Red and White Mountain is a remote 12,816-foot-elevation (3,906 meter) mountain summit located on 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 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 the shared boundary of

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 ...

with

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 ...

, and along the common border 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 ...

with

Mono County Mono County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,195, making it the fourth-least populous county in California. The county seat is Bridgeport. The coun ...

. It is eight miles northeast 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 approximately southeast of the community of

Mammoth Lakes Mammoth Lakes is a town in Mono County, California, and is the county's only incorporated community. It is located immediately to the east of Mammoth Mountain, at an elevation of . As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 7,191, r ...

. The nearest higher neighbor is

Red Slate Mountain Red Slate Mountain is a summit in the Sierra Nevada. It lies along the Sierra Crest that divides Fresno County from Mono County, California. Red Slate Mountain can be reached by scrambling either from McGee Pass, or starting from Bighorn Lake. ...

, to the north-northwest.

History

This mountain's descriptive name was applied by Theodore S. Solomons in 1894.Francis P. Farquhar, Place Names of the High Sierra (1926)
/ref> It refers to the red slate and white granite that it is composed of. 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 18, 1902, by

James S. Hutchinson James Sather Hutchinson (1867–1959) was a lawyer in San Francisco, California, a mountaineer and an environmentalist. He was most noted for being an explorer of the Sierra Nevada. Born in San Francisco, Hutchinson attended the University ...

, his brother Lincoln Hutchinson, and Charles A. Noble via the West Ridge.

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 an ...

first climbed the Northeast Ridge on July 3, 1928.R. J. Secor, ''The High Sierra Peaks, Passes, Trails'', 2009, Third Edition, Mountaineers Books, , page 361.

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 and White Mountain 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 a permanent ice field on the north 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 the northwest side of this mountain drains into Red and White Lake thence Fish Creek, from the northeast side into Big McGee Lake and headwaters of McGee Creek, and from the south aspect into Grinnell Lake, thence Laurel Creek.

Gallery

File:Red and White Mountain northeast aspect.jpg, Northeast aspect
Note the vein of white quartz rock, 60 to 70 feet wide, within the red slate. File:Red and White Mountain south.jpg, South aspect File:Red and White Mountain in California.jpg, South aspect File:North face of Red and White Mountain from Red Slate Mountain (3927610375).jpg, North face, from Red Slate Mountain File:Red and White Mountain CA.jpg, Red and White Mountain from the northeast along McGee Pass Trail File:Big McGee Lake and Red and White Mountain at sunrise (3927607705).jpg, Mount Crocker (left), and Red and White Mountain (right) at sunrise File:Cross country hiking, Hopkins Pass.jpg, East aspect from Hopkins Pass area

References

External links

* Weather forecast
Red and White Mountain
{{John Muir Wilderness Inyo National Forest Sierra National Forest Mountains of Mono County, California Mountains of Fresno County, California Mountains of the John Muir Wilderness North American 3000 m summits Mountains of Northern California Sierra Nevada (United States)

History

Climate

Gallery

See also

References

External links