South Guard is a remote mountain summit located near the northern end of the Great Western Divide 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

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 ...

of northern

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 in

Kings Canyon National Park Kings Canyon National Park is a national park of the United States in the southern Sierra Nevada, in Fresno and Tulare Counties, California. Originally established in 1890 as General Grant National Park, the park was greatly expanded and ren ...

, south of North Guard, and one mile south of Mount Brewer, which is 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 the west aspect rises above Cloud Canyon in 3.5 miles, and the east aspect rises above Lake Reflection in two miles. South Guard ranks as the 103rd highest summit in California, and the third-highest point of the northern Great Western Divide.

History

The names South Guard and North Guard first appeared on either side of Mt. Brewer on Lieutenant Milton F. Davis’ map of 1896.Francis P. Farquhar, Place Names of the High Sierra (1926)
/ref> 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 South Guard's lower 12,964-ft peak was made July 26, 1916, by Walter L. Huber, James Rennie, Florence C. Burrell, and Inezetta Holt. The main 13,232-ft summit was first climbed July 17, 1925, by Norman Clyde, who is credited with 130 first ascents, most of which were in the Sierra Nevada.Francis P. Farquhar, Place Names of the High Sierra (1926)
/ref> A possibility exists that this peak may have been climbed by

Clarence King Clarence Rivers King (January 6, 1842 – December 24, 1901) was an American geologist, mountaineer, and author. He was the first director of the United States Geological Survey from 1879 to 1881. Nominated by Republican President Rutherford B. ...

and Richard D. Cotter on July 4, 1864.

Climate

South Guard 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, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or

snowfall Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

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 the east side of the mountain drains to Bubbs Creek, and west to Roaring River, which are both tributaries of the

South Fork Kings River The South Fork Kings River is a tributary of the Kings River in the Sierra Nevada of Fresno County, California. The river forms part of Kings Canyon, the namesake of Kings Canyon National Park and one of the deepest canyons in North America wi ...

References

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External links

* Weather forecast
South Guard
Mountains of Tulare County, California Mountains of Kings Canyon National Park Four-thousanders of the United States Mountains of Northern California Sierra Nevada (United States)

History

Climate

See also

References

External links