<wondering why, in god's name, why, am I allowing myself to be sucked into this>
OK, let's try another tack here:
There is no trail. NO trail. Lack of trail. Independent route finding. Not a trail. Sans trail. Dearth of leveled ground that might indicate a trail. NO trail. Absence of anything looking like a trail. By the way, did I mention that there is no trail? Really, I kinda meant it the first time: NO TRAIL.
There is a route, a use trail, marked by cairns at which you could sacrifice a goat, that begins at the north fork junction along the MAIN TRAIL. This will take you, when the snow melts off, to either Upper Boy Scout Lake or Iceberg Lake. There are routes, which would require ROUTE FINDING, because there is NO TRAIL, that will take you either up to the Russell-Carrilon Col (for the east ridge), Sakai Col (for the south face), or Whitney-Russell Col (for the south face). But if you are looking for a superhighway of burnished ground winding through granite marked by rocks along the edges, you will find that there is NO TRAIL. If you are expecting a trail to end and the scrambling to immediately begin and reach the summit quickly, you will be disappointed, because there is NO TRAIL.
The exposure for the east ridge begins just above the R-C Col, about 12.5K. For the south face it looks to be a bit higher, perhaps 13K?
