Kendall Peak Lakes

January 8, 2006 Dave, Phil, Hannah, and I set out to sniff out some decent snow and fun terrain somewhere near Snoqualmie. We vaguely decided on Kendall Peak, so we drove up to Summit Central and met at the gas station. Dave parked his truck and we piled our gear into Phil's truck (since he was the only one with a Sno Park Permit. We drove to the Sno Park, geared up, and started skinning up a well-packed road. Three miles later, the fog had broken, we were getting tired of the kick-and-glide up the flat road, and some couloirs and craggy terrain was spotted. We broke off the road and broke trail through a few inches of good powder. The snow in the trees was less appealing, but we passed several of the Kendall Lakes, and finally skinned across the highest lake. We were pleased with the steep alpine terrain above us. A nice 500 foot slope led directly to the lake; we skinned up in the trees, dug a pit, and continued up and left. We deemed the snowpack to be insufficiently stable to ski the little couloirs, so we lapped the bouldery slopes. Deciding that now was a good time to learn how to fly, Dave, Phil, and I spent the afternoon flying off of pillowy talus and usually landing in various embarrassing contorted positions. Well, Dave stuck a few leaps with cavalier abandon. I had a blast on the last few hundred feet down to the lake; big GS turns squirted me halfway across the lake on each run, leaving me giggling giddily. When the sun started setting, we reversed our ascent route and zoomed down the gently-winding road back to the car. The three miles disappeared in a matter of minutes, though avoiding the small children and dogs near the parking lot was a chore. Quite an excellent day in the playground we know as Snoqualmie. Phil made a very amusing video of the day's antics. You can find it here.