Mount Whitney

blooming on ridge just below summit Mount Whitney's summit is on the Sierra Crest and the Great Basin Divide. It lies near many of the Sierra Nevada's highest peaks. The peak rises dramatically above the Owens Valley, sitting or just over above the town of Lone Pine to the east, in the Owens Valley. The mountain is partially dome-shaped, with its famously jagged ridges extending to the sides. Mount Whitney is above the tree line and has an alpine climate and ecology. Very few plants grow near the summit: one example is the sky pilot, a cushion plant that grows low to the ground. The only animals are transient, such as the butterfly Parnassius phoebus and the gray-crowned rosy finch. There is no weather station at the summit, but this climate table contains interpolated data for an area below the summit. }} == Geology ==

Whitney's eastern slope is far steeper than its western because the Sierra Nevada is the result of a fault block anchored below the surface to the west and slowly rising on the east. is the same as that of the Alabama Hills thousands of feet lower and to the east. In Cretaceous time, masses of molten rock that originated from subduction rose underneath what is now Whitney and solidified underground to form large expanses of granite. About 50 to 60 million years ago, during the Cenozoic Era, tectonic uplifts began to form the present Sierra range. These uplifts created major. These uplifts tilted the region towards the southwest causing rivers to form. As the land continued to rise, rivers and streams cut deeper and carved out valleys. == Exploration history ==

In July 1864, the members of the California Geological Survey named the peak, the contiguous United States' highest summit, after Josiah Whitney, the state geologist of California and sponsor of the survey. On August 18, 1873, Charles Begole, A. H. Johnson, and John Lucas, all of nearby Lone 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. Accompanying Langley in 1881 was another party consisting of Judge William B. Wallace of Visalia, W. A. Wright and Reverend Frederick Wales. In his memoirs, Wallace wrote, "The Pi Ute [Paiute] Indians called Mount Whitney Too-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 spelling Too-man-i-goo-yah is a transliteration from the indigenous Paiute Mono language. Another variation is Too-man-go-yah. on Whitney's summit In 1891, the United 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 a 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 the Smithsonian Institution Shelter, completing it in 1909. Although Gustave Marsh is often credited for constructing the first trail to the peak of Mount Whitney, a lesser known trail to the peak was created by the Buffalo Soldiers a year prior in 1903. Charles Young, a Buffalo Soldier officer, served as the acting military superintendent of Sequoia National Park (where Mount Whitney is located) in 1903. A movement began after World War II to rename the mountain for Winston Churchill, but the name Mount Whitney persisted. ==Climbing routes==

Trails The most popular route to the summit is by way of the Mount Whitney Trail, which starts at Whitney Portal, at an elevation of , west of the town of Lone Pine. The hike is about round trip with an elevation gain of over . Permits are required year-round, and to prevent overuse the Forest Service issues a limited number of permits between May 1 and November 1. 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. 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. The fastest recorded time up this route to the summit and back to the portal is 3 hours 10 minutes, by Jason Lakey of Bishop, California. Technical climbs The steep eastern side of the mountain offers a variety of climbing challenges. The East Face route, first climbed in 1931, is one of the Fifty Classic Climbs of North America routes, and involves technical free climbing () but is mostly class 4. Other routes range up to grade 5.10d. 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 for James Keeler, and Day Needle for William Cathcart Day. The latter was renamed in 1990 by Congressional act as Crooks Peak after Hulda Crooks, who hiked up Mount Whitney every year until well into her nineties. ==See also==