Jan 13, Kendall Peak area

Headed up to the Kendall peak area for an attempt on a face and gulley I saw from Gold Creek Basin last weekend.  I was hoping that snow conditions were going to be better than they were.
Parking at the Gold Creek sno-park first thing in the morning is SO much different than when you arrive back from you're trip in the early afternoon.  People seem to just want to park in the middle, so no one can move.  Alright enough bitching.
I brought the splitboard and the skins, but the snowshoes would have been better.  The logging road up to the basin is nicely packed and I simply carried the board on the back, until the final push up to the ridge....which could have gone with just the boots too.

I stopped before heading up the final ridgeline to the face and dug a pretty quick pit.  It was 11am, partly sunny, about 4400' on a SSE face, 38 degrees.  My foot penetration was about 10-20cm(variable) to a pretty stiff crust.

The first 25cm was about 4F-1F and the crystals definitely had some facets in them, but mostly rounds.  I got a Q2 shear with a compression score of 13 (3 elbow smacks). yellow light

The second layer was the 10cm thick, P hardness layer (crust?)  I had a Q2 shear with a score of 21 in compression.  It seemed to bond fairly well to the surface below, but not the surface above, making a nice bed surface.

After about 15-20cm of 1F snow, I reached a really soft/unconsolidated layer that was 10cm of 4F-Fist.  I pulled out some crystals and they were large and looked like a layer of graupel (I remember seeing the weekend b4 in Gold Creek)  I got a Q3 shear after a score of more than 30 in compression.  The layer seemed to compress down on itself instead of shearing.

Below that, a minor crust and then more 1F and then another crust and more 1F.

I decided that taking the face through the heart was a bad idea.  I headed up and took it along the sides where I was able to find descent snow.  The middle sections that I cut were pretty rock hard and uncarveable.  If things were better I would have attempted the gully, but decided against it.  After cutting back, I traversed the clearcut slopes and found descent snow with that occasional crust.

All in all not a bad day out, I'm always blown away with how many people are wondering around by the time I'm on my way out.  I saw about 4 people on the way up and 100's on the way out.  Temps broke about 26 and I even saw the sun.  Hope things are better at the resorts, I'm headed to Baker tomorrow!