Mount Jepson is a 13,390-foot-elevation (4,081 meter) summit located on the shared boundary 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 ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, United States.

Description

The peak is set on the

crest Crest or CREST may refer to: Buildings *The Crest (Huntington, New York), a historic house in Suffolk County, New York *"The Crest", an alternate name for 63 Wall Street, in Manhattan, New York *Crest Castle (Château Du Crest), Jussy, Switzerla ...

of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the Palisades area. It straddles the border 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 King ...

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 ...

. It is situated southwest of Big Pine, southeast of line 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 ...

, and northwest of proximate parent

Palisade Crest Palisade Crest is a jagged ridge in The Palisades's region of the Sierra Nevada southeast of Mount Sill and northwest of Middle Palisade. Its twelve pinnacles are unofficially named for characters from ''The Lord of the Rings'' by J. R. R. Tolki ...

. Mount Jepson ranks as the 74th-highest peak in California, and

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 w ...

is significant as the summit rises above Elinore Lake in approximately one mile. The

John Muir Trail The John Muir Trail (JMT) ( Paiute: Nüümü Poyo, ''N-ue-mue Poh-yo'') is a long-distance trail in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, passing through Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. From the northern terminus a ...

passes below the south base of the peak, providing an approach option.

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 July 3, 1939, by Don McGeein, and Chet and Evelyn Errett. This mountain's toponym was officially adopted in 1971 by the United States Board on Geographic Names to honor

Willis Linn Jepson Willis Linn Jepson (August 19, 1867 – November 7, 1946) was an early California botanist, conservationist, and writer. Career Born at Little Oak Ranch near Vacaville, California, Jepson became interested in botany as a boy and explor ...

(1867–1946), Professor of Botany, University of California at Berkeley, conservationist, writer, and charter member of the Sierra Club. Dr. Lawrence R. Heckard, president of the California Botanical Society, submitted the name to the board for consideration for permanent official status. "Pine Marten Peak" had been a variant name.

Climate

Mount Jepson 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 o ...

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 contin ...

, 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 onto the range. 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 marke ...

from this mountain drains northeast to South Fork Big Pine Creek, as well as south into 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 water ...

Gallery

File:Sierra Dawn.jpg, Palisade Crest (left), Mount Jepson (middle), Mount Sill (right) at dawn. File:Mount Jepson and Mount Sill.jpg, The view from Big Pine. Mount Jepson and Mount Sill centered in the distance with snow lingering below the summits. File:Mts. Jepson and Sill.jpg, Mts. Jepson and Sill centered in the distance. From Owens Valley with camera pointed west-southwest. File:Mount Sill, right.jpg, Mount Jepson centered, and Mt. Sill (right) File:Willis Linn Jepson00.jpg, Willis Linn Jepson in 1911

References

External links