Steve, with Red Mountain in the background
The weather forecast for this weekend looked exceptional, with high pressure and a freezing level of 11,000'. Work obligations precluded an overnight trip, so we decided to try and scramble up Kendall Peak. We parked at the Snoqualmie Summit West parking lot, and started walking at 9:30 AM. The road to the PCT trailhead looked potentially passable with a high-clearance vehicle, but while we were walking along the road, we saw a Subaru get stuck trying to drive up the road. It was a little bit foggy, but temperatures were surprisingly warm (for late November). The PCT trail was hard-packed snow and easy to follow, and we made good time to the fork of the Commonwealth Basin trail. At this point (4000') we were above the low-lying fog layer. Beyond the fork the trail was less well-packed, so we switched to snowshoes. Somewhere below Kendall Lakes we lost the PCT trail, so we just continued snowshoeing uphill towards the obvious quad-peak (Kendall's summit ridge appears as four small peaks). As we broke out of the trees onto open snow slopes, the sun was quite bright and the snow slope was starting to soften. The four peaks presented three obvious gullies to reach the summit ridge. We weren't sure which gully to climb, so we picked the middle one, figuring we'd just scramble along the ridge until we found the true summit. Elain climbed the gully wearing snowshoes, and I opted to post-hole in my boots. At the top of the gully we reached a small saddle between the first (southernmost) and second peaks. We bumped into two ski mountaineers who were also heading up towards the Kendall summit. They said they thought the true summit was a couple of peaks further north, so we left our snowshoes and started scrambling along the ridge. It was easy going, staying on the ridge crest or just to the left (west) side. Eventually we made our way to the saddle below the fourth (summit) peak. There was a total of six other climbers on the ridge, so we chatted while waiting for the bottleneck to clear. We scrambled up the ridge, following a system of ledges and staying on the west side of the spine of the ridge. We reached the summit at about 2:00 PM. There was not a cloud in the sky, and no wind. Below 4000', Commonwealth Basin was enshrouded in thick fog. We had clear visibility to Mount Rainier, Mount Stuart, and Mount Baker. After enjoying a few minutes on the summit, we started back down. A second bottleneck had developed by the climbers descending the ridge. While waiting for the bottleneck to clear, we had a snack and soaked in the improbable (but welcome) sunshine. We made good time scrambling back to our snowshoes, reaching our cache at 3:30 PM. We plunge-stepped back down into the Kendall Lakes basin. By now, the snow had become isothermal mush, and we welcomed getting back in the shade where the snowpack was a bit harder. By the time we reached the PCT trail, the sun was already getting low in the sky. We were treated to a beautiful sunset alpenglow on Lundin Peak and Red Mountain as the sun set. We hiked out in the dark, reaching the car at 6:30 PM.
Steve, with Red Mountain in the background
The four small summits of Kendall Peak
Looking back along Kendall's summit ridge, from the true summit
Mount Rainier, with clouds in the Commonwealth Basin
Elain on the summit of Kendall Peak
Steve on the summit of Kendall Peak
Steve descending from Kendall Peak