Tunnabora Peak is a mountain summit located on the crest 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

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 on the common border of

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 ...

with

Inyo County Inyo County () is a county in the eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 census, the population was 19,016. The county seat is Independence. Inyo County is ...

, as well as the shared boundary of

Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in the southern Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and toda ...

and

John Muir Wilderness The John Muir Wilderness is a wilderness area that extends along the crest of the Sierra Nevada of California for , in the Inyo National Forest, Inyo and Sierra National Forests. Established in 1964 by the Wilderness Act and named for naturalist ...

. It is set above the north shore of Tulainyo Lake, west of the community of Lone Pine, north-northeast of

Mount Whitney Mount Whitney (Paiute: ''Too-man-i-goo-yah'' or ''Too-man-go-yah'') is a mountain in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California, and the highest point in the contiguous United States, with an elevation of . It lies in East–Central Califor ...

, and north-northwest of

Mount Carillon Mount Carillon is a mountain summit located on the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. It is situated on the common border of Tulare County with Inyo County, as well as the shared boundary of Sequoia National Park and John ...

. Tunnabora ranks as the 51st-highest peak in California.

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 it rises approximately above

Whitney Portal Whitney Portal (formerly Hunter Flat and Hunters Camp) is the end of the Whitney Portal road in Inyo County, California, west of Lone Pine, California, Lone Pine at an elevation of . Whitney Portal is the gateway to Mount Whitney, the highest p ...

in approximately three miles.

History

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 the summit was made in August 1905 by George R. Davis, USGS topographic engineer.Francis P. Farquhar, Place Names of the High Sierra (1926)
/ref> The peak's name was submitted by the National Park Service, and officially adopted by the

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a Federal government of the United States, federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geogr ...

in 1928. The etymology is uncertain, possibly

Shoshonean The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ), also known by the endonym Newe, are an Indigenous people of the United States with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: Southern Idaho * Western Shoshone ...

Mono Mono may refer to: Biology * Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease" * Monocyte, a type of leukocyte (white blood cell) * Monodactylidae, members of which are referred to as monos Technology and computing * Mono (audio), single-c ...

dialect.

Climate

Tunnabora Peak has 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 ...

. 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 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 this mountain drains west to the

Kern River The Kern River is an Endangered, Wild and Scenic river in the U.S. state of California, approximately long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between ...

via Wallace Creek, and east to

Owens Valley Owens Valley (Mono language (California), Mono: ''Payahǖǖnadǖ'', meaning "place of flowing water") is an arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States. It is located to the east of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra ...

via George and Hogback Creeks.

Gallery

File:Tunnabora Peak from Russell.jpg, Tunnabora Peak from Mt. Russell File:Tunaiya Lake.jpg, Tunnabora summit to the left.
Tulainyo Lake, with Mt. Carillon's subpeak "The Cleaver" to the right. File:Sierra Eastern Front.jpg, Eastern Sierra, with road pointed toward Tunnabora Peak File:Panorama of Alabama Hills.jpg, Eastern Sierra, with Tunnabora Peak centered

References

{{reflist

External links

* Weather forecast
Tunnabora Peak
* Tunnabora Peak photo
PBase
Mountains of Tulare County, California Mountains of Sequoia National Park Inyo National Forest Mountains of Inyo County, California Mountains of the John Muir Wilderness Four-thousanders of the United States Mountains of Northern California Sierra Nevada (United States)

History

Climate

Gallery

See also

References

External links