Mount Whitney is the highest mountain in California, as well as the highest peak in adjacent United States and Sierra Nevada - with an altitude of 14,505 feet (4,421 m). Located on the border between California Inyo and Tulare counties, 84.6 miles (136.2 km) west-northwest from the lowest point in North America at Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park at 282Ã, ft (86 m) below sea level. The western slopes of mountains in Sequoia National Park and the summit are the southern end of the John Muir Trail that runs 211.9 mi (341.0 km) from Happy Isles in the Yosemite Valley. The eastern slope is in Inyo National Forest in Inyo District.
Video Mount Whitney
Geography
The top of Mount Whitney is in the Sierra Crest and Great Basin Divide. It is located near many of the highest peaks of the Sierra Nevada. The summit rises dramatically above the Owens Valley, sitting 10,778 feet (3,285 m) or more than two miles above the town of Lone Pine 15 miles eastward, in the Owens Valley. It rises more gradually on the western side, lying just about 3,000 feet (910 m) above the John Muir Trail on the Lake Guitar.
The mountain is a partially shaped dome, with its ridged ridges extending to the side. Mount Whitney is above the tree line and has an alpine climate and ecology. Very few plants grow near the peak: one example is Skypilot, a cultivated cushion plant that lows to the ground. The only animals are temporary, such as the Parnassius phoebus butterfly and the gray crowned red finch.
Hydrology
The mountain is the highest point in the Great Basin Divide. The waterway on the western side of the summit flows into Whitney Creek, which flows into the Kern River. The Kern River ends in the Tulare Basin. During the very wet years, water overflows from the Tulare Basin to the San Joaquin River that flows into the Pacific Ocean. From the east, water from Whitney Mountain flows into Lone Pine Creek, which joins the Owens River, which in turn ends at Owens Lake, an endorheic lake in the Great Basin.
Altitude measurement
Estimates of the height of Mount Whitney peak have changed over the years. The elevation measurement technology has become more subtle and, more importantly, the vertical coordinate system has changed. The peak is generally said to be 14,494 ft (4,418 m) and this is the elevation stamped on the USGS brass reference disk at the top. The older plaque on the top (black metal sheet on white enamel) reads "elevation 14,496,811 feet" but this is thought to use the older vertical datum (NGVD29) from 1929. Since then the Earth shape (geoid) has been estimated more accurately. Using the new vertical datum established in 1988 (NAVD88), its benchmark is now estimated at 14,505 feet (4,421 m).
Maps Mount Whitney
Geology
Whitney's eastern slope is much steeper than its western slope because the entire Sierra Nevada is the result of a cesarean-block that is analogous to a basement door: the door is hinged to the west and slowly rises in the east.
This increase is caused by a normal fault system that runs along the eastern Sierra base, under Mount Whitney. So, the granite that forms Mount Whitney is the same as the granite that forms the Alabama Hills, thousands of feet lower down. Whitney's deployment (and the fall of the Owens Valley) is due to the same geological forces that led to the Basin and Range of Provinces: the crust of many western intermontane is slowly stretched.
The granite that forms Mount Whitney is part of the Sierra Nevada Batholith. At the time of Cretaceous, the mass of molten rock derived from subduction rose below what is now Whitney and solidified underground to form a huge granite stretch. In the last 2 to 10 million years, Sierra pushed upwards allowing glacial erosion and rivers to disarm the top rocks to uncover the resistant granite that forms Mount Whitney today.
Historical exploration
In July 1864, members of the California Geological Survey named its peak after Josiah Whitney, California State Geologist and survey contributor. During the same expedition, the geologist Clarence King attempted to climb Whitney from the west side, but simply stopped. In 1871, King again climbed what he believed to be Whitney, but after taking a different approach, he actually summarized the nearby Langley Mountain. After knowing his mistake in 1873, King finally completed his first ascent at Whitney, but did it once a month late to claim the first recorded ascent. Just a month earlier, on August 18, 1873, Charles Begole, A. H. Johnson, and John Lucas, all of Lone Pine nearby, became the first to reach the highest peak in the United States adjacent. As they climb the mountain during a fishing trip to the nearby Kern Gorge, they call the Peak of the Mountain Fishermen.
