May 9, 2016, Beyond Kendall Katwalk

Went out on Monday with Erik to see the what the Katwalk looked like, enjoy time off between a job change, get my month of May turns in (Month 56), and enjoy being outside.

The snow is melting quickly, but one can ski from car to car still if you choose.  We booted up into Commonwealth basin for speed and then skinned up to the Katwalk , via the drainage on lookers right, with some ice axe assisted down climbing due to gaining too much elevation and skipping the bench to skin to the Katwalk entrance.  The Katwalk is free of snow for 90% of it, but some portions are still covered and we used ice axes to crab walk across these patches.  Beyond the Katwalk we experienced some loose wet slabs (maybe 4" of new overnight) that didn't bond too well on steeper slopes in the warming temps, but was solid on less steep slopes.  Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy so we descended as far as we could into the Silver Creek Basin and returned the way we came.

Some good views of the Kendall Adventure zone, which most the main chutes are still intact without cornices.  One could easily drop into the Kendall adventure zone and descend farther than we did from the Katwalk.  The snow is thinning quickly though.  I uncovered a small tree stump in which ejected me and put my ass cheek on a rock.  Just be aware.  I can't imagine being able to ski to the car again from this area in a week.