photo - The north face of Kendall Mountain. photo by Sam Harmon, 2016.
3/19/2016
Members of Group: Sam Harmon, Chris Smith, Peter Bracker
Ascent Route: West Flank to SW Ridge
Descent Route: North Face
The north face of Kendall Mountain looms above the town of Silverton. You can see it from anywhere in town and it is a popular backcountry skiing/snowboarding destination for locals. I had looked at the mountain and potential ski lines on it in the past but had never gotten around to actually climbing and riding the mountain. Colorado had been seeing high pressure, with accompanying warm temps and clear skies, for a couple weeks and the CAIC had dropped the hazard rating to low for the first time this season.
Low avalanche hazard in the winter is still not like low avalanche hazard in the spring. Persistent slabs are often still present on most slopes but they have often gained enough strength during these times to not slide until they get a new load. Wind slabs have usually bonded decently well too but can be present and still potentially tear out in small pockets on steep terrain. In summary winter "low" avalanche hazard is a little less trustworthy than spring "low" avalanche hazard and I tend to approach it with a more conservative mindset while still looking to get out on some bigger lines.
Sam and I had been planning a trip to Silverton for a few weeks. She had never been and I was excited to show her these beautiful mountains! Kendall was in the back of my mind as an option if the snow set up for us in the weeks preceding our trip. As luck would have it high pressure set in and the avalanche hazard rating dropped to low a couple days before we left for our trip.
Chris is another nurse I work with in the ICU at the U and on one of my work days before the trip I happened to be handing off my patients to him at shift change when we realized over a side conversation that we were both going to be in Silverton on the same days. We decided to meet up and ski there together. Chris and I had talked about skiing together in the past but had never gotten our schedules together. Chris's friend Peter (husband of another work friend Bridget) would be coming with him too. I was excited to finally get out with Chris.
The night before Kendall we all met up for drinks at the Rum Bar in Silverton to discuss snow and avalanche conditions and ski plans for the next day. With a low avalanche hazard, the potential to ski a big line with multiple other lower angle descent options available if we did not like conditions, and the north face of Kendall looming above us, tempting us from the bar we decided on Kendall for the next day.
photo - Chris Smith and Peter Bracker making their way up the west slopes of Kendall Mountain. photo by Zach Taylor, 2016.
The standard way to approach Kendall is to skin from the small ski hill in town up county rd 33, below several avalanche paths, then turn west and hike up to the SW ridge, and finally follow the SW ridge to the summit. This is what we did.
Sam and I geared up in our hotel room in Silverton and walked through the town to the base of the north face near the ski hill where we met Chris and Peter. This is one of the few 13ers in Colorado that you can literally ski from your hotel room. We hopped on cr33 and skinned for about a mile and a half as we enjoyed a nice San Juan sunrise. After abbout 1.5 miles we could see a west facing avalanche path that crossed the road and looked to give access to the SW ridge.
We turned off the road and began skinning up the west facing avalanche path. Before long the slope steepened and we transitioned to booting. The slope stayed pretty mellow though never getting steeper than 35 or 36 degrees and we hit the SW ridge a few hundred vertical feet above treeline. We took a break here and enjoyed some expansive San Juan views.
photo - Sam Harmon hiking up the west slopes of Kendall Mountain. photo by Zach Taylor, 2016
photo - Expansive views of the San Juans. photo by Zach Taylor, 2016.
As we continued up the ridge the wind picked up and we were reminded by the coldish temps and wind speeds that it was still winter in Colorado. We summitted and spent a few minutes on top enjoying the views. I never get tired of looking out on the San Juans. We had great views of the Needles, the Grenadiers, Silverton, the Sneffels range, and many other mountains. With wind chilling us and cocktails 3,700' below us down in town calling our names we decided after not too long to begin to make our way down.
photo - Zach Taylor, Chris Smith, and Peter Bracker enjoying the summit of Kendall. photo by Sam Harmon, 2016.
photo - Zach Taylor and Chris Smith getting ready to drop the north face of Kendall Mountain. photo by Peter Bracker, 2016
The actual drop in to our line descends off the summit area about 40 meters east of the true summit so we descended down to our drop in to check it out. We found the entrance to the north face and looked down at our line. It looked sweet! A 3700 vertical foot avalanche path dropped off from below our feet and descended directly down to town below!
We again discussed avalanche conditions. The CAIC had rated the forecast low for this aspect and elevation that day. There were no signs of recent avalanche activity anywhere and we could see for a long way. There were no obvious wind pillows sitting below the ridgeline and we had experienced no cracking, collapsing, or whumping on our ascent. A lot goes into making decisions to descend a big avalanche path like this, especially with a winter snow pack but we had played our cards right and it seemed to be a safe, stable winter day to descend this big line.
I dropped in first. The top of the line was hard snow and pitched in the high 30s. I made a few jump turns through the narrow top and around a couple rocks before the line opened up and then I made a few more turns down the face before pulling off to the side to watch the rest of my party dropping in one at a time.
We leapfrogged each other skiing one at a time down to treeline. We found a few softs turns but for the most part we skied on wind hardened slab snow. Our vantage of the area was excellent though and we enjoyed the treat of skiing such a big line in March.
photo - Chris Smith skiing the north face of Kendall Mountain. photo by Zach Taylor, 2016.
photo - Zach Taylor dropping into the north face of Kendall Mountain. video by Zach Taylor, 2016
photo - Chris Smith skiing the north face of Kendall Mountain. photo by Zach Taylor, 2016.
photo - Sam Harmon skiing the north face of Kendall Mountain. photo by Zach Taylor, 2016.
photo - Sam Harmon riding the north face of Kendall Mountain. photo by Zach Taylor, 2016.
video - Sam Harmon and Zach Taylor descending the north face of Kendall Mountain. video by Zach Taylor, 2016.
Once we got to treeline we noticed that the face narrowed into a deeply inset gully with cliff walls and about a 280 degree aspect variation on the slopes above either side of the gully. The avalanche hazards at all those aspects and elevations were rated low by the CAIC that day and we were comfortable with our own observations over the course of the approach through many aspects/elevations that conditions on Kendall were in line with the avalanche report so we were comfortable skiing the gully down that day.
However, if you ski this line keep in mind that the gully is exposed to north, west, and east aspects making for varied snow and avalanche conditions and has many terrain traps throughout it as well. We skied/rode down through variable snow some powder, some corn, some frozen crap, etc...made for a few interesting turns and tumbles among the group.
photo - Sam Harmon and Zach Taylor on the north face of Kendall Mountain. photo by Peter Bracker, 2016,
photo - Zach Taylor descending the north face of Kendall Mountain. photo by Peter Bracker, 2016.
photo - Zach Taylor riding the gully below the north face of Kendall Mountain. photo by Peter Bracker, 2016
photo - A look back up the gully below the north face of Kendall. photo by Sam Harmon, 2016
photo - Looking down the exit gully of Kendall Mountain. photo by Sam Harmon, 2016
photo - Peter Bracker and Zach Taylor riding the exit gully below the north face of Kendall. photo by Peter Bracker, 2016.
We rode/skied all the way down to where the avalanche path crosses cr 33 and then we hung a right and skied cr 33 down into town where we met up with Peter's wife Bridget that had watched us ski down the face from town. We perched up on the roof of Peter and Bridget's hotel for the afternoon and drank beer while looking at the day's ski line. It was a great day our with a great group of people!
photo - From L to R Peter Bracker, Chris Smit, Zach Taylor, and Sam Harmon walking through the town of Silverton after descending Kendall Mountain's north face. photo by Bridget Hect, 2016.
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