Home > Trip Reports > March 17 Kendel Chutes: FONWAC tour

March 17 Kendel Chutes: FONWAC tour

3/15/10
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Posted by Scotsman on 3/17/10 11:06am
PNWBrit, my son Stewie and I went on a tour today with Margaret Wheeler of Pro-Guiding Service.
The tour had been bought by a friend of Brit's at a charity auction but he couldn't use it so he gave it to Rob. It was for 4 people. Rob kindly invited Stewart and I and another who couldn't make it on the day.
Margaret donated her time and then Rob and I donated additional money to Margaret for the FONWAC.
We toured up to Kendel peak from the pass and then dropped a nice steep north facing chute.
Snow as 4" soft on spongy crust.. challenging but skiable.
Thanks to Margaret for donating her guide fees to the FONWAC. A very classy lady!
Scotty, glad you and Stewie got some.  Sweet pics man!  :)

So I've been wanting to do this tour for a while...but one of the things that scared me is the seeming existence of several avi chutes you must cross to exit the area after skiing the already avi prone main chute you guys nabbed.  is this true?

author=savegondor link=topic=16009.msg66935#msg66935 date=1268946169]
So I've been wanting to do this tour for a while...but one of the things that scared me is the seeming existence of several avi chutes you must cross to exit the area after skiing the already avi prone main chute you guys nabbed.  is this true?


The exit  we chose is east facing, steep and long and takes you up to the ridge south of the Kendall Catwalk. It is skinnable for much of the way with about the last 250' easier by bootpacking.
If the ski the chute and its apron all the way down you come to a flat area. From the flat area I wouldn't say you cross any avi chutes, a better description would be that you have the whole of the north/east tending to east face of Kendall Peak above you that looks like a mini fluted Alaskan face and has serious avy potential.
From the flat area you basically start climbing back up on the lookers right side of the face using some tree islands as some initial protection but it's pretty much straight up ASAPand PDQ( Pretty Damn Quick).
There is no getting around it that you are in some pretty serious avy terrain and that an assessment of stability and the potential effects of solar radiation and timing of exit needs to be seriously considered.
Near the top we were starting to get some sun hit that was setting off some rollers and mini-sluffs from the warming rocks and I wouldn't be anywhere near that place on a really warm day. Yesterday was cold and we were moving pretty fast and there was no dillying or dallying.

Edit to Add: Margaret had a Snowpulse avy air bag pack and I had already decided my survival technique was to stay close to her and grab onto her as she inflated the bag and hang on for grim death.  I was glad we had Margaret guiding us as her professionalism is beyond reproach.

Ha!  That's the best survival strategy I've ever heard.  Makes me think of jumping out of a plane and grabbing onto another skydiver.  That's great.

Sounds like a fun trip -- that's a unique area back there. 

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Scotsman
2010-03-17 18:06:23