November 19, Kendall Peak

Pico and I had considered a PCT approach, but recieved beta at the Greenlake PCC the night before that it would probably be bony, so we opted for the road from Gold Crk.  It was very foggy until just short of the Kendall Lakes, where in literally 3 steps the temperature rose 15 degrees.  One of the most dramatic inversions this party has ever witnessed.  Skirting the lakes on the left we headed for the pass to the N. by Kendall Knob, and crossed into the Commonwealth drainage.  Coverage was good, but soft, with only very occaisonal breakthroughs to rock while traversing N. towards the gully leading to the summit.  We ascended a the 2nd major gully to the ridge and decided to ditch the skiis there for the scramble to the summit.  It shortly became apparent we had climbed a gully too soon, but there was enough snow to make an easy traverse.  The actual summit scramble was more problematic, as it was a bare rock 4th class scramble, and plastic ski boots don't have real good feel.  The views from the summit were spectacular and the temperature balmy for mid November.  We had even more fun decending the rock but rigging a hand line helped and the other two parties of snowshoers appreciated it also.  We raced the sun back to our skiis, downclimbed the sketchy section at the top and cautiously began our ski descent.  No rocks were killed in that sequence, nor the traverse back to the pass.  The snow was starting to harden under the trees and was total hard crust on the road so an epic snowplow fest ensued, which explains the burn today.  In summary, not many turns, but huge pysch boost being in the sun and mountains.