[Paul M]

Stu F and I got out on Saturday for a good climb of Mt Kent (5087 ft). With impending work soon to be done on his right knee (medial meniscus ligament) Stu was looking for one more trip before being down for a few weeks. For extra credit we started at the low trail head off exit 42 (11.3 mi rt and ~3500 ft). We paid for this later when we spent the last hr walking out via headlamp… man that forest is dark. The morning started misty with a low cloud deck. The forecast hinted at some partial afternoon clearing but we didn't see any of it where we were. In fact, once in the clouds we found our local visibility limited to about 100 yards. We never did see our peak or any other views until catching a few glimpses of the valley below the rising clouds on our way down. We saw no one the entire day nor was there any evidence (tracks) of anyone up near or on Mt Kent before us. There are several blow downs on the trail around 2,500 ft, beyond that you are in solid snow. We had tracks to follow until the first slide gully but they all ended just past it (or rather seemed to go straight up hill from here). Perhaps they were tracks coming down from a North side climb? Since this did not help us we continued on traversing towards the S shoulder of McClellan Butte and Alice Lakes for our final climb to the summit of Kent. We found good step kicking snow but passed numerous old slide paths and several “no fall” zones along the way. Any party contemplating going there in the near future should be conscious of their own capabilities as well as the snow conditions. Once on the treed slopes above Alice Lakes we kicked tiny steps in bullet hard snow until finally reaching the ridge, where we thankfully switched to crampons for the last few hundred feet to the top. The views on top were limited to non existent so we only spent enough time there to take a few pictures then headed down. The return was just a matter of following our tracks.

Trail at 3000 ft

Stu crossing one of many slide gullies

Rime ice at 4,500 ft

Stu ascending the final slope above Alice Lake

Stu on the Summit of Mt Kent

Looking West along summit ridge

Looking East along summit ridge

Finally a view on the descent

[EastKing]

Nice getting up there. Looked like good trip.

[Redwic]

I assume the summit register was buried under a bunch of snow. I have special affection for that register. Good job on another successful summit.

[Paul M]

Thx, Yeah... we did not even look for the actual summit cairn as it was all covered with ~4 feet of snow and it was getting late in the day. We walked the summit ridge from end to end and called it good.

[yukon222]

Crossing "no fall, no slip" zones are always exciting! Thanks for the TR!