Mt. Daniel is a mass of volcanic rock surrounded by lakes on nearly all sides. It has five distict peaks with the West Peak being the true summit. The east route, which begins at Peggy's Pond, is the shortest route to the summit. The view from the summit was from Mt. Adams to Mt. Baker, virtually the entire Washington Cascades.
From Peggy's Pond, travel NW to Hyas Creek and follow it to the Hyas Creek Glacier (no crevasses). Several possible routes can be taken up the cirque walls to reach a 7700' saddle on the SE ridge, all are at least moderately steep in places. I ascended a narrow snow finger almost directly below the saddle which reached an angle of nearly 50 degrees. An easier but less direct route is to ascend the south wall of the cirque followed by a long traverse on snow to the saddle. From the saddle, the East Peak can be reached by an easy scramble up the ridge.
The Middle and West Peaks are reached by traversing from the saddle on the slopes to the south of the East Peak. A path leads across the scree slope (two snow/ice patches) to a saddle. Ascend west up snow, then traverse to the Middle Peak, which is easily ascended on scree. The West Peak is quickly reached from the Middle Peak with a short scramble to the summit rocks.
