Mount Gayley is a 13,510-foot-elevation (4,118 meter) mountain summit located one mile east of 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

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. It is situated in the Palisades area of the

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 ...

, on land managed by

Inyo National Forest Inyo National Forest is a United States National Forest covering parts of the eastern Sierra Nevada of California and the White Mountains of California and Nevada. The forest hosts several superlatives, including Mount Whitney, the highest poi ...

. It is approximately west-southwest of the community of Big Pine, southwest of

Temple Crag Temple Crag is a mountain peak in the Palisades group of peaks of the Sierra Nevada with an elevation of . The peak lies east of the Sierra Crest, between Mount Gayley and Mount Alice, straddling the drainages of the North and South Forks of Big ...

, and north-northeast of parent

Mount Sill Mount Sill is one of the fourteeners of the Sierra Nevada in California. It is located in the Palisades, a group of prominent rock peaks with a few small glaciers on their flanks. Mount Sill is located 0.6 miles (1 km) east of North Pali ...

. Mount Gayley ranks as the 59th highest summit in California.

History

The name commemorates

Charles Mills Gayley Charles Mills Gayley (February 22, 1858 – July 25, 1932) was a professor of English, the Classics, and Academic Dean of the University of California at Berkeley between the fall of 1889 and July 1932. Biography Gayley was born in Shanghai to ...

(1858–1932), beloved English professor and Academic Dean of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. This mountain's name was officially adopted prior to 1939 by the

U.S. 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 govern ...

based on a recommendation by 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 ...

. Mount Sill and nearby Mount Jepson were also named for University of California professors. 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 June 10, 1927, by

Norman Clyde Norman Clyde (April 8, 1885 – December 23, 1972) was a mountaineer, mountain guide, freelance writer, nature photographer, and self-trained naturalist. He is well known for achieving over 130 first ascents, many in California's Sierra Nevada ...

, who is credited with 130 first ascents, most of which were in the Sierra Nevada.

Climbing

Established climbing routes on Mount Gayley:Alan M. Hedden and David R. Brower, ''A Climber's Guide to the High Sierra'' (1954)
/ref> * Southwest Ridge (aka ''Yellow Brick Road'') – – First ascent 1927 * South Face – class 3 – Several possible routes * West Face – class 3 – FA June 1950 by Robert Cogburn and Ed Robbins Access from Big Pine: Glacier Lodge Road, North Fork Big Pine Creek Trail, then Glacier Trail.

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 Gayley 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 ...

). This climate supports the

Palisade Glacier The Palisade Glacier is a glacier located on the northeast side of the Palisades within the John Muir Wilderness in the central Sierra Nevada of California. The glacier descends from the flanks of four fourteeners, or mountain peaks over in elev ...

below the west slope. 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 into

Big Pine Creek Big Pine Creek may refer to: * Big Pine Creek (California), Inyo County, California * Big Pine Creek (Indiana) Big Pine Creek is a creek in northwestern Indiana, USA. It begins in Round Grove Township in southwestern White County and flows gene ...

Gallery

File:Mt. Gayley.jpg, Mt. Gayley from the west File:Mt Gayley.jpg, In 1984, with Palisade Glacier File:Mt. Gayley, Palisade Glacier.jpg, Mt. Gayley (centered} above Palisade Glacier as seen from

North Palisade North Palisade is the third-highest mountain in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada range of California, and one of the state's small number of peaks over 14,000 feet, known as fourteeners. It is the highest peak of the Palisades (California ...

.
"Buck Mountain" (aka Contact Peak) beyond Gayley. File:Mt. Gayley, west aspect.jpg, Mt. Gayley from the west File:Mts. Gayley and Sill.jpg, Gayley from the north. (Mt. Sill to right) File:Mount Gayley CA.jpg File:Gayley from Temple Crag.jpg, Mount Gayley (centered) seen from Temple Crag, with Mt. Sill behind (left).

References

External links