Tamarack Peak is a 9,897-foot-elevation 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 ...

located in Washoe County,

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

, United States.

Description

Tamarack Peak is set six miles north of

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake ...

on the boundary that

Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit is a United States national forest that manages and protects public land surrounding Lake Tahoe and the Lake Tahoe Basin. Straddling the state borders of California and Nevada in the Sierra Nevada, the LTBMU ...

shares with Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.Michael C. White (2018), ''50 of the Best Snowshoe Trails Around Lake Tahoe'', University of Nevada Press, It is part of the

Carson Range The Carson Range is a spur of the Sierra Nevada in eastern California and western Nevada that starts at Carson Pass and stretches north to the Truckee River near Verdi, Nevada. Geography The mountain range is about 50 miles (80 km) long a ...

, which is a subset 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 ...

. It is situated east of

line parent A peak's line parent is the closest higher peak on the highest ridge leading away from the peak's "key col". A col is the lowest point on the ridge between two summits and is roughly synonymous with pass, gap, saddle and notch. The highest col of ...

Relay Peak, south of Mount Rose and north of

Incline Village Incline Village is a census-designated place (CDP) on the north shore of Lake Tahoe in Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The population was 8,777 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Reno−Sparks Metropolitan Statistical Area. Until the 20 ...

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 modest as the summit rises above Tahoe Meadows in one mile. 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 ...

from this mountain drains north into headwaters of Galena Creek, and south to Ophir Creek. The

Tahoe Rim Trail The Tahoe Rim Trail is a 170-mile (274 km) long-distance hiking trail that forms a loop around the Lake Tahoe Basin in the Sierra Nevada and ranges of Nevada and California in the United States.Hauserman, Tim ''The Tahoe Rim Trail'' The trail ...

traverses the slopes of the peak, providing an approach option.

Etymology

This landform's toponym was officially adopted in 1988 by the

U.S. Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal govern ...

. The peak is named for the Tamarack tree, a member of the larch family which does not grow in this region, but may have been confused with the Tamarack pine ( ''Pinus contorta murrayana''), also called Sierra lodgepole pine, which is a common tree around Lake Tahoe.

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, Tamarack Peak is located in an

alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical weather ( 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 ...

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 ...

s originate in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

, and travel east toward the Sierra Nevada mountains. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks (

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 them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall onto the range. Most of the snow in Nevada falls from December through March.John G. Houghton (1975), ''Nevada's Weather and Climate'', Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, University of Nevada, p. 53

Gallery

File:Tamarack Peak (Carson Range, Nevada, USA).jpg, South aspect File:Tamarack Peak from Mt Rose summit.jpg, Tamarack Peak and Lake Tahoe seen from Mt. Rose File:Tamarack Peak, north.jpg, North aspect of Tamarack Peak from Galena Creek Upper Meadow File:Tamarack Peak, Lake Tahoe.jpg, North aspect of Tamarack Peak (left of center) seen from Mt. Rose
(Relay Peak in upper right corner) File:Tamarack Peak, west.jpg, West aspect File:Tamarack Peak & Mt. Rose (Carson Range, Nevada, USA).jpg, Tamarack Peak (left) and Mt. Rose (right)

References

External links

* Weather forecast
Tamarack Peak
{{Geographic Location 2 , Center = Tamarack Peak , North = Mount Rose , Northeast =

Mount Rose Ski Tahoe Mount Rose Ski Tahoe is a ski resort in the western United States, in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Reno, Nevada. The closest resort to the city, it is located about south-southwest of Reno, in the Carson Range. It has the highest base elevat ...

, East =

Mount Rose Summit Mount Rose Summit is a mountain pass located in the Carson Range near Mount Rose and Slide Mountain, northeast of Incline Village, Nevada, United States. Google Earth images. The pass is traversed by State Route 431, which is the highest po ...

, Southeast = Tahoe Meadows , South =

, Southwest = Rose Knob Peak , West = Relay Peak , Northwest =

Mount Houghton Mount Houghton is a 10,490-foot-elevation mountain summit located in Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County, Nevada, United States. Description Mount Houghton is set seven miles north of Lake Tahoe in the Mount Rose Wilderness, on land managed by ...