Mount Hilgard is a 13,361-foot-elevation (4,072 meter) mountain summit located west 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

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 ...

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 ...

, United States. It is situated in 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

Sierra National Forest Sierra National Forest is a U.S. national forest located on the western slope of central Sierra Nevada in Central California and bounded on the northwest by Yosemite National Park and the south by Kings Canyon National Park. The forest is kno ...

, approximately eight miles east-southeast of

Lake Thomas A Edison Lake Thomas A Edison (also known as Thomas A. Edison Lake and Edison Lake) is a reservoir in the Sierra National Forest and in Fresno County, California. It is in the Sierra Nevada, and near the Pacific Crest Trail. The reservoir's waters are impo ...

, and immediately above the west end of

Lake Italy Lake Italy is a lake in the John Muir Wilderness of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. The lake is accessible via trail over Italy Pass or as an offshoot of the John Muir Trail. It was named by the USGS because its shape is similar to that ...

. The nearest higher neighbor is

Mount Gabb Mount Gabb () is in the central Sierra Nevada in the U.S. state of California. Mount Gabb is in the John Muir Wilderness of Sierra National Forest and is named after William More Gabb William More Gabb (January 16, 1839 – May 30, 1878) wa ...

, to the northeast, and Recess Peak is to the northwest. 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, ...

follows Bear Creek to the west of this remote peak, providing an approach. Mt. Hilgard ranks as the 82nd highest summit in

History

This mountain was named by

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 ...

explorer

Theodore Solomons Theodore Seixas Solomons (1870–1947) was an explorer and early member of the Sierra Club. From 1892 to 1897 he explored and named the Mount Goddard, Evolution Valley and Evolution Basin region in what is now northern Kings Canyon National Par ...

for

Eugene W. Hilgard Eugene Woldemar Hilgard (January 5, 1833, Zweibrücken, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany – January 8, 1916, Berkeley, California, United States) was a German-American expert on pedology (the study of soil resources). An authority on climate as a pe ...

(1833–1916), a professor at 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 ...

, and considered as the father of modern

soil science Soil science is the study of soil as a natural resource on the surface of the Earth including soil formation, classification and mapping; physical, chemical, biological, and fertility properties of soils; and these properties in relation to th ...

in the United States.Francis P. Farquhar, Place Names of the High Sierra (1926)
/ref> The name was suggested to Solomons in 1895 by Ernest C. Bonner, who was one of Hilgard's former students. Based on Solomon' description, the Hilgard name may have been originally intended for present-day Recess Peak. 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 July 10, 1905, by Charles F. Urquhart,

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

topographer Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary scie ...

.R. J. Secor, ''The High Sierra Peaks, Passes, Trails'', 2009, Third Edition, Mountaineers Books, .

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 Hilgard 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 this mountain drains into the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River (; es, Río San Joaquín) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suis ...

watershed.

Gallery

File:Marie Lake.jpg, Marie Lake with Mount Hilgard in upper right corner. Recess Peak left of center. File:Mount Hilgard, west aspect.jpg, Mount Hilgard, west aspect File:Lake Italy from near Bear Creek Spire.jpg, Lake Italy with Mt. Hilgard, right

References

External links

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

History

Climate

See also

Gallery

References

External links