Mount Fairchild, also known as Mount William Fairchild, is a glaciated 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 within

Olympic National Park Olympic National Park is a national park of the United States located in Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. The park has four regions: the Pacific coastline, alpine areas, the west-side temperate rainforest, and the forests of the drier e ...

Clallam County Clallam County is a List of counties in Washington, county in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 77,155, with an estimated population of 77,616 in 2023. The cou ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

state. Mt. Fairchild is the second-highest peak in the

Bailey Range The Bailey Range is a mountain range located within Olympic National Park in Washington (U.S. state), Washington state. Description The Bailey Range is a subrange of the Olympic Mountains. These remote mountains are situated within the Daniel ...

, which is a subrange of the

Olympic Mountains The Olympic Mountains are a mountain range on the Olympic Peninsula of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are not especially high – Mount Olympus (Washington), Mount Olympus is the high ...

. Its nearest higher neighbor is

Mount Carrie Mount Carrie is a mountain summit located within Olympic National Park in Clallam County, Washington, Clallam County of Washington (U.S. state), Washington state. Mt. Carrie is the highest point in the Bailey Range which is a subrange of the O ...

, to the southwest, and Ruth Peak is set to the south. In clear weather, the mountain can be seen from the visitor center at

Hurricane Ridge Hurricane Ridge is a mountainous area in Washington's Olympic National Park. Approximately by road from Port Angeles, the ridge is open to hiking, skiing, and snowboarding and is one of the two most visited sites in the national park (alon ...

. Precipitation runoff from the mountain drains into tributaries of the

Elwha River The Elwha River is a river on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. From its source at Elwha snowfinger in the Olympic Mountains, it flows generally north to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Most of the river's co ...

History

Mount Fairchild is situated at the head of Fairchild Creek, which originates from the

Fairchild Glacier Fairchild Glacier is located in the U.S. state of Washington on Mount Fairchild and Mount Carrie in the Olympic Mountains of Olympic National Park. Beginning at an elevation of about along the Bailey Ridge, the glacier descends northeast and is ...

, and each are named for pilot William R. Fairchild (1926–1969), who flew hundreds of photographic flights to support scientific studies of glaciers in the Olympic Mountains for the U. S. Geological Survey and U.S. National Park Service, as well as thousands of other glaciers in Western North America. Fairchild's method of taking off from the nearby

Blue Glacier Blue Glacier is a large glacier located to the north of Mount Olympus in the Olympic Mountains of Washington. The glacier covers an area of and contains of ice and snow in spite of its low terminus elevation. The glacier length has decreased f ...

became known as the "Fairchild sleigh ride", and was seen in a climactic scene in a two-part show in the ''Lassie'' TV series. Fairchild was one of ten who died when the air taxi service he created crashed on February 5, 1969, immediately after take-off from Port Angeles, en route to Seattle. This mountain's toponym was officially adopted in 1975 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The

William R. Fairchild International Airport William R. Fairchild International Airport is a public airport located within the city limits of Port Angeles in Clallam County, Washington, United States. It is northwest of the central business district of Port Angeles, near the Strait of J ...

in nearby

Port Angeles Port Angeles ( ) is a city and county seat of Clallam County, Washington, United States. The population was 19,960 at the 2020 census, it is the most populous city in the county, as well as the most populous city on the Olympic Peninsula. T ...

is also named after him. 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 this peak was made in 1963 by Denny Pruitt, Dan Baker, Jack Christiansen, and Roy Etten.Olympic Mountain Rescue, ''Olympic Mountains, A climbing Guide'', Fourth Edition, The Mountaineers Books, 2006, pg. 190.

Climate

Based on 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 ...

, Mount Fairchild is located in the

marine west coast An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring co ...

climate zone of western

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. This climate supports the Fairchild and Carrie Glaciers on its slopes. 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 northeast toward the

. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks of the Olympic Range, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall (

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 ...

). As a result, the Olympics experience high precipitation, especially during the winter months. 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. In terms of favorable weather, the best months for viewing and climbing are July through September.

Geology

The Olympic Mountains are composed of obducted

clastic Clastic rocks are composed of fragments, or clasts, of pre-existing minerals and rock. A clast is a fragment of geological detritus,Essentials of Geology, 3rd Ed, Stephen Marshak, p. G-3 chunks, and smaller grains of rock broken off other rocks by ...

wedge material and oceanic crust, primarily

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

turbidite A turbidite is the geologic Deposition (geology), deposit of a turbidity current, which is a type of amalgamation of fluidal and sediment gravity flow responsible for distributing vast amounts of clastic sediment into the deep ocean. Sequencing ...

, and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

ic oceanic crust. The mountains were sculpted during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

era by erosion and glaciers advancing and retreating multiple times.

Gallery

File:Ruth, Fairchild, Carrie.jpg,

Ruth Ruth (or its variants) may refer to: Places France * Château de Ruthie, castle in the commune of Aussurucq in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France Switzerland * Ruth, a hamlet in Cologny United States * Ruth, Alabama * Ruth, Ark ...

(left), Fairchild center, Carrie (right) File:Mount Carrie 9272014.jpg, Mt. Carrie (center), Mt. Fairchild (right) File:Olympic Hurricane Ridge 26.jpg, Mt. Fairchild (right) with Fairchild Glacier File:Cat, Fairchild, Carrie.jpg, Fairchild (left), Carrie (right) from the west File:Mt. Fairchild cloudy.jpg File:Bailey Range and Mt. Olympus.jpg, Bailey Range from Hurricane Ridge, Mt. Fairchild centered, Mount Fitzhenry to its right

References

External links