Mount Chaval is a craggy mountain
summit
A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous.
The term (mountain top) is generally used ...
located in
Skagit County of
Washington state.
[
] Situated within the
Glacier Peak Wilderness, Mount Chaval is positioned west of the crest of the
North Cascades Range, approximately 15 miles northeast of the town of
Darrington. It has two subsidiary peaks, East Peak and Middle Peak, each 7040 ft.
Its nearest higher neighbor is
Snowking Mountain
Snowking Mountain is a summit located in Skagit County, Washington, Skagit County of Washington (U.S. state), Washington state.
Situated within the Glacier Peak Wilderness, Snowking Mountain is positioned west of the crest of the North Casca ...
, to the northeast.
Precipitation
runoff from Mount Chaval drains into tributaries of the
Skagit River.
Climate
Mount Chaval is located in the
marine west coast climate zone of western
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
.
[Beckey, Fred W. Cascade Alpine Guide, Climbing and High Routes. Seattle, WA: Mountaineers Books, 2008.] Most
weather fronts originate in the
Pacific Ocean, and travel northeast toward the
Cascade Mountains. As fronts approach the
North Cascades, they are forced upward by the peaks of the Cascade Range (
Orographic lift), causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall onto the Cascades. As a result, the west side of the North Cascades experiences high precipitation, especially during the winter months in the form of snowfall. During winter months, weather is usually cloudy, but, due to high pressure systems over the Pacific Ocean that intensify during summer months, there is often little or no cloud cover during the summer.
[ Beckey, p. 16] Because of
maritime influence, snow tends to be wet and heavy, resulting in high
avalanche danger.
Geology
The North Cascades features some of the most rugged topography in the
Cascade Range
The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...
with craggy peaks and ridges, deep
glacial valleys, and
granite spires. Geological events occurring many years ago created the diverse topography and drastic elevation changes over the Cascade Range leading to the various climate differences.
The history of the formation of the Cascade Mountains dates back millions of years ago to the late
Eocene Epoch.
With the
North American Plate overriding the
Pacific Plate
The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate.
The plate first came into existence 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and Iza ...
, episodes of
volcanic igneous activity persisted.
[ In addition, small fragments of the oceanic and continental lithosphere called terranes created the North Cascades about 50 million years ago.][ The rock of Mount Chaval is Chaval ]pluton
In geology, an igneous intrusion (or intrusive body or simply intrusion) is a body of intrusive igneous rock that forms by crystallization of magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth. Intrusions have a wide variety of forms and com ...
, a pyroxene
The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated to ''Px'') are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron (Fe II) ...
-bearing diorite and tonalite.[Beckey, Fred W. Cascade Alpine Guide, Climbing and High Routes. Seattle, WA: Mountaineers Books, 2008.]
During the Pleistocene period dating back over two million years ago, glaciation advancing and retreating repeatedly scoured the landscape leaving deposits of rock debris.[ The “U”-shaped cross section of the river valleys are a result of recent glaciation. Uplift and faulting in combination with glaciation have been the dominant processes which have created the tall peaks and deep valleys of the North Cascades area.
]
Gallery
File:Mt. Chaval viewed from Cascadian Farms.jpg, Looking southeast from Highway 20 through the Illabot Creek valley to Chaval
File:Mt. Chaval 530.jpg, Chaval from Highway 530 north of Darrington
File:Chaval and Snowking.jpg, South aspects of Mt. Chaval (left) and Snowking Mountain (right)
File:Mt. Chaval.jpg, Mt. Chaval from the southeast
File:Mount Chaval.jpg, Mount Chaval seen from Darrington
See also
* Geography of Washington (state)
Washington is the northwesternmost state of the contiguous United States. It borders Idaho to the east, bounded mostly by the meridian running north from the confluence of the Snake River and Clearwater River (about 117°02'23" west), except f ...
* Geology of the Pacific Northwest
References
External links
* Chaval definition a
Wiktionary
* Weather forecast
Mount ChavalGlacier Peak Wilderness (Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest)
U.S. Forest Service
* Mount Chaval aerial photo
PBase
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaval
North Cascades
Mountains of Washington (state)
Mountains of Skagit County, Washington
Cascade Range
North American 2000 m summits