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If anyone has been up to Split Mountain recently, could you report on the snow conditions. We're going up via the North Slope from the East Route, so I'm particularly interested in the Class 3 chute.

We climbed Split from Red Lake yesterday. Here are some pics if anyone is interested in conditions in that area:

http://kathywing.smugmug.com/gallery/12809419_27aKx#P-1-15

The road to Red Lake is in good condition - 2WD High Clearance such as a truck or SUV should be able to get all the way to the trailhead without a problem. We had a Toyota Tacoma with 4WD, a Honda Pilot with 4WD, and a full size Chevy pickup with 2WD - none of the vehicles had any problems getting to the trailhead.

Great photos Kathy. Thanks for posting. We're heading up there this weekend, and it's nice to see that there's isn't much snow left on the north slope. ...no postholing.

I've been wondering about the road to the trailhead, so I'm glad that it was passable for you. Which route did you take (i.e., Tinemaha CG or McMurray)? Was there any encroaching brush that scratched your paint? Thanks!

SkyPilot84 wrote:Great photos Kathy. Thanks for posting. We're heading up there this weekend, and it's nice to see that there's isn't much snow left on the north slope. ...no postholing.

I've been wondering about the road to the trailhead, so I'm glad that it was passable for you. Which route did you take (i.e., Tinemaha CG or McMurray)? Was there any encroaching brush that scratched your paint? Thanks!

We went through McMurray - the 12 mile way. It took us about 45 minutes to get from Crocker/Glacier Lodge Road to the trailhead. The bushes swiped the side of my truck in a couple of places, but nothing bad - I was driving the Tacoma, but the driver of the full size pickup didn't complain about the bushes; so it probably wasn't a big issue for him either. The map at Climber.org is a good one and it helps to mark a few waypoints along the way if you use a GPS - there was one junction that I had to stop and think about.

Have fun!

You sure caught some beautiful early morning light, Kathy!

Congratulations Kathy. Great pictures. I posted this link on the San Jacinto message board under a link started by Hikin_Jim
http://mtsanjacinto.info/viewtopic.php?t=2392

One more comment on Split - If you're going up via the north slope from the east, it helps to mark where you top out onto the north slope from the chute or rocks, so you don't have to give it much thought as to where to drop down when you descend. There was a climber that was missing on Saturday when we were headed up - he might have gone down the wrong way.

Thanks for the advice. And, we'll have a 4WD 4Runner, so we should make it to the trailhead ok. Now we'll just hope that the weather holds out...

Great shots Kathy! Thanks for posting and congrats on the summit. I'm gonna be up there next week and was thinking I might just give that climb a try! Your pics have inspired me!