The Tusk is a 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 ...

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., ...

, United States.

Description

The Tusk is located in the

Boundary Ranges The Boundary Ranges, also known in the singular and as the Alaska Boundary Range, are the largest and most northerly subrange of the Coast Mountains. They begin at the Nass River, near the southern end of the Alaska Panhandle in the Canadian p ...

of the

Coast Mountains The Coast Mountains (french: La chaîne Côtière) are a major mountain range in the Pacific Coast Ranges of western North America, extending from southwestern Yukon through the Alaska Panhandle and virtually all of the Coast of British Columbia ...

and set on land managed by

Tongass National Forest The Tongass National Forest () in Southeast Alaska is the largest U.S. National Forest at . Most of its area is temperate rain forest and is remote enough to be home to many species of endangered and rare flora and fauna. The Tongass, which i ...

. The remote peak is east of

Horn Spire Horn Spire is a mountain summit located in the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains, in the U.S. state of Alaska. The peak is situated between the Thiel Glacier and Battle Glacier at the northwest extent of the Juneau Icefield, north-northwes ...

and north of

Juneau The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality and the se ...

on the northwest margin of the

Juneau Icefield The Juneau Icefield is an ice field located just north of Juneau, Alaska, continuing north through the border with British Columbia, extending through an area of in the Coast Range ranging north to south and east to west. The icefield is the so ...

. Precipitation runoff and glacial meltwater from the mountain drains west to

Berners Bay Berners Bay (Lingít: ''Dax̱anáak'' or ''Wóoshde X̱’al.át Yé'') is a waterway in the U.S. state of Alaska, approximately north of Juneau. It is a large and deep indentation, about wide at the entrance, which is formed by Point Bridget and ...

and

Lynn Canal Lynn Canal is an inlet (not an artificial canal) into the mainland of southeast Alaska. Lynn Canal runs about from the inlets of the Chilkat River south to Chatham Strait and Stephens Passage. At over in depth, Lynn Canal is the deepest fjord ...

via the Gilkey River.

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 significant as the summit rises 5,450 feet (1,660 m) above the Battle Glacier in .

History

The mountain's descriptive name was applied by members of the Juneau Icefield Research Project in 1964 and the toponym was officially adopted in 1965 by the

United States 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 governm ...

.Donald J. Orth, ''Dictionary of Alaska Place Names'', U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967, page 995. 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 on August 2, 1972, by

Fred Beckey Friedrich Wolfgang Beckey (14 January 1923 – 30 October 2017), known as Fred Beckey, was an American rock climber, mountaineer and book author, who in seven decades of climbing achieved hundreds of first ascents of the tallest peaks and best ro ...

, John Rupley, Dave Beckstead, and Ray Ketcham via the upper Taku Glacier.Fred Beckey, ''North America, United States, Alaska, The Tusk, Juneau Icefields''
(1973), American Alpine Journal, publications.americanalpineclub.org

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 ...

, The Tusk is located in a

tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. undra climate https://www.britannica.com/science/tundra-climateThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019 It is classified as ET according to Köppen ...

zone with long, cold, snowy winters, and cool summers. Weather systems coming off the

Gulf of Alaska The Gulf of Alaska (Tlingit: ''Yéil T'ooch’'') is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, ...

are forced upwards by the Coast Mountains (

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 heavy precipitation in the form of rainfall and snowfall. Winter temperatures can drop to 0 °F with wind chill factors below −10 °F. This climate supports the

Taku Glacier Taku Glacier (Lingít: ''T'aaḵú Ḵwáan Sít'i'') is a tidewater glacier located in Taku Inlet in the U.S. state of Alaska, just southeast of the city of Juneau. Recognized as the deepest and thickest alpine temperate glacier known in the wor ...

, Battle Glacier, Gilkey Glacier, and the Juneau Icefield surrounding the peak.

References

External links

* The Tusk
weather forecast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tusk, The Mountains of Alaska Mountains of Juneau, Alaska North American 2000 m summits Boundary Ranges Coast Mountains Tongass National Forest

Description

History

Climate

See also

References

External links