but it was already corn! We originally were planning on doing the full circumnavigation route that my friend Nick did a few years ago: down the Lynch, over to Hinman, and back around the south side past the Citadel. It would be a scenic tour, but we’d have to ski the Lynch when it was still firm, and the east side of Hinman when it would be cooked midday. The fact it was already primo corn at 8:30 AM had us concerned. We discussed our options and decided to scrap the circumnavigation and just ski lines on Daniel. Cornmaxxing.

We skinned up to the saddle south of the East Summit and then followed a quick booter to the top.

We watched a golden retriever poach the steep face in style before we dropped it in perfect corn. Last weekend we scored perfect corn in the Goat Rocks, and once again it was absolutely ripper!

We ripped 1500 ft down to the basin, where we restocked on running water and prepared for a hot ascent back to the saddle. From the saddle, the true summit is still a ways. We followed a decent bootpack across snow and rocks, following the summer trail in places.

Snow took us to about 50 ft short of the true summit, making for a short scramble in ski boots. For a sub 8,000 ft peak, Mt. Daniel is pretty GOATed. You can see peaks both close and distant in all directions, from Baker to Adams. At golden hour, the endless valleys and ridges create gorgeous layers and shadows.

We were keen to check out the south facing run. John and Ben dropped a steep roll off the top, but the rest was just gentle twisting and turning through fun bowls. Another run, another perfect 1500 ft of corn top to bottom.

The run ends abruptly at 6400 ft at a waterfall above Venus Lake. Once again, we chugged water and prepared for another hot climb.

We reascended our line back to the col above the Lynch Glacier. The Lynch was real money line we wanted to ski – the largest glacier in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, with its iconic framing of Pea Soup Lake, Dip Top Peak, Lynch Peak, and Glacier Peak in the gap. It was just after 1 PM, so we figured it was now or never with the north facing slope. The drop in was steep and rimey. But once the slope mellowed out about 100 ft down, it softened nicely! Looks like more corn was on the menu!

Once I started skiing, I knew there was no stopping. I screamed (literally) my way down the Lynch Glacier, arcing massive turns and feeling the wind blow through my hair at 40 mph. I have dreamed of skiing the Lynch Glacier, but reality was even better than I had imagined. 1500 ft of ripper corn in 60 seconds. Words cannot describe how amazing it felt.

At the bottom, we immediately agreed that we needed to do another lap. North facing corn doesn’t overbake, so we knew it would stay good until the sun started to go down. This would mean we were going to easily blow past 10k ft gain for the day, but when it’s this good, you gotta dig deep. This is cornmaxxing.

On our second run, we started from 7800 ft and punched it straight down the gut.

I’ve skied a lot of great corn runs over the years – the south face of Black Peak, the Kang Bang above Washington Pass, and the Talum Glacier on Baker just to name a few. Maybe it’s just recency bias, but I think the Lynch Glacier is the best combination of line, scenery, and conditions I’ve ever skied. It’s big and wide, moderate but sustained, and wildly scenic. The Lynch is the GOAT.

Typically, John hates lapping things. And yet here he was, advocating for a third lap of the Lynch Glacier. Who laps a remote line like the Lynch three times, let alone on a day trip? In the interest of preventing an epic, Ben and I vetoed him. We both had only about 600 calories remaining, and we still had at least 4 hours before reaching the car. I suggested we just leave John here and let him lap the Lynch until sundown. If he had more food, he might have done it.

We followed our skin track back up, crossing a ridge around 7500 ft onto the NE facing Daniel Glacier. This would allow us to get back without having to cross the summit plateau again.

As we skinned onto the Daniel Glacier, we were both shocked – and at this point, not really surprised – to find that the east facing snow was still perfect corn in the late afternoon. How could we not ski it? A cool breeze greeted us as clouds wafted overhead. We felt a second wind and booked it up to the Middle Summit, ready for a rip the Daniel Glacier.

It was 4 PM, and the steep east facing headwall was just barely hanging onto the light. The snow was slightly deeper, but firming up – classic “reverse corn”. Maybe it wasn’t quite as good as the “normie corn” on the Lynch Glacier, but it was still USDA certified Grade A ripper. Bonus corn. Another 1300 ft of excellent snow top to bottom.

We traversed right to about 6600 ft, where a 400 ft climb up a gully would lead us back to the main basin above Peggy’s Pond. This final climb hurt, but the cool temps helped.

The ski down the south side was extra credit corn for the top few hundred feet. Then it finally got a little sticky – the first subpar turns all day. Insane.

We skied back to our shoes and started the long hike out. The snow was surprisingly supportable to hike on, the sign of a well transitioned snowpack. We made it back to the car just under 14 hours roundtrip. It was the first time that I can remember that I ate every bit of food I brought.

The last month of spring skiing, starting with the Fuhrer Finger on Rainier, has been incredible. This tour was the cherry on top, with 5 runs of nearly 1500 ft vertical, each with perfect corn top to bottom. May 2026 has been one of the best months of spring skiing of my entire life, rivaled only by May 2021. The fact that it comes at the end of the worst winter in memory makes it all the more special. For much of the last five years, we’ve suffered from May heat waves, pollen explosions, bipolar weather, and fickle spring conditions. But this year, we’ve been blessed by solid refreezes, weekend weather windows, and a bit of luck. I had almost forgotten how blissful and liberating spring skiing can feel. The mountains become a canvas, and our skis become brushes. Carving through the snow, we leave our mark, only for the sun and darkness to reset the diurnal cycle, cleaning the slate for someone else.

Notes:

• This tour was 23 miles and 12,300 ft gain. It took us 14 hours.
• The approach hike to Peggy’s Pond took us almost 2.5 hours, and only a little less on the way back. You could do this tour a week or two earlier and probably skin from Squaw Lake to the traverse beneath Cathedral, but I don’t think it would save that much time since it is pretty flat on the way out. On the contrary, doing this tour a week or two later wouldn’t be any worse because the trail would just be more melted out, but there would still be plenty of snow up high to ski. We are a month ahead of normal for melt out, so these conditions would be more typical of late June.
• The Scatter Creek crossing felt very reasonable in my Outback both ways. It had been relatively cool the prior few days, which probably decreased snow melt.
• We saw no open cracks on the Lynch or Daniel Glaciers.
• There was abundant running water below 6500 ft or so, which was nice for staying hydrated.