Mount Carillon 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 ...

. It is situated on the common border of

Tulare County Tulare County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 473,117. The county seat is Visalia. The county is named for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lake ...

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

Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in the southern Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and toda ...

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 ...

. It is set above the south shore of Tulainyo Lake, west of the community of Lone Pine, northeast of

Mount Whitney Mount Whitney (Paiute: ''Too-man-i-goo-yah'' or ''Too-man-go-yah'') is a mountain in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, and the highest point in the contiguous United States, with an elevation of . It lies in East–Central Califor ...

, and east-northeast of Mount Russell, the nearest higher neighbor.

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 it rises approximately above

Whitney Portal Whitney Portal (formerly Hunter Flat and Hunters Camp) is the end of the Whitney Portal road in Inyo County, California, west of Lone Pine, California, Lone Pine at an elevation of . Whitney Portal is the gateway to Mount Whitney, the highest p ...

in approximately two miles. Carillon has subpeaks, unofficially called "The Cleaver" (, 0.4 mile to the northeast, and "Impala" (12,073+ ft/3,680+ m), on the southeast ridge.

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 in 1925, by Norman Clyde, who is credited with 130 first ascents, most of which were in the Sierra Nevada. The peak's name was submitted by Chester Versteeg of 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 ...

, and officially adopted by the

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a Federal government of the United States, federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geogr ...

in 1937. It is so named because it is shaped like a

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

, which often houses a

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a musical keyboard, keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are Bellfounding, cast in Bell metal, bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and Musical tuning, tu ...

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, Mount Carillon 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 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 west to the

Kern River The Kern River is an Endangered, Wild and Scenic river in the U.S. state of California, approximately long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between ...

via Wallace Creek, and east to

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 Lone Pine Creek.

Climbing

Established climbing routes: * West Ridge via Russell-Carillon saddle () 1925 by Norman Clyde * Northeast Ridge (class 3) * Southeast Ridge (class 4) * East Face (class 5.8) 1968 by

Fred Beckey Friedrich Wolfgang Beckey (14 January 1923 – 30 October 2017), known as Fred Beckey, was an American rock climber, mountaineer and book author, who in seven decades of climbing achieved hundreds of first ascents of some of the tallest peaks and ...

, Chuck Haas * Impala, South Face (class 5.7) 1968 by Chuck Ray, Brad Fowler * Impala, Diagonal Route (class 5.7) 1968 by Fred Beckey, Charlie Raymond * ''The Winged Horse'' (class 5.8) 1970 by Fred Beckey, Jack Miller * ''Sweet Carillon'' (class 5.10+) 2008 by Andre Kiryanov, Shay Har-Noy

Gallery

File:Mount Carillon and The Cleaver.jpg, Carillon (right) and The Cleaver (left) File:Mount Carillon from SW.jpg, Mt. Carillon, with The Cleaver behind File:Mt. Carillon, Iceberg Lake.jpg, Southwest aspect of Carillon from the summit of Mt. Whitney. Iceberg Lake below. File:Mts. Russell and Carillon.jpg, Mount Russell (left) and Mt. Carillon (right) from the summit of Mount Whitney. File:Mt. Carillon, west aspect.jpg, West aspect of Mt. Carillon seen from Mt. Russell File:Tunaiya Lake.jpg, Tulainyo Lake and Mt. Carillon's subpeak "The Cleaver" to the right.
( Tunnabora Peak to left).

References

External links