Split Mountain

"Day 11 of my JMT section hike. Matt and I left our high camp at Lake 11597 in Upper Basin early in the morning and worked our way up over easy grassy slopes to the Split - Prater saddle. From there the climb up to the summit of Split was straightforward and relatively easy for a 14er. Cool views back to the Black and Glacier divides, down to Mather pass, and south down Upper Basin and the North Fork of the Kings." — edg • Aug 13, 2019

"Couch to 14er in one weekend! None of us were really in shape for this, but we went anyway. Fortunately, we were able to sleep high (9,000' at Onion Valley) on Friday night. Picked up permit from Lone Pine Ranger Station on Saturday Morning. Only 8 permits per day here. The crux of this route may actually be the road to the trailhead. You need high clearance. I did it in a BMW X1, but the 8 miles took 2-1/2 hours! Also, the "trail" to Red Lake is not maintained, easy to lose, and impossibly steep, overgrown, and terrible. Word of warning...there is a willow maze where you cross streams coming down from the north side of the canyon. After Rad Lake, we got a 4am alpine start, and crunched our way up the hard snow. delightful! Summit views are among the BEST in all the Sierra, given this peak's central location. One of our party skiied (almost continuously) from the 14,000' summit down to our camp at Red lake (10,000'). A great weekend, but I'm glad I don't have to do it again?" — benjineer • Jun 22, 2019

"JMT side trip. Parked by the unnamed lake just to it's NorthWest and went up before dawn. There's only bits and pieces of use trails so you're actually best off waiting for light to find your route. Down with the sun was much easier. You're pretty much grinding scree and hopping small talus all the way up. You'll be happy to know, however, that the prosaic view witnessed from it's West changes entirely once you near the saddle. It becomes quite steep dramatic with fearsome views out to the East. Oh and there's excellent AT&T service here." — JustinB • Aug 6, 2018

"We came over Mather Pass yesterday and camped at a lake at the base of Split so we could get up early to summit. We left camp at 7:45 a.m., reached the peak at 10:15, hung out for a good hour and a half as we had cell service for the first time in days. We were back at camp by 1:20." — MoneyPenny • Jul 14, 2014

"3 day trip with Lee Hagan. Started the hike on Tuesday, jan 7th, camped well below Red Lake. Woke up early and started climbing around 0630 on Wednesday, Jan 8th. Hit the summit around 1530 and had to down climb the ice chute as it was getting dark. Didn't return to camp until around 2230. Hiked back down on Thursday morning, the 9th, and returned home after breakfast in Lone Pine." — brettmurphy85 • Jan 8, 2014

"My birthday was on the 25th. I wanted to plan something epic, but my birthday fell in the middle of the week, so I planned a weekend trip instead. I drove up from Vegas with ambercavazos & Billiam on Saturday, driving through the ghost town of Rhyolite, NV and Titus Canyon in Death Valley on the way. We got to the trailhead around 2pm & hiked to Little Red Lake, where we set up camp for the night. On Sunday, we started a little late & were pounded by winds the whole day. The slog up the scree slope was brutal, only to encounter the boulder field afterwards. When we reached the ridge, that's when the beautiful views started! We stayed on the ridge to do a bit of class 3 climbing & to avoid some of the loose path. When we reached the top of that, we headed straight up the boulders to the summit, again avoiding the loose path, but having to deal with loose boulders instead. After spending about 1/2 hour at the summit, we headed down to camp, packed up & hiked out. Overall, I've got to say the route was pretty lousy, but the views from the top of Split Mountain are some of the best I've seen! That definitely made my 6th California 14er (4th this year) a memorable one!" — Kevin • Sep 29, 2013

"Exciting ride in to the trailhead on dirt road in the 100 degree heat. 4000 ft slug up to basecamp. Next day, steep snowchute and an demoralizingly interminable Dana-like boulder field to the top. Coolest mountain ever, looking like a something out of a fairy tale." — paperpanther • Jul 17, 2010