JOJO:
The moose may have been a little hard on you.
I've climbed Russell ten times by four different routes. I believe the East Ridge (from the Russell Carillon saddle) is the easiest and safest.
Except for the first few minutes after you leave the parking lot, there is no maintained trail. However, there is a use trail that isn't terribly hard to follow. It's much harder than following a maintained trail, but it's also much easier than bushwhacking cross-country with no sign of where other climbers went before you. The use trail disappears in places, and you will definitely need some routefinding skills. You will have to negotiate the E-ledges below Lower Boy Scout Lake and a few other minor sections with easy rock scrambling.
The real climbing begins shortly after you leave the Russell Carillon saddle. There is a lot of class 3 rock climbing on the way to the summit. You will need routefinding skills to find the easiest and safest route. When I first saw this ridge (from the summit of Carillon), I thought it couldn't possibly be only class 3. With good routefinding, it really is class 3, but the exposure is impressive. There is one point where a slip could take you something like 1,200 feet down the north face. If you are comfortable with exposure and lots of class 3 climbing, it's a classic.