In 1881 Samuel Pierpont Langley, founder of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory remained for some time on the summit, making daily observations on the sun's heat. Accompanying Langley in 1881 was another side composed of Justice William B. Wallace of Visalia, W. A. ​​Wright and Rev. Frederick Wales. Wallace later wrote in his memoirs that "The Pi Ute [Paiute] Indian is called Mt. Whitney" Too-man-i-goo-yah , "meaning" very old man. "They believe that the Great Spirit who led the fate of their people once owned his home on that mountain." The spelling of Too-man-i-goo-yah is a transliteration of the indigenous Paiute Mono language. Other variations are Too-man-go-yah and Tumanguya .
In 1891, the US Geological Survey Board on Geography's Name decided to recognize Mount Whitney's previous name. Despite losing their preferred name, Lone Pine residents financed the first pass to the summit, engineered by Gustave Marsh, and finished on July 22, 1904. Just four days later, the new trail allowed the first recorded death in Whitney. After climbing the path, US Bureau of Fisheries Officer Byrd Surby was attacked and killed by lightning while eating lunch on an open peak. In response to this event, Marsh began working in a stone cottage that would become the Shelter Smithsonian Institution, and completed it in 1909.
A movement after World War II began to change the name of the mountain to Winston Churchill. However, the name of Mount Whitney has survived.
Climb the route
Path
The most popular route to the summit is through the Mount Whitney Line which begins at Portal Whitney, at an altitude of 8,360 feet (2,550 m), 13 mi (21 km) west of the town of Lone Pine. This increase is about 22 miles (35 km) along the journey with an altitude increase of more than 6,100 feet (1,900 m). Permits are required throughout the year, and to prevent excessive use of a number of permits issued by the Forest Service between 1 May and 1 November. The Forest Service holds an annual lottery for hiking and backpacking permits on the Mount Whitney Line. Applications are accepted from 1 February to 15 March. Any remaining permissions once the lottery is completed usually go on sale April 1st. Most climbers travel within two days which is still considered a strenuous effort. Those in good physical condition sometimes try to reach the summit and return to Whitney Portal in one day, requiring only a "day-use" permit which is somewhat easier to obtain than a stay permit, and prohibits the use of overnight camping equipment (sleeping bags and tents). This is considered an "extreme" day raise, which usually involves leaving Portal Whitney before sunrise and 12 to 18 hours of heavy hiking, while competing with altitude sickness, cold air, and sometimes dangerous surface conditions (due to snow and/or ice is usually present on the sections of the road, except for a brief period from early July to late September).
A longer approach to Whitney arrives on the west side, connecting to the Mount Whitney Trail near the summit via the John Muir Line.
Scrambles
The "Mountaineer Route", a ditch on the north side of the eastern face first climbed by John Muir, is considered a scramble, class 3 (PD). The fastest recorded time on this route to the top and back to the portal is 3 hours 10 minutes, by Jason Lakey of Bishop.
Tech ramp
The mountain's steep eastern side offers a variety of climbing challenges. The East Face route, first climbed in 1931, is one of the fifty-fifty of the North American Routes and involves free technical ascent (grade 5.7) but most of it is class 4. Other routes range up to grade 5.10 d.
In the south of the main peak there is a series of small peaks that are completely inconspicuous from the west but appear as a series of "needles" from the east. These routes include some of the best climbing of the greatest walls in the high Sierra. Two needles were named after participants in the 1880 scientific expedition to the mountain. Keeler Needle is named after James Keeler and Day Needle is named for William Cathcart Day. The latter has now been renamed Crooks Peak after Hulda Crooks who climb Mount Whitney every year until entering the nineties.
See also
- List of California mountain tops
- List of the highest points in California by county
- List of U.S. states by height
- List of the highest peaks in the United States
- List of the most prominent peaks in the United States
- List of the most isolated summits in the United States
- Whitney Classic
References
Further reading
External links
- "Mt. Whitney Trail". Inyo National Forest.
- "Mt Whitney Hikers Association".
- "Whitney Portal Store". "Mount Whitney". SummitPost.org.
- Ã, Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Whitney, Mountain". New International Encyclopedia (issue 1). New York: Dodd, Mead.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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