Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Kendall Peak
Strong group, nice views, and oddly almost no mosquitoes on this one.
Krzysztof Ostrowski
- Sun, Jul 16, 2023
- Alpine Scramble - Kendall Peak
- Kendall Katwalk
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Route conditions were everything you would expect them to be this time of the year, not much to say here. There was one creek crossing on a luxurious extra wide log.
Meeting 9am, parking full and swarming with rangers, so some of us had to park at Summit West and do the dreaded 5-minute walk. I was late for the class, and I had to apologize.
We hit the trail at 9:20am or so. We opted for the variant 1 on SummitPost that follows the "cattle trail" that shaves off a mile or so each direction. I was expecting us to have to meander between piles of horse poop, but found none - the shortcut was fine. No reason not to take it. Here's the route we followed. The shortcut rejoins PCT after a little less than ~1.5 miles or so, which took us around 50 minutes.
The walk was super nice and shaded, with nice views popping through the trees, and surprisingly, almost no mosquitoes. The group was in good spirits and seemed to be enjoying the trip.
At around 11:30am, at roughly 4900 elevation, we popped through the trees and got nice views of Rainier.
The remainder of the scramble was mostly on rocky and dirt trails in open terrain and in the sun.
At around noon, we reached the stump after which we depart from the trail and begin to follow a steep path up the talus field. One of the participants was feeling nervous about it, but everyone did an amazing job.
Since we weren't planning on beating any speed records, we took ample breaks along the way to refuel and catch a breath, including on the final scramble. That also provided the oportunity to snap some pictures and appreciate how far we've made it already above the ski resort where our journey started.
The final walkup to the summit:
We reached the summit at 12:30pm and took plenty of time to rest there while the students took turns posing for the camera at the tippy top.
Glenn looking cool:
Angela looking victorious:
Sean looking menacing:
The obligatory family picture with everyone together, including Sophie, our assistant lead:
Plenty more views to enjoy, including another peek at Rainier from the summit:
And here's Rampart Ridge, where I was just on Friday with another group:
And a badzillion other peaks like those below:
We started walking back at around 1pm, and made it back to the trailhead by around 3:30pm, for the total of just a little over 6 hours roundtrip.
I would say this was a pleasant walk overall and good ROI overall on this one, so it goes to the box with trips worth repeating.