Mount Whitney's summit is on theSierra Crest and theGreat Basin Divide. It lies near many of theSierra Nevada's highest peaks.[11] The peak rises dramatically above theOwens Valley, sitting 10,778 feet (3,285 m) or just over 2 mi (3.2 km) above the town ofLone Pine 15 mi (24 km) to the east, in the Owens Valley.[11] It rises more gradually on the west side, lying only about 3,000 feet (914 m) above the John Muir Trail at Guitar Lake.[12]
The mountain is the highest point on theGreat Basin Divide. Waterways on the peak's west side flow into Whitney Creek, which flows into theKern River. The Kern River terminates atBakersfield in theTulare Basin, the southern part of theSan Joaquin Valley. Today, the water in the Tulare Basin is largely diverted for agriculture. Historically, during very wet years, water overflowed from the Tulare Basin into theSan Joaquin River, which flows to the Pacific Ocean.
From the east, water from Mount Whitney flows to Lone Pine Creek, where most of the water is diverted into theLos Angeles Aqueduct via asluice. Some water in the creek is allowed to continue on its natural course, joining theOwens River, which terminates atOwens Lake, anendorheic lake of theGreat Basin.
The estimated elevation of Mount Whitney's summit has changed over the years. The technology of elevation measurement has become more refined and, more importantly, the vertical coordinate system has changed. The peak was commonly said to be at 14,494 ft (4,418 m) and this is the elevation stamped on theUSGS brassbenchmark disk on the summit. An older plaque on the summit (sheet metal with black lettering on white enamel) reads "elevation 14,496.811 feet", but this was estimated using the oldervertical datum (NGVD29) from 1929. Since then the shape of theEarth (thegeoid) has been estimated more accurately. Using a new vertical datum established in 1988 (NAVD88) the benchmark is now estimated to be 14,504 ft (4,421 m).[1][16]
Mount Whitney has analpine tundra climate (ET) under theKöppen climate classification. Summer temperatures are highly variable, ranging from below freezing (32 °F (0 °C)) to highs near 80 °F (27 °C) during extreme heat waves in the Owens Valley.
Based on the range from the highest average high of 25.7 °F (−3.5 °C) to the lowest average low of 4.2 °F (−15.4 °C) for winter temperatures in the table (December to March), every 1 inch (25 mm) of liquid precipitation equates to approximately 15–40 inches (380–1,020 mm) of snow, with lower temperatures producing the greater snow depths.[17]
There is no weather station at the summit, but this climate table containsinterpolated data for an area below the summit.
Climate data for Mount Whitney 36.5728 N, 118.3025 W, Elevation: 13,635 ft (4,156 m) (1991–2020 normals)
Whitney's eastern slope is far steeper than its western because the Sierra Nevada is the result of afault block anchored below the surface to the west and slowly rising on the east.[19]
The rise is caused by afault system that runs along the Sierra's eastern base, below Mount Whitney. Thegranite that forms Whitney, part of theSierra Nevada Batholith,[20] is the same as that of theAlabama Hills thousands of feet lower and to the east.[15] The raising of Whitney (and the downdrop of the Owens Valley) is due to the same geological forces that cause theBasin and Range Province: the crust of much of the intermontane west is slowly being stretched.[21]
InCretaceous time, masses of molten rock that originated fromsubduction rose underneath what is now Whitney and solidified underground to form large expanses of granite.[20] In the last 2 to 10 million years, the Sierra was pushed up, enabling glacial and river erosion to strip the upper layers of softer rock to reveal the resistant granite that makes up Mount Whitney.[22]
In July 1864, the members of theCalifornia Geological Survey named the peak, the contiguous United States' highest summit, afterJosiah Whitney, the state geologist ofCalifornia and sponsor of the survey.[5] During the same expedition, geologistClarence King attempted to climb Whitney from its west side, but stopped just short. In 1871, King returned to climb what he believed to be Whitney, but having taken a different approach, he actually summited nearbyMount Langley. Upon learning of his mistake in 1873, King finally completed his own first ascent of Whitney, but did so a month too late to be first.[23] On August 18, 1873, Charles Begole, A. H. Johnson, and John Lucas, all of nearbyLone Pine, had become the first to reach the summit. As they climbed the mountain during a fishing trip to nearby Kern Canyon, they called the mountain Fisherman's Peak.[5]
