Split Mountain
Southern Palisades, near Big Pine · near Big Pine · Eastern Sierra
Mountaineering
At a glance
- Grade
- scramble
- Elevation
- 14058
- Best season
- July–September; snow lingers high into early summer
What is here
- Terrain
- alpine-rock
- Amenities
- Red Lake trailhead (rough road) · Red Lake camp · Quiet, uncrowded 14er · Class-2 but very long
- Best for
- A quiet, non-technical (but huge) 14er
- Features
- One of the quietest 14ers · Only class-2 to the summit · Massive elevation gain · Southern Palisades solitude
Worth knowing
- Hazards
- Enormous elevation gain — a fitness test at altitude · Rough, often 4WD-only approach road to Red Lake · Route-finding on the broad upper slopes · Afternoon storms; little shade or water high up
- Beginner friendly
- Yes
Guides, rentals and operators
- Guided trips
- Yes
Mountaineering detail
- Skills
- scrambling · altitude
- Style
- mixed-alpine
- Altitude
- 5
- Route notes
- One of the least-crowded and least-technical 14ers — the North Slope is only class 2, but a rough 4WD approach and over 8,000 feet of gain make it a serious stamina test rather than a technical one
- Beta note
- ~14,058 ft; Class 2 North Slope; ~8,000+ ft gain; rough Red Lake approach road
- Intl tip
- Proof that 'non-technical' and 'easy' differ. Split's North Slope is only class 2 with no exposed scrambling — attainable on paper — but it hides behind a rough, often 4WD approach to Red Lake and over 8,000 ft of climbing, making it a stamina-and-altitude test. The reward is genuine solitude on a 14er far quieter than its neighbors. A fine step from trails to a real high peak for a fit hiker, ideally after acclimatizing nearby.
- Directions note
- Access via Red Lake trailhead off McMurry Meadows Rd (high-clearance recommended) — directions link points at the peak, not the trailhead
The guide
Split Mountain is proof that 'non-technical' and 'easy' are very different words. Its North Slope route is only class 2, with n…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Split Mountain — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.0219, -118.4222