Climbed Kendall Knob #4, made it within 100' of Peak 5476, and then exited down thru the Kendall Peak Lakes for a fun day in the sun (well, mostly shade) with Kidz Won't Hike and SoaringEagle. Kidz already has a detailed report, so just including some other info. This is not a hike, but has some steep and runout terrain, so experience with mountaineering snowshoes, ice axe, and crampons is required.
As luck would have it, another climber Scott was up on this seldom climbed peak just a day before us, so we were able to follow his snowshoe and boot tracks after we exited the main trail. And we were able to grab his GPX file as well. Thanks Scott!
The snow up high exposed to the sun is melting fast, probably only a foot on average at 5000' and in a lot of places it is not well consolidated or it's sitting on top of boulder fields where it's getting easier to punch through. So not ideal conditions for this climb, you probably want more snow. Getting up to Kendall Knob #4 was straightforward except steep near the top. From there, the trail got more interesting. Had to descend down a steep slope in the trees and then head up to the ridge between Knob #4 and Peak 5476. It's this ridge that we used to hike back down to the furthest Kendall Peak Lake on our way out. It was totally frozen, wish I had my skates with me! Anyway, from the ridge there is some serious sidehilling on the south facing aspect of Peak 5476 and this is an avalanche slope, so be cautious of that. While the snow was softer here and unconsolidated in places, it didn't seem too dangerous from an avy perspective today, we didn't see anything recent. Today's rating at that elevation was Moderate. Eventually, we stashed our snowshoes and pulled out ice axes and headed straight up to the saddle below Peak 5476. Snow was not holding well so had to be cautious with steps.
Once we got up to the saddle, we put on crampons and dropped our packs and then headed up the final slopes for Peak 5476. The first section seems the trickiest, as far as we could see. It was a 3' wide 70 degree snow band with steep drop-off on the right and some rock sections on the left. Scott's tracks in the snow stopped here so we assumed that he scrambled on the rock instead. I tried to work my way up the snow first, but it was so unconsolidated that it wouldn't really hold well. I switched over to climbing on the rock, which was doable, with some questionable veggie belays. Here I stood up and would have needed to climb another rock section to get up to easier terrain. There was some decent size holds, but on testing them, some of the rock was loose. So we discussed as a group and decided it was too sketchy overall especially for an unnamed peak that none of us cared about. I had to execute some delicate moves to down climb the rock section as I couldn't see all the foot holds.
Stats: 9.7 miles, 2,860' gain, 6:20 total time, 1:30 stopped time, lots of gear changes.
Gear: Poles, Gaiters, Mountaineering Snowshoes, Ice Axe, Crampons, Microspikes. Used everything on this trip!
GPX: https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=3097839
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