Page 1 of 1

Split Mountain

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:00 pm
by hvydrt
I climbed Split Mountain last weekend with 4 others from the SoCal hikers and Peakbaggers meet up group. We met in Big Pine at 6am on Saturday and took the McMurry Meadows Road to get to the Red Lake trailhead. We started hiking about 7:30 and it was already getting warm. The trail starts at 6,500' and has little shade. Once we reached the snow line we were able to take a more direct route and avoid a lot of the loose and rocky trail.
Image

We reached Red lake in the early afternoon and made camp at 10,500' on a hill just above the lake. We spent the afternoon taking in the scenery and recovering from the slog up the hill. The weather was perfect at camp with mild temps and light winds. The view of Split Mountain and frozen Red Lake was awesome. The peak towers 3500' above the lake.
Image

We got up at 3am on Sunday and were headed for the peak by 4. The climb up to the north slope was amazing. The views got better and better as we gained the ridge.
Image
Image

We reached the peak at 9am and spent 30 minutes or so enjoying the views. There is still a lot of snow in the sierra!
Image

It took us 5 hours to reach the peak and only 1.5 to get back down. We were able to glissade on about 1000' of the decent. Image
We packed up camp and began the slog back to the cars. On the way down we stayed on the south side of Red Mountain creek as long as we could to take advantage of the snow, then cut back over to the south side and rejoined the trail. Got back to the cars around 4 and were home by 9:30.


If you want to do this peak, stop by the permit office in Lone Pine and pick up their driving directions. The directions and way points to the trailhead on climber.org and summitpost are accurate however they are more complicated than they need to be. The forest service handout for the road is much easier to follow and gives accurate mileages between turns. Most stuff I read about the drive to the trailhead says 4 wheel drive is needed beyond McMurry Meadows but I would disagree. The road to McMurry meadows is in excellent condition and we were able to travel at a good speed (look out for cows!). Beyond the meadows the road narrows and becomes more rocky, but I never needed to turn on my four wheel drive and didn't see anything that looked like it would be a problem for most trucks or SUVS with decent clearance. On the way out we took the semi-legal route, skirting the private property on a very rocky road that takes you to Tinemaha campground then back to 395. This route is much shorter but very very rocky and you need more clearance than the McMurry meadows route.

The rest of my pictures are here

Re: Split Mountain

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:10 pm
by Taco
Looks awesome. I dig that couloir, and that pointy peak in the background. Any ice at the moment?

Cheers Boss

Re: Split Mountain

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:28 pm
by hvydrt
Didn't see any ice. There were very deep drifts at the top of that couloir and we could hear lots of rock fall from camp. Just your style! :D

Re: Split Mountain

Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:36 pm
by Zach
absolutely amazing!

Re: Split Mountain

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 7:23 am
by Dave G
Nice work! I still haven't checked that one off--maybe this year. For those with a penchant for ice, the east couloir of Split is legendary :twisted:.

Re: Split Mountain

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:13 pm
by lilbitmo
Nice work hvydrt, aspen glow in the Sierra's is the best for great pictures.

Thanks for sharing that - :D

Dave, I'm in for this one when you go :D

Re: Split Mountain

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 1:11 pm
by norma r
Awesome! thanks for sharing. Split is on my to-do list for this year. your TR just kicked my excitement level for it up a notch! :D glad you had a great time.

Re: Split Mountain

Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 2:28 pm
by Hikin_Jim
Good looking pics! But boy that first one looks like hot work. Ugh.

Climb on!

HJ

Re: Split Mountain

Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2010 9:13 am
by Cy Kaicener
Great pictures. Here are a few more from Harry Q
http://thehamm.net/2010/04/split-mountain-attempt/