Mount Emmerich 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 a m ...
in
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S ...
.
Description
Mount Emmerich is located west-southwest of
Haines Haines may refer to:
*Haines (surname), ''includes partial list of people with the surname''
* Haines (character), a character in James Joyce's ''Ulysses''
Places Antarctica
* Haines Glacier, Antarctica
* Haines Mountains, mountain range in Anta ...
in the
Chilkat Range
The Chilkat Range is a mountain range in Haines Borough and the Hoonah-Angoon Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska, west of the city of Juneau.
The Chilkat Range is one of the principal divisors between Haines Borough and Glacier Bay Nationa ...
which is a subrange of the
Saint Elias Mountains
The Saint Elias Mountains (french: Chaîne Saint-Élie) are a subgroup of the Pacific Coast Ranges, located in southeastern Alaska in the United States, Southwestern Yukon and the very far northwestern part of British Columbia in Canada. The rang ...
.
Precipitation
runoff
Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to:
* RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program
* Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed
* Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...
and glacial meltwater from the mountain's slopes drains to the
Chilkat River
The Chilkat River is a river in British Columbia and southeastern Alaska that flows southward from the Coast Range to the Chilkat Inlet and ultimately Lynn Canal. It is about long. It begins at Chilkat Glacier, in Alaska, flows west and south in ...
via the Takhin and Kicking Horse rivers. Although modest in elevation,
topographic relief
Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin w ...
is significant as the summit rises above the Garrison Glacier in 1.5 mile (2.4 km). The
first ascent
In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they e ...
of the summit was made on August 14, 1976, 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 the tallest peaks and best r ...
, Craig Zaspell, and Jack Tackle via the southwest ridge.
[Fred Beckey, ''North America, United States, Alaska, Mount Emmerich, Chilkat Mountains, Alaska Coast Mountains'', 1977]
americanalpineclub.org, Retrieved 2023-12-23. The mountain's toponym has been officially adopted by the
United States Board on Geographic Names.
The mountain was named by the
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey
The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (abbreviated USC&GS), known from 1807 to 1836 as the Survey of the Coast and from 1836 until 1878 as the United States Coast Survey, was the first scientific agency of the United States Government. It ...
in 1897,
to remember one of their own, Lieutenant Charles F. Emmerich (1849–1894), who served on the schooner ''
Hassler
Hassler (also Haßler, Häßler, Hässler, Hasler, ...) is a toponymic surname derived from a number of places called Hasel or Hassel in German-speaking parts of Europe.
Notable people with this name include:
Musicians
*A musical dynasty in Nur ...
'' in Alaska in 1893.
''Annual Report of the Director''
U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey,
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1895, p. 125. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, this landform's local name is Cathedral Peak, "because of the mountain's prominence and cathedral-like appearance."[Donald J. Orth, ''Dictionary of Alaska Place Names'', U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967, page 313.]
Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...
system, Mount Emmerich has a tundra climate
The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. undra climate https://www.britannica.com/science/tundra-climateThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019 It is classified as ET according to Köppen ...
with cold, snowy winters, and cool summers.Gulf of Alaska
The Gulf of Alaska (Tlingit: ''Yéil T'ooch’'') is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the eas ...
are forced upwards by the mountains (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 heavy precipitation in the form of rainfall and snowfall. Winter temperatures can drop to 0 °F with wind chill factors below −10 °F. This climate supports small unnamed glaciers on the peak's slopes as well as the Bertha and Garrison glaciers in the surrounding valleys.
Gallery
File:DSC 0094289 (43195341834).jpg, East aspect with some of Haines visible
File:Haines Harbor.jpg, Looking west toward Haines with Mount Emmerich to the right
File:Cathedral Peaks.jpg, Mt. Emmerich across Chilkat River
See also
*Geography of Alaska
Alaska occupies the northwestern portion of the North American continent and is bordered only by Canada on the east. It is one of two U.S. states not bordered by another state; Hawaii is the other. Alaska has more ocean coastline than all of th ...
References
External links
* Charles F. Emmerich photo and biography
usnamemorialhall.org
* Mount Emmerich
weather forecast
* Mt. Emmerich (photo)
Alaska.edu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emmerich, Mount
Saint Elias Mountains
Two-thousanders of the United States
Mountains of Haines Borough, Alaska