Ruth Peak is a glaciated mountain

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used ...

located within

Olympic National Park Olympic National Park is a United States national park located in the State of Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. The park has four regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west-side temperate rainforest, and the forests of the drier ...

Clallam County Clallam County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 77,155, with an estimated population of 78,209 in 2021. The county seat and largest city is Port Angeles; the county as a whole comprises the ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

state. Ruth Peak is the third-highest peak in the

Bailey Range The Bailey Range is a mountain range located within Olympic National Park in Washington state. Description The Bailey Range is a subrange of the Olympic Mountains. These remote mountains are situated within the Daniel J. Evans Wilderness, but ...

, which is a subrange of the

Olympic Mountains The Olympic Mountains are a mountain range on the Olympic Peninsula of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are not especially high – Mount Olympus is the highest at ; however, the easter ...

. Its nearest higher neighbor is

Mount Carrie Mount Carrie is a mountain summit located within Olympic National Park in Clallam County of Washington state. Mt. Carrie is the highest point in the Bailey Range which is a subrange of the Olympic Mountains. With a good eye and clear weather, ...

, to the northwest, and

Mount Fairchild Mount Fairchild, also known as Mount William Fairchild, is a glaciated mountain summit located within Olympic National Park in Clallam County of Washington state. Mt. Fairchild is the second-highest peak in the Bailey Range, which is a subran ...

is set to the north. In clear weather, the mountain can be seen from the visitor center at Hurricane Ridge. 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 the mountain drains into tributaries of the

Hoh Water () is a polar inorganic compound that is at room temperature a tasteless and odorless liquid, which is nearly colorless apart from an inherent hint of blue. It is by far the most studied chemical compound and is described as the "univer ...

and

Elwha River The Elwha River is a river on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. From its source at Elwha snowfinger in the Olympic Mountains, it flows generally north to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Most of the river's cou ...

s. 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 this peak was made in 1961 by Bert Brown, Roy Etten, and Victor Nelson.

Climate

Based on 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 ...

, Ruth Peak is located in the

marine west coast An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...

climate zone of western

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. This climate supports the

Fairchild Glacier Fairchild Glacier is located in the U.S. state of Washington on Mount Fairchild and Mount Carrie in the Olympic Mountains of Olympic National Park. Beginning at an elevation of about along the Bailey Ridge, the glacier descends northeast and is n ...

on its northeastern slope. 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 northeast toward the

. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks of the Olympic Range, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall (

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 ...

). As a result, the Olympics experience high precipitation, especially during the winter months. During winter months, weather is usually cloudy, but, due to high pressure systems over the Pacific Ocean that intensify during summer months, there is often little or no cloud cover during the summer. In terms of favorable weather, the best months for viewing and climbing are July through September.

Geology

The Olympic Mountains are composed of obducted

clastic Clastic rocks are composed of fragments, or clasts, of pre-existing minerals and rock. A clast is a fragment of geological detritus,Essentials of Geology, 3rd Ed, Stephen Marshak, p. G-3 chunks, and smaller grains of rock broken off other rocks ...

wedge material and oceanic crust, primarily

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

turbidite A turbidite is the geologic deposit of a turbidity current, which is a type of amalgamation of fluidal and sediment gravity flow responsible for distributing vast amounts of clastic sediment into the deep ocean. Sequencing Turbidites were ...

, and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

ic oceanic crust. The mountains were sculpted during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

era by erosion and glaciers advancing and retreating multiple times.

References

Gallery

File:Ruth Peak, Fairchild Glacier.jpg, Ruth Peak and Fairchild Glacier seen from Mount Carrie File:Hurricane Ridge (3583488296).jpg, Ruth Peak (left), Mts. Fairchild and Carrie to right File:Bailey Range and Mt. Olympus.jpg, Bailey Range with Ruth Peak left of center

External links

* {{cite web , url=http://www.nps.gov/olym , title=Olympic National Park , publisher=National Park Service * National Weather Service
Ruth Peak weather forecast
Olympic Mountains Mountains of Washington (state) Landforms of Olympic National Park North American 2000 m summits

Climate

Geology

See also

References

Gallery

External links