Summited Split on Sunday 6/12. Great climb, but more physically demanding then I thought it would be. The snow is melting out FAST. Couple of soft slides the day I was there. There was good snow coverage for most of the climb up the North slope from Red Lake. A few places where you had to scramble on rock. The snow was a typical Sierra mix of conditions... some firm, some crust, some windblown, some postholing, some soft. Looked like no one had climbed that route since the last snow a couple weekends ago. Wound up punching through on the southern aspects which was extremely tiring. Very soft snow on descent which made for some fun (but wet) glisades.
I went solo, but wound up climbing with a couple of gals from the Bay area and a couple of guys from the LA area who caught up with me at the top of the slope I kept punching through. Was nice to meet and climb with them.
A couple of things about the trailhead. Fist of all, despite all that I had read, BOTH access roads are navigable in a very stock, two-wheel drive Nissan Frontier. My son drove his truck to the trailhead to drop me off, and we came in via the rocky road near the old open pit mine. It was slow, but totally doable. Since we had time to burn, we went out to Big Pine via the "4x4 only" main road. Again, no problems. But as with most things in life, YMMV. Not everyone has the same confidence and savy about where to put your wheels, so take my report with a grain of salt. (Oh, and just to drive the point home, the girls I met up there drove a rental truck, which I believe was also two wheel drive, and they had no problems.)
Second thing about the trailhead... take the time to find the right one! There are some false trails up there, and you could pretty much screw the start of your trip if you miss the real one. I hiked around the day before I went in and still didn't find the right one. Fortunately, a climber that day hiked in early had on his headlamp, so I was able to spot where the correct trail was. (Thank you, who-ever you are!!!!) I noticed a couple of parties who started up the wrong trail and were thrashing around down by the creek. Ugh. Not fun.
Oh, and yes the trail is not maintained, but it's very easy to stay on it. I think you could get lost at night, but that's not too hard to do in the wilderness anyway, eh? Also, if you go soon, you might consider taking some pruning shears, or maybe a small saw. For God's sake! That willow area is a real bugger for someone who is 6'-3" with a full pack!!
Oh yeah, one more thing... if you're into it, there are trout in the lake. (At least the small, lower lake. Red Lake proper is still frozen, but starting to thaw.) I took a small spinning rod and reel and caught some little goldens out of the lake. They were tasty!
