December 15, 2012, Kendel trees

Billy Wonderly and I skinned up the PCT towards Kendel, We made the silly choice of not gaining the ridge early and ended up on a ridiculous route finding adventure towards the end of the common wealth basin. At 3:00 we turned around after getting very close to the ridge and cranked out some awesome face shot turns. About 20" soft on W/NW slopes with lots of sluff. The crust from early in the week seemed to be most substantial on more north facing slopes. We saw many point releases coming from steep rocks on the Kendel ridge, south face of red mountain had point releases all over the place. Snow was coming down HEAVY when we made it back to the car, I would be careful out there tomorrow, The new snow didn't seem to be sticking to the crust very well and if a slab forms over night it could pose a significant danger! All and all sticking to the trees and a few short shoots made for and absolutely AWESOME day. I just hope no one was/is silly enough to follow my terrible skin track up!