Kendall Mountain

Route: Traverse from Kendall Benchmark
Posted On: 6/9/2024, By: AsTheDuke
Info: Conditions for Kendall Benchmark, Kendall Mountain, and Kendall Peak. You can drive a little past the splitoff (Subaru-able if you take it slow) between Kendall Gulch and Deer Park, but not much further. South slopes (choose any gully) up to Kendall Benchmark is dry. Traverse to Kendall Mountain and descent to the road is dry except 1-2 short snowfields to cross to get off Benchmark. For Kendall Peak, the top of Kendall Gulch has snow, but is easy to cross. The gully up Kendall Peak is dry... but terrible as normal. 

Route: Kendall Mountain Road
Posted On: 5/28/2024, By: cloudkicker
Info: Kendall No. 2 Benchmark and Kendall Mountain conditions. Probably a larger word salad than needed for these peaks but here goes. I decided to buck the coolie bootin trend for a day to cherry pick a mellow climb that requires just trail runners and microspikes. I left snowshoes, crampons, and mountaineering boots in the car. I drove up the Kendall Mountain Road (rough but no real obstacles) and parked my car at about 11,100ft. There are 2 snow drifts blocking further passage by vehicle. I expect these drifts to be melted out within the next couple weeks. I hiked the road past treeline above the last road switchbacks, at which point I left the road and hiked due north on steep grass next to a gravel gully, arriving at the upper Kendall BM road. From here I followed the road to the southeast summit ridge of Kendall BM, and took that all the way to the summit. There were some mild snow crossings on neve snow, mixed into some dry 2+ terrain. Without microspikes/ice axe/basic snow skills the snow crossings may have been more sketchy but I had no real issues gaining the Kendall BM summit. Glass jar register (placed by Kiefer in 2023?) is intact. I retraced my steps and began a mellow traverse over the 12,800 bumps to Kendall Mountain. Again, no real obstacles. Lots of snow on the southern aspects of Kendall Mountain but less so on the SW ridge. I crossed snow 2-3 times on the final ascent to the mountain. The ridge is loose and steep but less bad compared to other nearby peaks. No summit register on Kendall Mtn. I descended Kendall Mountain the way I came, opting to return over the 12,800 bumps to the upper Kendall BM road. The infamous gully to Kendall Peak is filled in still. Best way to access that mountain is either when the gully is filled in, or by the backside route featured in Kiefer's trip report last year. 

Route: Kendall Gulch
Posted On: 6/25/2023, By: kyrawhitworth
Info: Kendall Mountain and newly ranked Kendall Benchmark No 2 Needed spikes to cross some snow fields. Steeper and looser going up to Kendall from the road than expected. Really rewarding views for a short mileage summit. Wildflowers not quite there yet. Saw lots of marmots. Road is clear to the turn off mentioned on climb13ers but snow prevents much further driving. 

Route: Kendall gulch ascent, Swansea gulch ski descent
Posted On: 4/28/2023, By: SnowAlien
Info: Having skied Kendall BM with EasyRider (before it was ranked) down to Silverton, and having hiked Kendall peak with GrizzlyAdams in the summer, meant that Kendall mtn became an orphan. I had an idea to combine it with the line on Hazelton mtn, but was lacking the shuttle, so decided to play it by ear. I remembered from the Kendall BM approach that skinning up CR 33 was very efficient, knocking the vert out quickly (although trying to keep up with EasyRider was utterly exhausting). As typical, I got a late alpine start of 8.30am after a solo skier and 2 guys on a snowmobile. Followed snowmobile tracks to about 13k, but all these tracks went to Kendall BM. Skinned last 800 ft above the cliffs to the summit. The cornices are enormous and reminded me of the corniced crater rim on Mt St Helens in Washington. Finally was the decision time - which route to take down. Due to the wraparound cornices, the only viable option was to take the NW ridge to the small saddle, where one can drop down to Blair lake. But the ridge looked dry for a few hundred feet. Besides, due to the late hour of the day ~1.30 pm, I thought the Hazelton exit (NE) would be too slushy. However, there was continuous snow NW down towards Swansea gulch (which I never skied), so I decided to go down that way. I fairly soon realized that there were cliffs below, however I was hoping to see an opening in the cliffbands. Lo and behold, with some creative route finding, but continuously on snow, I was in the basin below. The rest was fairly straightforward with a very long descent back to town. ~ 4,200 ft, 7 miles and 6 hrs 

Route: Kendall BM to 13109 Traverse
Posted On: 8/26/2022, By: JasonKline
Info: Have you ever had the ridiculous idea of soloing the Kendall Benchmark to Pt. 13109 traverse when you only have a low-clearance sedan? Not only can you not set up the car caravan between the Titusville site and Deer Park as per bergsteigen's report, but you also have to park almost all the way down near Silverton because the road requires higher-clearance pretty early on? If you ever decide to engage in such foolishness, it took me about 16.2 miles and 7,300'. Also, the gully you ascend to reach Kendall Peak really is as soul-sucking as everybody says. At least it's still summer conditions. 

Route: CR 33
Posted On: 6/27/2022, By: angry
Info: Fresh snow on the route above 13K. Wildflowers are poppin. 

Route: From Kendall Benchmark
Posted On: 9/1/2020, By: supranihilest
Info: From the summit of Kendall Benchmark I dropped back to the main road, followed it east for maybe a tenth of a mile, and then went up a short Class 2+ scramble to Kendall Mountain's west ridge. I took the west ridge to the summit. The lower part has no trail and is unrelentingly steep and loose. There's a trail on the upper mountain but it's faint. Much of Kendall Mountain's south side is a long cliff so I descended back down the ridge about half way and then went down steep grass to the road.