I enjoy going to the Katwalk in early season. Read a couple of reports but there’s nothing like seeing it for yourself and assessing the situation. What I saw today was not evident in the reports I read.
Started at 8:20 this am with a few cars in the lot. Toilet in great condition with TP and actually pretty clean. Trail in the first mile was a little muddy and lower streams were running. Did the switchbacks up to the 2.5 mile mark with the intersection of Commonwealth Basin. Continuing on, trail was lovely with lots of flowers on display. The stream crossings are doable up until this point but be mindful of stable rocks with footing. Got to the 4300 ft stream and you can cross either a high, medium, or low route pretty easily and the stream is running high. It’s the last place to refill on this journey so need to be sure you have enough water to get to the Katwalk and back. The trail through the trees with surrounding clearings which look like campsites was nice and cool, then hit the talus field area with views of Rainier. It was still cool in the am and a nice breeze going. There were 3 trees down that you could go over or under without difficulty. Passed the boot path to Kendall Peak and continued on without snow on the trail until just around the corner, about 0.4 miles from the Katwalk. I counted 11 snow fields. The first field is the steepest with a decent runout so you need to be very sure footed, use poles, traction, and kick steps. There was no evidence of postholing on this first field yet. If the snow was not consolidated this would be ice axe material. But not today as the snow is very solid and you can kick steps. The next 10 snowfields along the trail had their challenges as well. Only one seemed to have a postholed/bridged area. You really need to assess for the depth of the snow under foot or you could pop through a bridged area. One snow area needed to be traversed below it on the talus which was stable. The fields added like 40 minutes to the trip but worth it. Finally got to the Katwalk and the views were stunning with perfect temps and rare bugs (the views were great all day actually). We lunched on the Katwalk then prepared for the 11 snow field descent. Seemed a little better on the way back but still exercised caution even tho we saw a few people without boots, poles, traction, etc. I’d say most had turned around at the start of the snow. We only saw 2 other people at the Katwalk. I think the snow will be melting out over the next 2-3 weeks after the temps increase but they are still a few feet deep in areas. Don’t go over too quickly with weight without paying attention or you could break a leg or something.
Anyway, after the snow the descent was great including it’s typical long saunter as you get near the last talus field. We saw maybe 10 people the entire day as I think the snow is keeping people away. On our way out we saw a couple of backpackers and had wondered how far they were going out but did not ask. The surrounding peaks and valleys were gorgeous today and so were the many flowers. The area will transform as the summer heats up and the PCT hikers head through on their way north. Great and technically challenging trek today with a well deserved beer later.
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