Mount Carillon is a mountain summit located 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 in

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 situated on the common border of

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. ...

with Inyo County, as well as the shared boundary of

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 John Muir Wilderness. It is set above the south shore of

Tulainyo Lake Tulainyo Lake is a freshwater alpine lake in the eastern Sierra Nevada in the U.S. state of California, and one of the highest and largest of the alpine lakes of the Sierra. It lies in a large granite bowl bounded by the Sierra Crest to the n ...

, west of the community of Lone Pine, northeast of

Mount Whitney Mount Whitney (Paiute: Tumanguya; ''Too-man-i-goo-yah'') is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States and the Sierra Nevada, with an elevation of . It is in East–Central California, on the boundary between California's Inyo and Tu ...

, and east-northeast of Mount Russell, the nearest higher neighbor. Topographic relief is significant as it rises approximately above Whitney Portal in approximately two miles. Carillon has subpeaks, unofficially called "The Cleaver" (, 0.4 mile to the northeast, and "Impala" (12,073+ ft/3,680+ m), on the southeast ridge.

History

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 1925, by Norman Clyde, who is credited with 130 first ascents, most of which were in the Sierra Nevada. The peak's name was submitted by Chester Versteeg 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 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 ...

in 1937. It is so named because it is shaped like a

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

, which often houses a

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, Mount Carillon has 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 ...

. Most weather fronts 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 onto the range ( orographic lift). 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 west to the

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 Wallace Creek, and east to

Owens Valley Owens Valley (Numic Numic is a branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. It includes seven languages spoken by Native American peoples traditionally living in the Great Basin, Colorado River basin, Snake River basin, and southern Great Pl ...

via Lone Pine Creek.

Climbing

Established climbing routes: * West Ridge via Russell-Carillon saddle () 1925 by Norman Clyde * Northeast Ridge (class 3) * Southeast Ridge (class 4) * East Face (class 5.8) 1968 by Fred Beckey, Chuck Haas * Impala, South Face (class 5.7) 1968 by Chuck Ray, Brad Fowler * Impala, Diagonal Route (class 5.7) 1968 by Fred Beckey, Charlie Raymond * ''The Winged Horse'' (class 5.8) 1970 by Fred Beckey, Jack Miller * ''Sweet Carillon'' (class 5.10+) 2008 by Andre Kiryanov, Shay Har-Noy

Gallery

File:Mount Carillon and The Cleaver.jpg, Carillon (right) and The Cleaver (left) File:Mount Carillon from SW.jpg, Mt. Carillon, with The Cleaver behind File:Mt. Carillon, Iceberg Lake.jpg, Southwest aspect of Carillon from the summit of Mt. Whitney. Iceberg Lake below. File:Mts. Russell and Carillon.jpg, Mount Russell (left) and Mt. Carillon (right) from the summit of Mount Whitney. File:Mt. Carillon, west aspect.jpg, West aspect of Mt. Carillon seen from Mt. Russell File:Tunaiya Lake.jpg, Tulainyo Lake and Mt. Carillon's subpeak "The Cleaver" to the right.
(

Tunnabora Peak Tunnabora Peak is a mountain summit located on the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. It is situated on the common border of Tulare County with Inyo County, as well as the shared boundary of Sequoia National Park and John ...

to left).

References

External links