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Relay Peak is a 10,338-foot-elevation mountain summit located in Washoe County, Nevada, United States.
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Relay Peak is located in an 
Relay Peak
{{Geographic Location 2 , Center = Relay Peak , North = Mount Houghton , Northeast = Mount Rose , East = Tamarack Peak , Southeast = Tahoe Meadows , South = Incline Village , Southwest = Rose Knob Peak , West = California , Northwest = Gray Creek Mountains of Washoe County, Nevada Mountains of Nevada Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest North American 3000 m summits Mountains of the Sierra Nevada (United States)
Description
Relay Peak is set five miles north ofLake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake i ...
in the Mount Rose Wilderness
The Mt. Rose Wilderness is a protected wilderness area in the Carson Range of Washoe County, in the northwesternU.S. state of Nevada. It is located between Lake Tahoe and Reno, Nevada.
The Mt. Rose Wilderness, including Mount Rose, covers ...
, on land managed by the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. It is part of the Carson Range
The Carson Range is a spur of the Sierra Nevada in eastern California and western Nevada that starts at Carson Pass and stretches north to the Truckee River near Verdi, Nevada.
Geography
The mountain range is about 50 miles (80 km) long a ...
which is a subset 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 ...
. It is situated southwest of Mount Rose and north of Incline Village. 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 word ...
is modest as the summit rises above Ginny Lake in one mile, and above Incline Lake in two miles. The Tahoe Rim Trail
The Tahoe Rim Trail is a 170-mile (274 km) long-distance hiking trail that forms a loop around the Lake Tahoe Basin in the Sierra Nevada and ranges of Nevada and California in the United States.Hauserman, Tim ''The Tahoe Rim Trail'' The trail ...
traverses the summit of the peak, providing an approach option, and the summit represents the highest point anywhere along the entire 170 mile trail. This landform's toponym was officially adopted in 1990 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names
The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal gover ...
.
Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Relay 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 ins ...
s originate in the Pacific Ocean, 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.
See also
* List of Lake Tahoe peaks *References
External links
* Weather forecastRelay Peak
{{Geographic Location 2 , Center = Relay Peak , North = Mount Houghton , Northeast = Mount Rose , East = Tamarack Peak , Southeast = Tahoe Meadows , South = Incline Village , Southwest = Rose Knob Peak , West = California , Northwest = Gray Creek Mountains of Washoe County, Nevada Mountains of Nevada Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest North American 3000 m summits Mountains of the Sierra Nevada (United States)