Snowden Mountain is a mountain summit located in the
Brooks Range
The Brooks Range ( Gwich'in: ''Gwazhał'') is a mountain range in far northern North America stretching some from west to east across northern Alaska into Canada's Yukon Territory. Reaching a peak elevation of on Mount Isto, the range is belie ...
, in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...
.
Description
The mountain is situated 13 miles north of
Sukakpak Mountain
Sukakpak Mountain is a prominent 4,459-foot (1,359 meter) mountain summit located in the Philip Smith Mountains of the Brooks Range, in the U.S. state of Alaska. The peak is situated 90 miles north of the Arctic Circle near milepost 203 on the D ...
, 100 miles north of the
Arctic Circle, and 200 miles north-northwest of
Fairbanks. The peak lies along the east side of the Dietrich River valley, and can be seen from the
Dalton Highway
The James W. Dalton Highway, usually referred to as the Dalton Highway (and signed as Alaska Route 11), is a road in Alaska. It begins at the Elliott Highway, north of Fairbanks, and ends at Deadhorse (an unincorporated community within the ...
which traverses the valley.
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 w ...
is significant as the summit rises above the river in two miles.
The peak is set in the Snowden Mountain Area of Critical Environmental Concern, which is managed by the
Bureau of Land Management. This
ACEC is extremely rugged and was established to protect
Dall sheep habitat on the southern slope of the Brooks Range.
The peak is named in association with Snowden Creek heading on its southeast slope, which in turn was named in 1939 by
Robert Marshall for his Eskimo friend and hunting partner, Nutirwik, also known as Harry Snowden.
[''Dictionary of Alaska Place Names'', Donald J. Orth author, United States Government Printing Office (1967), page 893.] The name has been officially adopted 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 govern ...
.
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 ...
, Snowden Mountain is located in a
subarctic climate zone with long, cold, winters, and short, cool summers.
Winter temperatures can drop below −30 °F with wind chill factors below −50 °F. 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 marke ...
from the mountain drains west into the Dietrich River. The months June through August offer the most favorable weather for viewing and climbing.
See also
*
Brooks–British Range tundra
*
Geography of Alaska
Alaska occupies the northwestern portion of the North American continent and is bordered only by Canada on the east. It is one of two U.S. states not bordered by another state; Hawaii is the other. Alaska has more ocean coastline than all of the ...
References
{{reflist
External links
* Weather forecast
Snowden MountainHarry Snowden photo
Mountains of Alaska
Landforms of Yukon–Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska
Brooks Range
North American 1000 m summits