In 1881,Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory founderSamuel Pierpont Langley remained on the summit for some time, making daily observations of the solar heat.[24] Accompanying Langley in 1881 was another party consisting of Judge William B. Wallace of Visalia, W. A. Wright and Reverend Frederick Wales.[25] In his memoirs,[26] Wallace wrote, "ThePi Ute [Paiute] Indians called Mount WhitneyToo-man-i-goo-yah, which means 'the very old man.' They believe that the Great Spirit who presides over the destiny of their people once had his home in that mountain." The spellingToo-man-i-goo-yah is a transliteration from the indigenous PaiuteMono language. Another variation isToo-man-go-yah.[27]
In 1891, theUnited States Geological Survey's Board on Geographic Names decided to recognize the name Mount Whitney. Despite losing out on their preferred name, Lone Pine residents financed the first trail to the summit, engineered by Gustave Marsh, and completed on July 22, 1904. Four days later, the new trail enabled the first recorded death on Whitney. Having hiked the trail,U.S. Bureau of Fisheries employee Byrd Surby was struck and killed by lightning while eating lunch on the summit. In response, Marsh began work on the stone hut that became theSmithsonian Institution Shelter, completing it in 1909.[28]
The most popular route to the summit is by way of theMount Whitney Trail, which starts atWhitney Portal, at an elevation of 8,360 ft (2,548 m), 13 mi (21 km) west of the town ofLone Pine. The hike is about 22 mi (35 km) round trip with an elevation gain of over 6,100 ft (1,859 m). Permits are required year-round, and to prevent overuse theForest Service issues a limited number of permits between May 1 and November 1.[30] It holds an annual lottery for hiking and backpacking permits on the trail. Applications are accepted from February 1 through March 15. Any permits left over after the lottery is completed typically go on sale April 1. Most hikers plan to stay one or two nights, camping along the route.[31] Those in good physical condition sometimes attempt to reach the summit and return to Whitney Portal in one day. A one-day hike requires a day-use permit that prohibits the use of overnight camping gear (sleeping bag and tent). Day hikers often leave Whitney Portal before sunrise and hike for 12 to 18 hours.[32]
Longer approaches to Whitney arrive at its west side, connecting to the Mount Whitney Trail near the summit by way of theJohn Muir Trail.
Aerial view of the Mount Whitneymassif and the steep eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, from the north
The Mountaineer's Route, a gully on the north side of the east face first climbed byJohn Muir, is considered ascramble,class 3 (PD+).[33] The fastest recorded time up this route to the summit and back to the portal is 3 hours 10 minutes, by Jason Lakey ofBishop, California.[34]
South of the main summit is a series of minor summits that are completely inconspicuous from the west but appear as a series of "needles" from the east. The routes on these include some of the finest big-wall climbing in the high Sierra. Two of the needles were named after participants in an 1880 scientific expedition to the mountain: Keeler Needle forJames Keeler, and Day Needle for William Cathcart Day. The latter was renamed in 1990 by Congressional act as Crooks Peak afterHulda Crooks, who hiked up Mount Whitney every year until well into her nineties.
^"Find Distance and Azimuths Between 2 Sets of Coordinates". Federal Communications Commission. December 11, 2015.Archived from the original on April 23, 2019. RetrievedDecember 21, 2016.Coordinates of Mount Whitney = 36.578581, -118.291995 and Badwater Basin = 36.250278, -116.825833
^"PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University". PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University.Archived from the original on July 25, 2019. RetrievedSeptember 28, 2023.To find the table data on the PRISM website, start by clickingCoordinates (underLocation); copyLatitude andLongitude figures from top of table; clickZoom to location; clickPrecipitation, Minimum temp, Mean temp, Maximum temp; click30-year normals, 1991-2020; click800m; clickRetrieve Time Series button.
^Wallace, William B. (1902)."A Night On Mt. Whitney".Mt. Whitney Club Journal. Vol. 1. Visalia, CA: Mt. Whitney Club. pp. 8–9.Archived from the original on November 3, 2023. RetrievedNovember 18, 2020.
