Mount Bolton Brown is a 13,491-foot-elevation (4,112 meter) mountain

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used ...

located on the shared border of

Fresno County Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populous city in Cali ...

and

Inyo County Inyo County () is a county in the eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 census, the population was 19,016. The county seat is Independence. Inyo County is o ...

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 ...

, United States.

Description

The peak is set on the crest 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, just south of the Palisades area. It is also situated on the boundary shared by

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 ...

and

John Muir Wilderness The John Muir Wilderness is a wilderness area that extends along the crest of the Sierra Nevada of California for , in the Inyo and Sierra National Forests. Established in 1964 by the Wilderness Act and named for naturalist John Muir, it encompa ...

. Mount Bolton Brown ranks as the 64th-highest peak in California. 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 this mountain drains east to

Tinemaha Reservoir Tinemaha Reservoir is a reservoir created by a dam on the Owens River in the Owens Valley. It is located in Inyo County, eastern California. It is part of the Los Angeles Aqueduct system, operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. ...

via Tinemaha Creek; south into headwaters of

South Fork Kings River The South Fork Kings River is a tributary of the Kings River in the Sierra Nevada of Fresno County, California. The river forms part of Kings Canyon, the namesake of Kings Canyon National Park and one of the deepest canyons in North America wit ...

; and northwest to Palisade Creek which is a tributary of the

Middle Fork Kings River The Middle Fork Kings River is a tributary of the Kings River in Kings Canyon National Park, California, in the southern Sierra Nevada. Draining – almost all of it wilderness – the Middle Fork is one of the largest wholly undeveloped waters ...

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 summit rises above Tinemaha Creek in 2.5 miles.

Climbing

The

John Muir Trail The John Muir Trail (JMT) (Northern Paiute language, Paiute: Nüümü Poyo, ''N-ue-mue Poh-yo'') is a long-distance trail in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, passing through Yosemite National Park, Yosemite, ...

, which passes below the western base of the peak, provides a climbing approach option. 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 August 14, 1922, by Chester Versteeg and Rudolph Berls by ascending the Northwest Ridge and descending the Southwest Slope. The North Slope was first climbed by Fred L. Jones on October 6, 1948. The South Ridge was first climbed March 19, 1972, by Ed Treacy, Karl Bennett, Dave Gladstone, Dave King, Vi Grasso and Doug Mantle.R. J. Secor, ''The High Sierra Peaks, Passes, Trails'', 2009, Third Edition, Mountaineers Books, , p. 224 These climbing routes are non-technical, and inclusion on the

Sierra Peaks Section The Sierra Peaks Section (SPS) is a mountaineering society within the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club that serves to provide mountaineering activities for Sierra Club members in the Sierra Nevada, and to honor mountaineers who have summited Sier ...

peakbagging Peak bagging or hill bagging is an activity in which hikers, climbers, and mountaineers attempt to reach a collection of summits, published in the form of a list. This activity has been popularized around the world, with lists such as 100 Peaks ...

list generates climbing interest.

Etymology

This landform's name remembers Bolton Coit Brown (1864–1936), an American painter, lithographer, and mountaineer. The year following his first ascent, Chester Versteeg wrote in the Sierra Club Bulletin: "Alt. of this mountain is 13,527. It stands at the junction of the Sequoia, Sierra and Inyo Nat. Forests. We hereby name it 'Mt. Bolton Brown' in honor of Bolton C. Brown of the Sierra Club, who was the first to explore, map and write of the Upper Basin of the So. Fork of the Kings River."Francis P. Farquhar, Place Names of the High Sierra (1926)
/ref> Bolton Brown was a charter member of the

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 ...

, and wrote several stories for the club about his explorations in the Sierras, including the area this mountain rises from. The toponym has been officially adopted by the

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal governm ...

Climate

Mount Bolton Brown 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 (

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 ...

), 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.

Gallery

File:Palisade Lakes, Mt. Bolton Brown.jpg, West aspect of Mt. Bolton Brown from Lower Palisade Lake File:Mount Bolton Brown.jpg, Mt. Bolton Brown - upper left corner File:Mt. Bolton Brown summit.jpg, View from the summit of Mt. Bolton Brown looking SSE to Mt. Prater and Split Mountain.

References

External links

* Weather forecast
Mount Bolton Brown
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolton Brown, Mount Mountains of Fresno County, California Mountains of Inyo County, California Mountains of Kings Canyon National Park North American 4000 m summits Mountains of Northern California Sierra Nevada (United States) Mountains of the John Muir Wilderness Inyo National Forest