Red Lake Peak (elevation ) is believed to be the vantage point from which

John C. Fremont John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

and

Charles Preuss George Karl Ludwig Preuss (1803–1854), anglicized as Charles Preuss, was a surveyor and cartographer who accompanied John C. Fremont on three of his five exploratory expeditions of the American west, including the expedition where he and Fremont ...

made the first recorded sighting of

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City, Nevad ...

by Europeans in February 1844 as Fremont's exploratory expedition made a desperate crossing 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 ...

through what is now

Carson Pass Carson Pass is a mountain pass on the crest of the central Sierra Nevada, in the Eldorado National Forest and Alpine County, eastern California. The pass is traversed by California State Route 88. It lies on the Great Basin Divide, with the West ...

on their way to obtain provisions at

Sutter's Fort Sutter's Fort was a 19th-century agricultural and trade colony in the Mexican ''Alta California'' province.National Park Service"California National Historic Trail."/ref> The site of the fort was established in 1839 and originally called New Helve ...

. The peak lies just north of the pass and generally northwest of the small lake east of the pass for which the peak is named. Lake Tahoe and

Stevens Peak Stevens Peak is a mountain summit in the Tatoosh Range which is a sub-range of the Cascade Range. It's located in Mount Rainier National Park, one mile east of Unicorn Peak. The name honors Hazard StevensBeckey, Fred W. Cascade Alpine Guide, Cli ...

are visible to the north from the peak.

Elephants Back Elephants Back is a 9,585-foot-elevation (2,922 meter) mountain summit located in Alpine County, California, United States. Description This landmark of Hope Valley is set in the Mokelumne Wilderness of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. ...

and

Round Top Round Top is an extinct volcano in the Berkeley Hills, just east of Oakland, California. The peak lies entirely within the bounds of Contra Costa County. In 1936, the area surrounding the peak was established as Round Top Regional Park, one of ...

can be seen to the south.

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, Red Lake Peak 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:Red Lake Peak.jpg, Red Lake Peak, south aspect File:Red Lake Peak, Red Lake.jpg, South aspect, with Red Lake to the right File:The Hope Valley Cabin.jpg, The Hope Valley Cabin and east slope of Red Lake Peak

References

External links

* * Information on the 1844 route followed by Fremont and Charles Preuss. * Mountains of Alpine County, California Mountains of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Mountains of Northern California {{AlpineCountyCA-geo-stub