Split Mountain is a classic CA Sierra 14er usually climbed via the North Slope (class 3, easy snow, I estimate max of 40 degrees) or Jean’s Couloir (Alpine Ice 2, steep snow). Chesson, Gabe and I climbed it via the former, easier route, summiting on Sunday, May 31st.
We drove up to Alabama Hills dispersed camping on Friday night after work. After a lazy Saturday morning brunch, we began the long dirt road drive in. As forewarned by the internet, we made it about four miles from the trailhead before insurmountable ruts and boulders blocked the path of our sedan. Luckily, a good Samaritan in a lifted truck pulled through and generously offered us a ride (“offered” is a stretch… I shamelessly asked for the help). However, forgetting that the night before I had drawn a hiking path on OnX, I incorrectly navigated our ride to a dead end. Apologizing and informing him of the correct route, we began our bushwack to the correct starting point.
Most of the day was uneventful. Being on the eastern side of the Sierra, we had the classic steep climb up to Red Lake, the site of our base camp. This consisted of the usual ~4000ft of vertical gain, over four miles of trail. We took our time and arrived at camp roughly around 5pm.
Dinner was relatively more eventful. There was one other group descending the mountain when we arrived, and a college-age looking guy approached us breathlessly as we set up camp.
“One of our three climbers took a fall descending the steeper section to Red Lake Pass and dropped his ice axe while attempting to self-arrest, sliding into rocks below, we think he may have broken something in his leg or hip”.
Oh boy. We soon learned that this guy’s father, the third member of their group, also fell and hit his ribcage on a rock while rushing towards the fallen climber. We discussed their options, as he was considering calling SAR for extraction. After some time, he left us to collect the two. About an hour later we saw them descending into camp, and they appeared to be moving fine. The younger man came back to our camp and we discussed further.
It is hard to give advice in such situations, when the climbers’ ability is unknown to you. I told him vaguely what I would personally do, which was self-rescue that night, given they were all mobile and the hike out was short, with their 4WD car right at the trailhead. Gabe was more cautious giving advice to unknown strangers, and recommended they call 911 for official medical advice.
We ate our dinner. There is no way I would sit in a camp overnight with a town nearby if I was in 7+/10 pain – I would be crawling out or calling SAR if I was immobile. I half expected them to contact us again for assistance, but they did not, so we let them be. Funnily enough, around 11pm, a small but loud group arrived at camp. I thought for sure it was SAR, but it turned out to be a backpacking couple that hiked in very late. What a weird camp we were at!
We got up around 3:20 for some food, and left camp just before 4:00. The north slope consists of boulders with decent pack trail to about 11,500ft, at which point we switched to crampons. At this point we had a great view of Jean’s Couloir, the AI2 route. May conditions yielded excellent crust up until around noon, but many rock bands break up the snowfields as you gradually make your way up the slope.
Next, we had the ~40deg slope to Red lake pass, the most technical part of the ascent. Here, we found an old, large REI ice axe, presumably the one lost by the group the day before. I used it for the rest of the climb, stashing my borrowed Sum’Tec on my pack.
I should mention here that we discovered a few hours prior that Chesson had forgotten his sunglasses at camp. This likely would have forced us to turn around early to prevent eye damage from the bright snow. Miraculously, our friend who dropped his ice axe also dropped his sunglasses! I do not want to be insensitive, but this really helped us. Thank you, sir.
From the pass we had an easy (but slow) hike to the summit. We summited quite late but in great spirits, around 11am.
For brevity I will skip most of the details of the descent, but there were a few highlights (and lowlights).
1. I somehow managed to mess up the ice axe clip on my pack, and sometime during the glissade, I lost the Sum’Tec I was borrowing. This was absolutely devastating to my soul.
2. The glissading from Red Lake Pass was excellent and helped to heal my soul.
When we got back to camp after summiting, the group of three was gone. Although this is heavy speculation, I presume that the fallen climber was shaken by the experience and eventually relaxed, as opposed to being seriously injured, which likely would have prompted them to accept our offer of aid in descending to the trailhead.
We were very slow on this trip and arrived back to camp at 2pm, and the TH around 7pm. The group outvoted me and we took the full road out, instead of the bushwack (curse you, Chesson), and we arrived at the car at 9pm. A Denny’s stop for some much-needed food and the long drive back to San Diego resulted in a 26hr day, getting to sleep around 5am. This would have been fine, but I had a meeting at 8am! Many naps were thus taken on Monday.