Split Mountain, August 14, 2015; California 14er #10; U.S.
14er #69
Attentive blog readers may recall my aborted attempt to climb
Split Mountain on July 30/31; when I made the tough backpack on a steep use
trail to Red Lake, spent a night in the tent in the rain and then pulled the
plug on the summit attempt and hiked out the next day.
This second attempt at the mountain might be titled, “The Revenge
of Split Mountain”; but it’s a tossup whether the exacter of that revenge was
me or Split Mountain.
Ignoring my own oft-shared advice to “camp high and give
yourself the best shot at the summit” I didn’t even camp at the trailhead and
instead, with a bomber weather forecast, attempted to “day hike” the mountain
by starting out from Bishop at about 4 a.m.
The California 14ers don’t like to be day-hiked but I did it
(by the skin of my teeth): departing from the trailhead before 7 a.m. and
returning to the truck after at 10:30 p.m.; a 14-mile roundtrip with an
elevation gain of 7,500 feet.
What was I thinking? Well, one thing I was thinking is that
I’m sick of camping out and I knew from experience how difficult it is to hike
the steep trail to the logical camping area at Red Lake, carrying tent,
sleeping bag, bear canister, etc.
Basically, even though I knew it was the smart way to do it, I
just didn’t want to do it.
The 14.5 mile jeep trail to the trail head is rough and gets
worse the further in you go. So I timed it to arrive there and start out just
before dawn so that I had the morning light for the worst part of the “road”.
With just a day pack, the five-mile hike to Red Lake from
the trailhead was, indeed, easier than the first trip with the big pack and I
made pretty good time. From Red Lake to the summit the surface is almost
entirely talus, ranging from toaster-size to Volkswagen-size. The only “break”
from the talus comes on the steepest parts of the route, where it is loose,
sandy scree.
The key “feature” on this “easiest” route to the summit of
Split Mountain is a (thankfully) relatively-short chute or gully that is very
loose and difficult but, fortunately, has some solid rock on the edges that can
be used for hand-holds.
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| Looking down on the route, near the top of the gully. |
As I approached this gully I began to check my watch with
increasing frequency and engaged myself in an ongoing debate about whether or
not to turn back. While the weather was perfect and not a concern it became
increasingly obvious that, if I kept going, I would never get back to the truck
before dark.
But I would go a little further and the gully would get a
little closer. And I would talk myself into going “just a bit further”. I
topped the gully at about 2:50 p.m. and was now on the broad, relatively-gentle,
north slope of the mountain. I checked my altitude and saw that, ugh, I had
another 800 vertical-feet of talus hopping to go. But I had come this far and,
a highly motivating factor was – if I kept going – I would never have to come
back again. Never have to hike to Red Lake. Never have to hop all of that
talus.
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| The final 800 vertical feet to the top. |
An hour later I was standing
on the summit.
As the videos and photos show, the summit of Split Mountain
is very cool with great views all around.
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| My shadow, the USGS summit marker, and the view of the Owens Valley from Split Mountain. |
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| Split Mountain's "other summit" |
The following are links to videos, click to check em out.
The descent went a lot better than I thought it might. I
avoided a lot of the scree by down-climbing on the solid, Class 3 rock walls of
the chute/gully and the talus-hopping proved to be easier when going downhill
rather than up (which, in my case, is not always the case).
When I got back to Red Lake about 7:30 p.m. one option I
considered was to make a camp there and finish the hike the next morning. I had
plenty of food and warm clothes and there was no chance of rain. But I felt
pretty good and decided to press on. So I got out my headlamp, loaded up with
water from a stream below the lake and hiked the five miles out in three hours.
It is the most extensive hiking with a headlamp that I have
done and, with a new moon, it was very dark. But I never lost the trail and it
was a pretty cool and unique experience that I will always remember. I was
surprised at how well I remembered the trail – which is not always easy to
follow in daylight – and I never felt uncomfortable.
I was, however, extremely happy/relieved when I finally got
back to the truck.
At one point on the hike down I had visions of driving out
and returning to Bishop to celebrate my summit of Split Mountain with some greasy
tacos at the 24-hour Jack-in-the-Box.
But by the time I got to the truck that thought had vanished.
I was whipped down and my interest in driving out on the jeep trail in the dark
was zero, so I slept in the back of the truck (a possibility that, to my
credit, I had planned for).
Instead of Jack tacos I celebrated by plopping into my
folding chair behind the truck with a (very) warm beer and took in the amazing
stars and the Milky Way in the pitch dark of the moonless night, including
several meteors that streaked across the black sky. One in particular was
spectacular, crossing horizontally from east to west in a bright, fiery streak
that lasted several seconds. Another cool thing to see was the car lights
flashing in and out high up on the road to White Mountain to the east. It took
me a minute to figure it out but, as cars drive the road and make the hairpin turn,
they will periodically “flash” their headlights out into the Owens Valley. I
suppose my headlights were doing the same thing a month earlier on my nighttime
drive home after my late-afternoon hike of White Mountain.
I am ecstatic to have gained the summit of Split Mountain,
my tenth California 14er of the trip; and I’m more than happy to be finished
(for now) with these rugged, challenging mountains.
When I came out here I entertained thoughts of bagging 14,
or possibly even all 15, of the California 14ers on this trip. But now with
advantage of hindsight, I feel very fortunate to have climbed 10 of them.
Now, with just two days left in Bishop, my next mountain to
climb is to get the trailer re-packed and organized for the trip east.
Speaking of the trailer and the lovely Bishop RV “Park”, I
shot the following video at 5:45 a.m. last Thursday. What a way to start the
day, huh?
And, a final note from California. When I left home in June I was weighing in it at 210-212 pounds. Current weight, 198.
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