Six of us set out early today for the PCT (Matt Deitz, Bob Horn, Dan Bachelor, Mike Jones, Brandon Brazee, and myself). Our plan was to scramble Kendall Peak and then to go to the Katwalk (how come I see it spelled Catwalk, or Katwalk?). I had hoped to go up the grassy side of Kendall, down the ridge, and then to return via the “shorter” Commonwealth Basin trail.
Well, things turned out a bit differently than I had planned. I was surprised to by the amount of snow remaining on the trail. We bypassed the direct route up Kendall and ended up starting our scramble by going up the ridge. This route has a couple of class three moments, and the snow made it a little more difficult then I had expected. After keeping the ridge for a long ways, we scrambled lower on the west side of the peak and made a safe hike up to the summit. We took the direct route down (instead of the ridge) and then made a leisurely visit to the catwalk.
The weather was spectacular and quite a few hikers were now in that vicinity. I met a couple of hikers (one in jeans) who said they were headed for Stevens Pass. They said they were planning to do it in three days, but it was around 1 p.m. and they had only gone 6 miles on their first day. They didn’t seem to be in a hurry so I was left wondering if they would “make it”. They were optimistic about the weather, but they’ll have to get moving (obviously I was a little worried about them) if they hope to finish their hike before it gets worse.
On the way back I kept looking for the Commonwealth Trail/Cascade Crest for the “shortcut” back. I bypassed one trail that said “Commonwealth Basin”, but it was more than half way back to the car, so I’m not sure about the alternate route. Our legs were pretty well spent once we were done. I think we did about 13 miles and ended the round trip in less than seven hours. Elevation gain was around 2800 feet. 
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