Aperture Peak 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 topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

located in

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 ...

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.

Description

Aperture Peak is set within the

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 ...

, on land managed by

Inyo National Forest Inyo National Forest is a United States National Forest covering parts of the eastern Sierra Nevada of California and the White Mountains of California and Nevada. The forest hosts several superlatives, including Mount Whitney, the highest p ...

. It is situated one-half mile east of 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 the Palisades area, just outside the boundary of Kings Canyon National Park. It is approximately west of the community of Big Pine, east-northeast of Bishop Pass, north of

line parent A peak's line parent is the closest higher peak on the highest ridge leading away from the peak's "key col". A col is the lowest point on the ridge between two summits and is roughly synonymous with pass, gap, saddle and notch. The highest col ...

Mount Agassiz, and southeast of

Picture Puzzle Picture Puzzle, also known as Picture Puzzle Peak, is a mountain summit located one mile east of the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Inyo County of northern California, United States. It is situated in the Palisades area of the Jo ...

. Aperture Peak ranks as the 95th-highest summit in California, and the fourth-highest peak of the Inconsolable Range.

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 modest as the summit rises above the Big Pine Lakes in 1.5 mile. The west face of the peak features a large, white, diagonal dike, and a

rock glacier Rock glaciers are distinctive geomorphological landforms that consist either of angular rock debris frozen in interstitial ice, former "true" glaciers overlain by a layer of talus, or something in between. Rock glaciers are normally found at hi ...

lies below the east face.

History

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 June 14, 1934, by

David Brower David Ross Brower ( ; July 1, 1912 – November 5, 2000) was a prominent environmentalist and the founder of many environmental organizations, including the John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies (1997), Friends of the Earth (1969), Ear ...

and Hervey Voge. This landform's toponym was officially adopted in 1969 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, but the name was used informally by mountaineers for years prior. The geological term "aperture" is the measure of the distance separating adjacent rock walls relating to joints and open discontinuities.

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, Aperture Peak 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 (

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 them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall onto the range. Precipitation runoff from this mountain drains east into headwaters of North Fork

Big Pine Creek Big Pine Creek may refer to: * Big Pine Creek (California), Inyo County, California * Big Pine Creek (Indiana), west-central Indiana * Big Pine Creek (Texas) Big Pine Creek is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolutio ...

, and west into headwaters of South Fork Bishop Creek.

Gallery

File:Aperture and Agassiz.jpg, Aperture Peak (left) and Mount Agassiz from Bishop Lake File:Picture Puzzle and Aperture Peak.jpg,

(left) and Aperture Peak (right) from Bishop Pass File:Aperture Peak, Mount Agassiz.jpg, Aperture Peak (left) and Mount Agassiz from Bishop Lake File:Mount Agassiz sunset.jpg, Sunset on Aperture Peak (left) and Mt. Agassiz, from Bishop Lake File:Aperture Peak, and Mt. Agassiz.jpg, Picture Puzzle (left), Aperture Peak centered, and Mt. Agassiz (right) File:Morning view of Agassiz.jpg, Dawn view of Aperture Peak (left) and Mt. Agassiz (right) File:Mount Agassiz at sunset.jpg, Sunset on Aperture Peak (left) and Mt. Agassiz

References

External links

* Weather forecast
Aperture Peak
{{Geographic Location 2 , Center = Aperture Peak , North = Gendarme Peak , Northeast = Two Eagle Peak , East = Mount Robinson , Southeast =

North Palisade North Palisade is the third-highest mountain in the Sierra Nevada range of California, and one of the state's small number of peaks over 14,000 feet, known as fourteeners. It is the highest peak of the Palisades group of peaks in the central pa ...

, South = Mount Agassiz , Southwest = Bishop Pass , West = Mount Goode , Northwest =