Black Mountain (Inyo And Fresno Counties, California)
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Black Mountain is a 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 primari ...
mountain range in northern
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. It is situated on 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 United States census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populo ...
with
Inyo County Inyo County () is a county in the eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 census, the population was 19,016. The county seat is Independence. Inyo County is ...
, as well as the shared boundary of
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 National Forest, Inyo and Sierra National Forests. Established in 1964 by the Wilderness Act and named for naturalist ...
and
Kings Canyon National Park Kings Canyon National Park is a national park of the United States in the southern Sierra Nevada, in Fresno and Tulare Counties, California. Originally established in 1890 as General Grant National Park, the park was greatly expanded and ren ...
. It is west of the community of
Independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...
, and north-northwest of parent University Peak. Black Mountain ranks as the 91st highest summit in California.
Topographic relief Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...
is significant as the west aspect rises above Rae Lakes in approximately one mile. The
John Muir Trail The John Muir Trail (JMT) is a long-distance trail in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, passing through Yosemite National Park, Yosemite, Kings Canyon National Park, Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Park, Se ...
traverses below the west aspect of this peak, providing an approach to the mountain. The
first ascent In mountaineering and climbing, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in climbing guidebook, guide books), is the first successful documented climb to the top of a mountain or the top of a particular climbing route. Early 20th-century mountaineers a ...
of the summit was made in 1905 by George R. Davis, a
USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...
topographer.Fred L. Jones, A Climber’s Guide to the High Sierra (1954)
/ref> This mountain is habitat for the endangered
Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep The Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis sierrae'') is subspecies of bighorn sheep unique to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. A 2016 genetics study confirmed significant divergence between the three subspecies of North America ...
, which restricts climbing from July through December, so most ascents are made in the spring.


Climate

According to the
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
system, Black Mountain has an
alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical 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 alpine cli ...
. 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 The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
, 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 consists of 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 througho ...
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 ...
). Precipitation runoff from this mountain drains east to the
Owens Valley Owens Valley (Mono language (California), Mono: ''Payahǖǖnadǖ'', meaning "place of flowing water") is an arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States. It is located to the east of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra ...
via Oak Creek, and west into the Kings River watershed.


Gallery

File:Black Mountain, eastern Sierra.jpg, From the west at Rae Lakes File:Black Mountain from Glen Pass.jpg, Southwest aspect from Glen Pass


See also

* *
List of mountain peaks of California This article comprises three sortable tables of major mountain peaks of the U.S. State of California. The summit of a mountain or hill may be measured in three principal ways: #The topographic elevation of a summit measures the height of th ...
* Dragon Peak


References

{{reflist


External links

* Weather forecast
National Weather Service
Mountains of Fresno County, California Mountains of Kings Canyon National Park Inyo National Forest Mountains of Inyo County, California Mountains of the John Muir Wilderness Four-thousanders of the United States Mountains of Northern California Sierra Nevada (United States)