Sentinel Peak is a mountain summit located in the Olympic Mountains, in Jefferson County of Washington state. Rising in the center of Olympic National Park, its nearest higher neighbor is

Mount Fromme Mount Fromme is one of the North Shore Mountains that overlook Burrard Inlet north of Vancouver, British Columbia. It stands just east of Grouse Mountain, and the District of North Vancouver and the City of North Vancouver lie on its lower slope ...

, to the northwest. ''Sentinels Sister'' is a lower companion summit situated to the southwest. The two peaks stand as sentinels above the Dosewalips Valley and Hayden Pass, and were possibly named by an early expedition of the

Seattle Mountaineers The Seattle Mountaineers are a semi-professional basketball club and a member of the American Basketball Association (ABA). They are currently a touring exhibition team that plays against junior and community colleges within the United States and ...

. 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 peak drains to Hood Canal via the

Dosewallips River The Dosewallips River ( ) is a river situated on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington. It rises near Mount Anderson in the Olympic Mountains within Olympic National Park and drains to Hood Canal and thence to the Pacific Ocean. ...

Climate

Based on the Köppen climate classification, Sentinel Peak is located in the marine west coast 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 ...

. Weather fronts originating in the Pacific Ocean travel northeast toward the Olympic Mountains. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks ( orographic lift), causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snow. As a result, the Olympics experience high precipitation, especially during the winter months in the form of snowfall. Because of maritime influence, snow tends to be wet and heavy, resulting in avalanche danger. 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. The months of July through September offer the most favorable weather for viewing or climbing this peak.

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 sandstone, turbidite, and basaltic oceanic crust. The mountains were sculpted during the Pleistocene era by erosion and glaciers advancing and retreating multiple times.

References

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External links

* Sentinel Peak weather
Mountain Forecast
* PBase photo
Sentinel Peak and Mt. Fromme
Mountains of Washington (state) Mountains of Jefferson County, Washington Olympic Mountains Landforms of Olympic National Park North American 2000 m summits

Climate

Geology

See also

References

External links