Home > Trip Reports > upper Kendall 12.16.12

upper Kendall 12.16.12

12/15/12
WA Snoqualmie Pass
4975
6
Posted by cumulus on 12/17/12 12:16am
The new storm cycle is upon us, the trees dancing in the wind like crazy rooted ravers this morning, yesterdays snowy alpine tracks completely obliterated in favor of a blank slate. Nine inches over a light rain crust that had fracturing but little propagation capacity gave us pause yesterday on upper Kendall ridge. Always good to pause before you rip... Larger slopes were avoided. On the second lap a slightly higher traverse revealed some heavier wind slab; looking up you could see the spindrift blowing off the cliffs depositing its compacted kernels in select pockets. Good to avoid. Otherwise, super fun surfy snow!

Followed a really nice skin track into the upper regions and had occasion to thank its makers: Dave (gbogh) and Todd. Thank you! Ran into Erin and Forest on the ski down, and by the time we were skinning back up a couple more parties had availed themselves of the track.

Skinned up into the trees for the third skin and had a total blast coming down Rob-bers chute on the run out.



No pics from higher up, but here's Rob entering and in the chute:








Super fun day, exceeding expectations.  Felt like the first real tour of the season.
Nice! Lots of TRs from this area lately but I'm really not sure where it is. Any hints? Thanks

Good question Josh. Kendall is a lot of terrain... with a lot of great options for a variety of conditions. Kendall Peak is the high point (not really a peak) along a roughly N-S trending ridge. This ridge also connects with another roughly E-W trending ridge, the one the Pacific Crest Trail runs along starting from Snoqualmie Pass.
We were on an upper W facing slope, then headed over and up into the trees (the E-W ridge). Here's a map.

It can be a confusing area when first poking around, but that same complexity also gives you years of exploration possibilities...

Stefan, I think the politically correct answer to Josh's question these days is, "Somewhere in North America."  And use this map

Cool photos by the way, as usual.

Kendall is (the russian doll version of) North America.  It's got all the states; excitement, relaxation, delaware, florida.  We were in kentucky.

Thanks for the Intel guys, and the laughs. :)

Some photos form the first two laps

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upper-kendall-12-16-12
cumulus
2012-12-17 08:16:41