-Split Mountain Attempt-

Elevation: 14,058 ft.

Date Hiked: 4-26-2010

Trip Report:
Although Split mountain is not in southern California I still am including this trip report. One of my goals has been to hike every 14er in the lower 48. I will include these trips in this site as they are completed regardless of the state they are in. All of my other trip reports will be from mountains in southern California. It is interesting that a short 3 and a half hour drive from San Diego can take you to world class mountaineering in the Sierra.

Split Mountain

This trip was created through the Southern California Hikers and Peakbaggers Meetup.com group. There were five of us in this group including myself. It was great to meet Mark, Ron, Charlie and Tyler. I left for the Sierra on Friday morning and quickly made may way up to the Onion Valley campground. The drive was not bad and went quickly, I guess I was excited to see the eastern Sierra. It had been almost a year since I had last made this drive. All of the peaks north of Olancha had lots of snow but it did not look fresh. I thought the storm from the past few days would have dumped more, but it looked like it missed this part of the range.

I found the turnoff for Onion Valley campground and made my way up the road. There was lots of rock debris along the road from the recent rain that I made my way around. Suddenly I heard a loud bang and saw a rock roll out from under my car. !@#$% was my first thought. I pulled over and looked under the car, transmission fluid was pouring onto the road. I knew I needed to get back to town ASAP. I turned round and drove back to Independence. I found a shop and they took the car in. They said they could not get the part until Monday which meant I would be driving up again the following weekend. Luckily Mark called and offered a ride to Onion Valley campground for the night.

Mt. Baldy from HWY 395

Mt. Whitney

On Friday night Mark, Ron, who met us at Onion Valley, and I camped near Onion Valley campground to acclimate. There was a dirt road roughly a mile from the actual campground where we pulled off and camped.

Independence Mountain from our Campsite

The weather was great and it did not below 30 degrees. We woke up at 4 AM quickly packed camp and left for Big Pine, this is where we would meet Charlie and Tyler.

Mt. Williamson

White Mountain Peak

After meeting them in Big Pine we left for the Red Lake Trailhead. This is supposedly one of the most difficult 14er trailheads to reach. The directions we got from climber.org we spot on. I input all of the GPS waypoints they included there and they were all accurate.

We began hiking around 7AM with heavy packs along the steep trail. It was very hot and the trail was snow free for the first few thousand feet. Slowly but surely we made our way up and up. Eventually we made it to the small lake below Red Lake and got our first glimpse of Split Mountain.

The Owens Valley on the Trail to Red Lake

The Owens Valley on the Trail to Red Lake II

Split Mountain

We rested for a little while and eventually made it to Red Lake. The lake was still frozen and there was snow everywhere. I found a good campsite, set up camp and enjoyed the views.

My Campsite

I rested awhile and went out to enjoy the sunset. I also took time to scope out the route for the morning.

Split Mountain

Our Route

Myself in front of Split Mountain

After the sun had set I settled into my tent and tried to get some sleep. I slept just a few minutes at a time and woke up at midnight. I was tired but could not sleep for some reason. At 3 AM everyone else woke up and got ready to go. It was in the high 20s outside as I got ready, perfect temperature for climbing. I got my pack ready, put on my gators and crampons and got my ice axe ready.

We left shortly before 4 AM in the darkness. I could see only what my headlamp lit up in front of me. The snow was solid which made cramponing easy. About two hours into the climb I began to feel nauseous and threw up two times. I decided I did not want to be a liability and turned around back to camp. I took my time descending and enjoyed the sunrise. I felt a little better once back at camp but still a little nauseous. I was only able to sleep for about an hour. I wondered how the rest of the team was doing on the mountain.

My Field of Vision

Split Mountain Early Morning

Split Mountain and Red Lake

Our Route in the Morning

Split Mountain Close Up

As I watched the slope above I thought I saw something falling. I did not know if it was rock or a person. I had been hearing rockfall and small slides all morning as the sun heated up the mountain. It turned out to be the rest of the team galssading down the mountain. Once they made it back to camp we talked, packed and headed out to the trailhead. The descent was uneventful but we were able to glassade quite a bit of the snow covered section.

Our Glassade Track

Split Mountain

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