Martin Peak is a mountain summit in the

Olympic Mountains The Olympic Mountains are a mountain range on the Olympic Peninsula of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are not especially high – Mount Olympus is the highest at ; however, the easter ...

and is located in Jefferson County of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

state. It is located within Olympic National Park. At high, Martin Peak is the seventh-highest peak of the Olympic Mountains, and the second-highest peak in The Needles range, which is a subset of the Olympic range. Its nearest higher neighbor is Mount Johnson, to the north-northwest. Precipitation runoff from this peak drains west into headwaters of Gray Wolf River, or east into Royal Creek, both of which are part of the Dungeness River drainage basin. Martin Peak was given its name based on the

first ascent In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they en ...

in 1940 by George W. Martin (1901–1970), and Elvin Johnson.

Climate

Martin Peak is located in the marine west coast climate zone of western

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. Weather fronts originating in the Pacific Ocean travel northeast toward the Olympic Mountains. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks ( orographic lift), causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snow. As a result, the Olympics experience high precipitation, especially during the winter months in the form of snowfall. Because of maritime influence, snow tends to be wet and heavy, resulting in

avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earth ...

danger. During winter months weather is usually cloudy, but due to high pressure systems over the Pacific Ocean that intensify during summer months, there is often little or no cloud cover during the summer. The months July through September offer the most favorable weather for viewing and climbing this peak.Martin Peak, climbersguideolympics.com
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Geology

The Olympic Mountains are composed of obducted

clastic Clastic rocks are composed of fragments, or clasts, of pre-existing minerals and rock. A clast is a fragment of geological detritus,Essentials of Geology, 3rd Ed, Stephen Marshak, p. G-3 chunks, and smaller grains of rock broken off other rocks ...

wedge material and oceanic crust, primarily

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

, turbidite, and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

ic oceanic crust. The mountains were sculpted during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

era by erosion and glaciers advancing and retreating multiple times.

References

Gallery

File:Martin Peak from Royal Basin.jpg, East aspect. {

Sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

to right) File:Gilhooley Tower Mount Johnson Martin Peak.jpeg, Martin Peak (right) seen with

Gilhooley Tower Gilhooley Tower is a basalt spire in the Olympic Mountains and is located in Jefferson County of Washington state. It is situated in Olympic National Park on the Olympic Peninsula. Its nearest higher peak is Mount Deception at to the southeast ...

and Mt. Johnson File:The Needles from Mount Deception.jpg, The Needles from Mount Deception. Martin Peak front and center File:Sweat Spire Mount Johnson.jpg, Martin Peak to right, from northwest

External links

* George W. Martin biography
americanalpineclub
* {{cite web , url=http://www.nps.gov/olym , title=Olympic National Park , publisher=National Park Service * National Weather Service
weather forecast
Mountains of Washington (state) Olympic Mountains Mountains of Jefferson County, Washington Landforms of Olympic National Park North American 2000 m summits

Climate

Geology

See also

References

Gallery

External links