Midway Mountain is a remote mountain summit located on the

Great Western Divide The Great Western Divide is a Sierra Nevada mountain range that forms part of the border between the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. Some of the summits of the Great Western Divide reach well over . The High Sierra Trail crosses the ra ...

of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

mountain range, in

Tulare County Tulare County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 473,117. The county seat is Visalia. The county is named for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes. ...

of northern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It is set on the common boundary that

Kings Canyon National Park Kings Canyon National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada, in Fresno and Tulare Counties, California. Originally established in 1890 as General Grant National Park, the park was greatly expanded and renamed to Kings ...

shares with

Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and today protects of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing ...

, and is situated southwest of

Table Mountain Table Mountain ( naq, Huriǂoaxa, lit= sea-emerging; af, Tafelberg) is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the ...

, and 0.6 mile north of

Milestone Mountain Milestone Mountain is a thirteener on the Great Western Divide, a subrange of the Sierra Nevada. The summit marks a point on the boundary between Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. It is south of Midway Mountain Midway Mountain is a r ...

. Midway Mountain ranks as the 39th-highest summit in California, and the highest point on the central Great Western Divide. It would be the highest of the entire Great Western Divide if the

Kaweah Peaks Kaweah Peaks Ridge is a spur of the Great Western Divide, a sub-range of California's Sierra Nevada. The ridge is located in Sequoia National Park and is composed of mostly rugged and loose metamorphic rock. Named mountains There are severa ...

were excluded.

Topographic relief Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin word ...

is significant as the west aspect rises over above Cloud Canyon in three miles, and the east aspect rises over above the Kern River in three miles.

History

This mountain was originally named "Mount Michaelis" in 1881 to honor Captain Otho Ernest Michaelis (1843–1890), US Army. Michaelis was the first white man to discover the body of

General Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from West Point in 1861 at the bottom of his class, b ...

following the

Battle of the Little Bighorn The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nor ...

. The Mt. Whitney USGS 30' maps published in 1905 and 1937 show this geographical feature without any name, although Milestone and Table Mountains were marked as such. 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 ...

of the summit was made in 1912 by

Francis P. Farquhar Francis Peloubet Farquhar (December 31, 1887 – November 21, 1974) was an American mountaineer, environmentalist and author. In his professional life, he was a Certified Public Accountant. Early life Farquhar was born in Newton, Massachusett ...

William Edward Colby William Edward Colby (May 28, 1875 – November 9, 1964) was an American lawyer, conservationist, and first Secretary of the Sierra Club. Early life and education William Colby was born in Benicia, California and was brought up by his aunt af ...

, and Robert M. Price. This same trio of

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

pioneers also made the first ascent of nearby Milestone Mountain on July 14, 1912. Midway's south face was first climbed in 1987 by Mark Hoffman and Robin Ingraham, Jr.

Climate

Midway Mountain is located in an

alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical weather (climate) for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate. Definition There are multiple definitions of ...

zone. Most

weather front A weather front is a boundary separating air masses for which several characteristics differ, such as air density, wind, temperature, and humidity. Disturbed and unstable weather due to these differences often arises along the boundary. For in ...

s originate in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, and travel east toward the Sierra Nevada mountains. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or

snowfall Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

onto the range (

orographic lift Orographic lift occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over rising terrain. As the air mass gains altitude it quickly cools down adiabatically, which can raise the relative humidity to 100% and cr ...

). Precipitation

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...

from the east side of the mountain drains to

Kern River The Kern River, previously Rio de San Felipe, later La Porciuncula, is an Endangered, Wild and Scenic river in the U.S. state of California, approximately long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Bakersfiel ...

via Milestone Creek, and west to the Roaring River.

References

{{reflist

External links

* Weather forecast
Midway Mountain

Flickr
photo Mountains of Tulare County, California Mountains of Kings Canyon National Park Mountains of Sequoia National Park North American 4000 m summits Mountains of Northern California Sierra Nevada (United States)

History

Climate

See also

References

External links