Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Split Mountain information/beta

Anybody climbed Split Mountain lately?

I'm looking at summiting 17 September weekend via Red Lake Trail.

What's the snow conditions like? Ice axe or crampons needed?
Mosquitos?
Road condition to the trailhead?
Better camping at Little Red Lake or Red Lake?
How's the fishing?
How's the route finding after Red Lake? Recommendations are gladly appreciated.
Weather: how cold did it get?

Thanks!

Climbed it about years ago in May. A lot of snow on the upper chute but there's probably not much now. Camp at the upper lake, there's a couple of good bivy sites and it's only about 2.5 hours to the summit from there.

There's a jungle of sorts that you hike thru on the way, be careful not to get lost in there. Sometimes the creek is the trail so just be aware of that. There's trails leading to nowhere in there(cliff out) where hikers got lost. A few people have spent an hour or two trying to find their way out.
Look up the Driving directions to Split on Summitpost.org. There's a much shorter way to get there then going up to Big Pine.

Have fun!

Phil Gilbert

Camped at Red Lake and made the summit last weekend. Perfect weather then. I would guess quite changeable as we get into Sept/Oct. Cool but not cold nights for me. Few mosquitos but not bad at all. Yes, camp at Red Lake. Great alpine setting below Split. Road? well, that the hardest part of the trip. Must have high clearance vehicle. No question. Don't know about a shorter way. I went in McMurray Meadows from Big Pine. No problems, easy to follow, just very difficult road conditions. Trail (path?) easy to follow almost all the way to Red Lake. In the desert for a good couple of miles. Can get hot and dry. Take plenty of water to start. Don't get to water for a while. Trail goes away a few times but reappears. Keep your eyes open for it and you should be able to find it. But I agree, the hardest part is the brushy area about halfway in/out. Going in/up, I was fine, coming down, I did get off trail and thrashed around for an extra 15-20 minutes. Some cairns are there if you look. Previous poster is right, the trail IS the small creek inside the brush for a short distance. No axe needed. The snow in the final upper canyon leading to the rock scramble to the crest was walkable with poles and preferable. Deep and just soft enough around 9am to stay on top of the snow and to make it an easy walk. No postholing at all, even coming down around 1pm. Use trail and boot prints will take you all the way to the top. Fun and relatively short class 3 to get to north slope is exactly as described elsewhere. I do not do any climbing beyond class 3 and this was fine. Awesome summit view (aren't they all though?) All in all, one of my favorite hikes/peaks in the region. Tough and rewarding. Enjoy.

Thanks for the information! It came in handy.

The trip was great:

Snow conditions: 1st snow field at ~12000 ft, easily crossed with or without poles. Once crossed, parallel the gully up towards the left scrambling on the loose rocks next to it to make it to the north slope. Once on the north slope (>13000 ft) there is snow on talus the whole way up making for some tricky rock hopping, especially on the way down. No ice axe or crampons needed.

Trail: Class 2 mostly, with some Class 3 at the top of the canyon before you hit the north slope between 12500-13000ft. Halfway to Red Lake is tough with an abundance of bushy overgrowth that will poke you. At this point you follow a stream for a short while. Generally stay right as a few misleading paths will take you off trail, though still easy to make it back on trail. In general, must be astute to basic route finding. The leisurely hiker can easily get off trail.

Weather: Great weather. Clear, sunny skies and nights. ~40F low at night at Red Lake. Felt like ~45-50 at the summit with the wind chill.

Road condition to the trailhead: Very rugged. Little do you realize the adventure actually begins on the road to get there. The short cut via Fuller Road near Fish Springs is terrible. Very rocky and full of brush scratching up the car with hairy crossing that will bottom out many street cars: not recommended. The regular off road route via McMurry Meadows Road is largely a wide fire road that is in good condition. However, the last four miles to the trail head is rough with lots of rocks, and brush that will scratch your car, especially wider vehicles. High clearance vehicle definitely recommended.

Mosquitoes: little to none at the lake.

Overnight Camping: Red Lake is perfect with a few well placed campsites.

Fishing: A fairly shallow lake, and with good visibility, and we did not see a single fish, nor got any bites. However, a hiker on the way back claimed to have seen someone catch a trout.

Bears: no bear activity. Only an occasional mouse, marmot and grouse-looking bird.

This is a tough hike! It was long and arduous but very rewarding!

Cheers.