Mount Johnson 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

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 ...

, United States. It is situated on the boundary between

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 ...

and

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 along the county line between

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 ...

and

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 ...

. It is also west of the community of Big Pine, southeast of Mount Gilbert, and west-northwest of Mount Goode. Mount Johnson ranks as the 187th-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 southwest aspect rises above LeConte Canyon in 1.5 mile, and the north aspect rises 3,100 feet above South Lake in 2.5 miles.

History

This mountain's name and location was proposed by the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...

to honor Willard Drake Johnson (1859–1917), a geologist and topographer with the

U. S. Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March ...

. The mountain's name was officially adopted in 1926 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. It is in the vicinity of other mountains named for distinguished members of the early U. S. Geological Survey, i.e. Mount Powell, Mount Gilbert, Mount Thompson, and Mount Goode. Sierra Club member Jack Sturgeon climbed the peak August 14, 1939, by way of the western arête, and reported that the peak had previously been climbed twice by

Norman Clyde Norman Clyde (April 8, 1885 – December 23, 1972) was a mountaineer, mountain guide, freelance writer, nature photographer, and self-trained naturalist. He is well known for achieving over 130 first ascents, many in California's Sierra Nevada ...

, who is credited with 130 first ascents, most of which were in the Sierra Nevada. Clyde made the first ascent of nearby Mt. Gilbert in 1928, possibly climbing Johnson around the same time.

Climbing

Established climbing routes: * Southeast slope – class 2 * West ridge – 1939 by Jack Sturgeon * North ridge – – July 16, 1960, by Barbara Lilley, Rich Gnagy, Sy Ossofsky

Climate

Mount Johnson is located in 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 ...

zone. 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 south into the Middle Fork Kings River, and north into Bishop Creek.

References

External links

* Weather forecast
Mount Johnson
* Mt. Johnson rock climbing
Mountainproject.com
* Johnson, Willard Drake
Encyclopedia.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Mount Inyo National Forest Mountains of Inyo County, California Mountains of Fresno County, California Mountains of Kings Canyon National Park Mountains of the John Muir Wilderness Three-thousanders of the United States Mountains of Northern California Sierra Nevada (United States)

History

Climbing

Climate

See also

References

External links